Advanced Placement (AP) courses were created in 1952, intended to be an avenue for the most high-achieving students to engage in independent study and college-level learning. A high score on the final exam granted students credit in that subject, allowing them to opt out of introductory-level courses in college. However, in the 71 years since their conception, the original objective for AP classes has been completely lost, as fewer and fewer universities are accepting AP credits.
In 2021, the Editorial Board wrote an article, urging KO to reconsider its AP course policy. We want to return to this notion, further encouraging KO to look to possible alternatives.
Many of KO’s Founders League counterparts have already done away with AP courses, replacing them with classes of the same rigor, but without the rigid structure. At The Loomis Chaffee School, these classes are designated “CL” for college-level and are considered to be of the same standing as an AP course on final transcripts.
Similarly, at Miss Porters School, AP classes have been replaced with “AIS”— Advanced Interdisciplinary Seminars, which place a greater emphasis on learning and immersion, free from the standard curriculum of an AP class. Students at Miss Porters are able to take courses like “AIS Borders and Crossings – Literature of Exiles, Immigrants, and Refugees,” “AIS Biology: Evolution, Epidemics, and Conquering Cancer” and “AIS Professional Experience in Economics: Money, Consumerism, and Human Behavior,” allowing for meaningful connections to be made with each subject and arming students with the opportunity for real-world applications.
While schools like Loomis Chaffee and Miss Porters have removed AP courses from their offerings, their students aren’t at a disadvantage in the college admissions process, a common argument in favor of maintaining the AP curriculum. In recent years, many top universities have moved towards holistic admissions, contextualizing each applicant within their school and the accessibility of opportunities. Yale University Admissions, for example, emphasizes on its website that they “understand that the availability of advanced coursework varies significantly from school to school.”
The rigidity of the AP curriculum is also, at times, disadvantageous to teachers. Many teachers have taught their subject long before their class became an AP, requiring them to make the switch to the standardized curriculum. These teachers often have to omit topics they once taught and add new topics of learning to their class, just for the sake of one exam.
We urge that KO seeks to maintain the level of challenge that current AP classes offer while moving away from the College Board curriculum itself, for the benefit of both students and teachers. To echo the argument made by the Editorial Board in 2021, AP exams test one type of knowledge, placing an emphasis on the regurgitation of information, rather than a well-rounded understanding of each subject. For this reason, we urge that KO reconsider the structure of its most “esteemed” classes.
With KO’s recent rebranding has come an increased effort to implement a new vision for the school. As KO explains, this new outlook will “center around how students learn best and how we can prepare them for success in college and the future,” focusing on “teaching and fostering new skills and dispositions.” We suggest that the reconsideration of our current AP curriculum be an “action step” in this initiative.
KO already has its foot in the door of unique course offerings, with electives like “American Culture through Sight and Sound” and “New York Literature: The Dream, The Grit, and The Grind.” As a school full of passionate teachers and curious students, we urge that KO takes this one step further, and extend this creativity to year-round high-level courses, truly embodying the “real-world and interdisciplinary learning opportunities” they seek to provide.
