Resources for Educators

Today’s schools are at mid-passage in a slow-motion revolution.  Contemporary research has discredited the adult-centered pedagogy of the past, but century-old practices have proven difficult to dislodge.  Schools are working to align their programs with modern-day understanding of how students learn, but change has been uneven and incomplete. 

We know we must do better.  The links and resources that follow are intended to give hope and support to educators in all sectors who are working toward change. Some deal with issues related to curriculum and innovation at schools across the nation; others focus on the communications challenge that inevitably accompanies any effort to move forward.  There is no uniform playbook by which schools create curricular change.  Before the process moves very far, schools are well-served to articulate a clear vision of what comes next.

Please know that the Independent Curriculum Group and its member schools stand ready to help you in any way we can. For further information, fill out our Contact Form. We can put you in touch with colleagues at our schools who can offer additional information and insight.

Good luck!

Consulting Services

ICG Executive Director Bruce G. Hammond is available throughout the year for consultation relevant to curricular independence.  He conducts a variety of in-service programs that can help you navigate the process of self-study and/or explain the benefits of curricular independence to faculty, staff, trustees, and parents.  Whether your discussions are at a preliminary stage, or you’re fully committed to major change, Bruce can give you important back-up and help broaden the horizons of your school community. Contact Bruce.

 

Resources: From the Education World

1) Documents from Crossroads School.  Crossroads decided to replace AP courses in 2005.  The accompanying PDF includes the following:

• A timeline of Crossroads’ decision-making process
• AP Decision Marketing Plan
• Letter soliciting feedback from directors of admissions
• Survey for directors of admissions
• Letter to families about moving away from AP
• Commonly Asked Questions
• Comments on Advanced Placement from various constituencies
• Descriptions of advanced courses to replace AP
(PDF: Crossroads)

2) Documents from Scarsdale High School. Included are:

• A report to the Superintendent of Schools about the courses that Scarsdale designed to replace AP. (PDF: Scarsdale Board Report)
• A Teacher Feedback Survey, in which teaching staff describe the impact on teaching and learning of the district’s move away from AP. (PDF: Scarsdale Feedback Report)
• A status report from November, 2008, on Scarsdale’s new curriculum. (PDF: Scarsdale Advanced Topics)

3) “Westtown School and Advanced Placement: Frequently Asked Questions”
Westtown includes this document in its curriculum guide. (PDF: Westtown AP FAQ)

4) “Beaver Country Day School and the Advanced Placement Program: Frequently Asked Questions”
Beaver Country Day’s FAQ on AP. (PDF: BCDS AP FAQ)

5) “Better Decisions – Better Lives, by Dan Slack and Mark Thorburn, Independent School Magazine, Summer 2007.  Administrators from Haverford School place their decision to move away from AP in the context of an initiative with the Decision Education Foundation. 
http://www.nais.org/publications/ismagazinearticle.cfm?Itemnumber=149995&sn.ItemNumber=145956&tn.ItemNumber=145958

6) “Whither Advanced Placement,“ by William Lichten, Yale University, in Educational Policy Analysis Archives, June 24, 2000. Available at http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n29.html

7) “American History Now” at http://www.amhistnow.blogspot.com . Check out this blog for a bird’s-eye view of curricular independence in action through the eyes of a veteran history teacher at Fieldston School.  Note particularly “The Felix Chronicles,“ an on-going commentary about how dialogue between a teacher and his students creates deep learning.

 

Resources: From the Media

1) The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com, has a number of relevant articles, focused primarily on Scarsdale High School and Fieldston School, that are available free in its archive.

About Scarsdale High School:

“Scarsdale Adjusts to Life Without Advanced Placement,” December 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/education/07advanced.html?scp=1&sq=%22Scarsdale+High+School%22+Advanced+Placement&st=nyt
“Scarsdale Seeks Alternative to Advanced Placement,” February 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/18wetopic.html
“Demoting Advanced Placement,” October 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/education/04EDUCATION.html

About Fieldston School:

“High School Drops Its A.P. Courses, And Colleges Don’t Seem to Mind,”  February 1, 2002 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9506E1DE173DF932A35751C0A9649C8B63

2) Education Week, http:// http://www.edweek.org, offers significant coverage of AP and testing issues.  The site is open only to subscribers except for occasional intervals of free access for all.  A few noteworthy items include:

“Are Advanced Placement Courses Diminishing Liberal Arts Education?”  September 3, 2008
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2008/09/03/02vonblum_ep.h28.html?qs=Advanced+Placement
A member of UCLA’s Department of Communications Studies questions the preparation of AP students.  “Many students sheepishly admit that they forgot the AP material soon after the exam,” he writes.  With AP, “the ironic result is to reduce or even eliminate the quest for authentic learning,” he writes.

“On Dropping AP Courses: A Voice from the Developing Movement,” January 19, 2005 http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/01/19/19hammond.h24.html
Written by the Executive Director of the ICG, this article offers a teacher’s-eye view of the flaws of AP in independent schools.

“To AP Or Not To AP,“ February 7, 2001. 
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2001/02/07/21weeks.h20.html&levelId=2100
Author Anne Macleod Weeks offers an appraisal of AP from the perspective of an English teacher, college counselor, and AP exam reader.  She is now Director of Upper School at The Agnes Irwin School. 

3)  The Chronicle of Higher Education, http://www.chronicle.com, has somewhat less coverage of AP than does Education Week.  The site is open only to subscribers.

“Advancing Beyond AP Courses,” May 2, 2008
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i34/34b01801.htm
ICG Executive Director Bruce G. Hammond critiques AP from the perspective of college admissions. 

4) The editorial and op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times have included several columns questioning the value of AP. 

“Bursting the AP Bubble,”  May 8, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-becker8-2008may08,0,4579485.story
Tom Stanley-Becker, a student at University of Chicago Lab School, gives a critique of AP from a student’s point of view. 

“A Questionable Course,” February 13, 2006
Available for a small fee in the Los Angeles Times Archive
The editorial board of the Times takes AP to task as “a mediocre predictor of UC success” that discriminates against low-income and rural students. 

“Elite School Will Expel AP Classes,” May 5, 2005
Available for a small fee in the Los Angeles Times Archive
News coverage of the decision at Crossroads School to drop AP.

“When Testing Trumps Learning,” May 16, 2002
Available for a small fee in the Los Angeles Times Archive
The Dean of the Stanford School of Education critiques AP and the stress that it places on her daughter in the college admissions process. 

5) The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews is an advocate of AP, about which he writes frequently in his online column, “Class Struggle.”  He is the originator of Newsweek’s annual ranking of high schools.

AP vs. IB vs. Neither: A Plea for Peace and Love, November 13, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/13/AR2007111300695.html
Mathews gives his view of AP, IB, and the movement toward independent curriculum.

6) “Some High Schools Are Dropping Out of the Advanced Placement Program,“ September 19, 2008 http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/2008/09/19/some-high-schools-are-dropping-out-of-the-advanced-placement-program.html

7)  “How People Learn:  Brain, Mind, Experience, and School,” The National Research Council, National Academies Press, 2000.  Though now nearly a decade old, this book is still an excellent introduction to learning and the brain. 

8) Alfie Kohn is the nation’s most insightful critic of school-as-test-prep.  For the past twenty-five years, he has published a steady stream of books attacking staples of traditional education such as grades, homework, and standardized testing.  Readers may doubt his most radical conclusions, but Kohn’s work is always intelligent and provocative.
http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.html