Rethinking A.P.s

Abolishing AP classes

Below are some public and private schools that have responded to research showing minimal benefits from AP classes.  The research in the area includes: 

A survey of 8,594 college students taking introductory science courses found that students who took and passed an A.P. science exam did only about one-third of a letter grade better than their classmates with similar backgrounds who did not take an A.P. course.[1] 

A survey of 18,000 college students enrolled in introductory biology, chemistry, and physics found little evidence that high school Advanced Placement (AP) courses significantly boost college performance in the sciences. 

Chestnut Hill, MA

The independent School, the Beaver Country Day School, eliminated College Board AP courses in 2006. Instead of advanced courses that were shallow surveys, the school wanted more focused courses on engaging themes. That means advanced courses on topics such as Exploring the Roots of Islamic Extremism; Complex Systems Modeling; Cryptology and Monsters; and Degenerates, a study of dark figures in the novels of Conrad, Wilde, Woolf, and others.  Beaver’s Advanced Biology is divided into three one-term segments: DNA and Genetic Science, Ecology and Field Studies, and Anatomy and Physiology.[2]

Bronx, NY

The Ethical Culture Fieldson School, an independent school, eliminated AP classes in 2001, three years after a student, Matthew Spigelman, wrote a paper for his English class arguing that the school should drop AP. “While the goal of AP courses is to prepare students for the AP test, the goal of Fieldston-specific courses is to learn for learning’s sake. Courses specific to Fieldston have curricula generated by Fieldston teachers. Thus, Fieldston teachers bring enthusiasm to the Fieldston-generated courses not generally found in AP courses.” Spigelman also commented on the paradox of offering fact-based survey courses as the capstone of the curriculum. “It is ironic,” he wrote, “that the top students, who will be trying to take the most specialized courses available in college, are taking the most general courses available in high school largely because the course titles are preceded by the letters ‘AP.’[3]

The first class to graduate in three decades without taking one Advanced Placement class, heard back from colleges about early admission decisions. At least 40 were admitted through early decision to their first-choice schools, and about a dozen were admitted through "early action" selections that are nonbinding for the students.  The totals constituted the highest early acceptance rate for the school in several years, said Rachel Friis Stettler, the principal of its high school.[4]

Scarsdale, NY

The public high school in Scarlsdale abolished AP classes to free teachers from having to teach to the test.  The school has replaced AP classes with an Advanced Topics curriculum that allows students to study topics more in depth including string theory, advanced government, and art.

An English teacher who taught AP English for 6 years welcomed the change, saying that he previously felt as if he was cheating his students when he strayed from the regimen of test preparation. “The teaching can be more indirect now and, I think, richer and deeper,” he said. “Our responsibility is to prepare students as well as we can, but we’re not going to the scores to see whether it’s working.”

Westtown, PA
The Westtown schools is a Quaker, co-educational, day and boarding school for grades pre-K – 12.  When the school dropped AP classes, Tim Loose, who taught AP Biology for over 20 years and also served as a reader of AP exams reinvent his teaching. “The biggest benefit is pace,” said Loose, “I don’t have to lay out my whole syllabus at the beginning.” Loose now plans his course in two-week intervals, the better to respond to student interests and the flow of the class. . . .Rather than offer a single advanced Biology course, Westtown now teaches two: Research Ecology: Pieces, Patterns, and Processes; and Evolutionary History of Life on Earth. . .Each course offers ample opportunity to examine big-picture themes. Such possibilities are most obvious in Evolutionary History of Life on Earth. While typical biology courses merely describe the characteristics of organisms, this one allows students to see relationships between them as part of evolutionary development. It also opens to door to meaty big-picture issues about the meaning of it all.[5]