The Changing Tide of Advanced Learning

The best indicator of durable learning is application to a variety of novel scenarios.Christina Kennedy, Dean of Academics

In 1971, the College Examination Entrance Board, now known simply as the College Board, published a statement on the intent of its Advanced Placement (AP) program. The statement read, “It is based on the observed fact that many young people can complete, with profit and delight, college-level studies while they are still in secondary school.”

The “profit” referred to the college credit high school students could receive for scoring well on the AP exam in a particular subject. The “delight” stemmed from their ability to pursue a subject of interest at the highest level. Tabor students have taken AP courses since the program launched in the early 1950s. For generations of alumni, the College Board’s rigorous (and notoriously rigid) curriculum had been a staple of academic life.

Over the last decade, however, many independent schools have moved away from offering AP courses. Several factors have driven this trend. Fewer colleges are awarding credits for AP exam results, research related to adolescent learning has evolved, and schools are more sensitive to the toll that such pressurized classes take on the emotional health of their students.

Seven years ago, Tabor started replacing its AP courses with Advanced Topics (AT) courses. The change coincided with an overhaul of the daily academic schedule as the school moved to fewer classes with longer blocks.

“The focus on skills rather than marching through content was a really intentional shift,” says Christina Kennedy, Dean of Academics. “We believe that good learning happens with a variety of assessment methods. The best indicator of durable learning is application to a variety of novel scenarios. An AP examination is also only one method of measuring growth and achievement, which can limit the learning.”

The 2023-24 school year marks the first in which Tabor has shifted fully away from courses designated as AP courses. There are currently 29 AT offerings. The AT approach, which many independent schools have adopted, is designed to preserve the rigor of an AP class while creating more dynamic, relevant, and impactful learning experiences.

“The flexibility piece is really important because we’re not handcuffed by a certain curriculum or a certain end goal,” Kennedy says. “The AT approach is better for students as it harnesses the creativity of our teachers. And it allows Tabor students to experience distinct learning opportunities they wouldn’t have elsewhere.”

“It positively has been an advantage from a hiring standpoint,” adds Dean of Faculty Derek Krein. “Faculty who can teach at the highest level don’t want to be constrained by an AP curriculum. Our recent hires are delighted to co-create a curriculum more responsive, more relevant, more useful to students.”

As more schools dissolve their AP programs, questions have naturally risen about the rigor of their replacements. “It could be perceived as more challenging to uphold a standard of rigor when you don’t have an external source of assessment,” acknowledges Kennedy. But she’s quick to point out how Tabor’s AT classes place a heavier emphasis on critical thinking and student-led inquiry. “I would argue it’s a more rigorous experience because you’re starting to think of things in a more multi-layered way. It’s less about, ‘This is what the test is going to expect, so grind, grind, grind.’”

Students enrolled in AT classes can still elect to take the AP exam in a particular subject. Last year, 139 students sat for 302 AP exams. College representatives have not expressed any concerns with the broader industry move to AT courses, and Tabor’s senior college list has remained strong throughout this transition.

AT U.S. HISTORY

Tabor’s history department served as the guinea pig for transitioning to AT classes. For JJ Reydel, who started teaching AP U.S. History in 1991, the experiment has been a resounding success. “This course is the golden dream that I’ve been trying to teach my whole life but haven’t been able to fully commit to because I’ve been bound by the AP curriculum,” says Reydel.

Students now take U.S. History as sophomores, which means they’re familiar with the content if they elect to take the AT course as juniors or seniors. For Reydel, this frees him from the burden of teaching a brisk survey course. “I only teach the good stuff,” he says with a broad smile. While the scope of the class has changed, the skills and rigor that define it have not.

AP U.S. History was always a writing-intensive course. The switch to AT has allowed Reydel, who has a reputation as a demanding yet transformative writing teacher, to spend even more time on research papers. His students write three each term. The research process, which requires students to navigate academic databases while synthesizing primary and secondary sources to build an original argument, is designed to replicate a college history course.

“That makes it pretty rigorous,” says Reydel. “What we’re doing is really complex because the goal is not just to learn the story, but to learn how everything fits together. That’s the hard part, but it’s also the fun part.”

Because he is no longer beholden to the pace of the AP curriculum, Reydel can spend class time working with his students on their writing. The week a paper is due, he gives students three periods to write while he meets with them individually to answer questions and provide feedback. “What that means,” he says, “is that the quality of the work I get at the end is outstanding.”

The other core skill the class seeks to develop is the ability to present a cogent oral argument. “Some students are great writers, some are great speakers,” says Reydel. “As we move along in our lives, it’s really important to be able to do both.”

For their final assessment, students design and teach a 30-minute class on a 21st century topic of their choice. “You never learn anything better than when you have to actually teach it,” says Reydel. “Because it’s an AT course and not an AP course, we can do it that way, which is really cool.”

Role-playing exercises, which were a staple of the AP course, continue to feature prominently. Reydel often assigns students historical figures whom they have to research and speak as during staged events, like George Washington leading a press conference or Alexander Hamilton debating Thomas Jefferson. In a recent unit on the Compromise of 1850, Reydel turned the class into a newsroom. He assumed the role of the anchor and moderated a discussion where his students were reporters and famous politicians such as John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and Stephen A. Douglas.

One twist to these exercises is that students are now using artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT to enhance their preparation. As part of the Civil War unit, for example, students prompted the tool to assume the identity of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and then interviewed the author about her life and her book. Before they shared their findings with their classmates, they had to verify the accuracy of the information. Reydel says, “I tell them all the time, ‘You are responsible for what [ChatGPT] gives you. You have to corroborate everything.’”

Beyond content-specific uses, bringing AI into the classroom has provided broader educational value. “If they’re going to use it anyway, let’s teach them how to use it responsibly,” says Reydel. “See where the benefits are, see where the guardrails are, and see where the mistakes are. Let’s make sure they do it properly and do it well because it’s going to be with us forever.” However, Reydel emphasizes that students are “never allowed to use AI to write their essays for them. That would defeat the purpose of the writing process and also constitute academic dishonesty.”

This is just one example of how the AT course has created new opportunities. “It’s this gift of time to be able to teach great classes without being bound to a curriculum, which might not be in the students’ best interest,” Reydel says. “They’re still getting the benefit of a college-level course without the drain of this tireless march towards an exam.”

Having said that, Reydel estimates that around 50 percent of his students take the AP test each spring. “The kids who take it do well,” he says. “Because they choose to take it, compared to being required, the scores generally are pretty high.” Most importantly, whether they take the exam or not, all of the students have sharpened the tools that will be vital to their success in college and beyond.

AT MARINE SCIENCE

Because the College Board does not offer AP Marine Science, the move to AT has allowed Tabor to create a new upper-level course in an increasingly popular discipline. The fact that students work in a waterfront lab, in the state-of-the-art Marine and Nautical Science (MANS) Center, is a golden example of place-based learning.

To take the course, students must meet stringent prerequisites in addition to submitting a proposal for an independent project. If selected, they spend the entire year conducting their research in a rigorous environment. “I tell them that I’m going to teach them like grad students,” says Jay Cassista, Director of Marine Science. “They’re not studying for a test, they’re trying to solve problems.”

Cassista starts the school year covering foundational skills. “They come in and we immediately have content on the research method, scientific notation, and significant figures,” he says. After a unit on research ethics, students spend two weeks developing their project’s hypothesis and vetting it with members of the science department. “They see how difficult a hypothesis really is,” says Cassista. “How it’s not like an educated guess but more like a bold statement that either will be proven or disproven.”

From that point forward, 90 percent of class time is devoted to independent research. Students often work outside in the fall and spring and hunker down in the MANS Center tech room during the winter months. “It’s a mess,” says Cassista, waving to a maze of tanks and hoses. “But it’s a beautiful mess. It looks like what my professor’s lab looked like when I went to grad school.”

This year, students are working on projects that explore a range of marine science topics. One student, inspired by the underwater cameras that Massachusetts Maritime Academy live-streams from the inlets of the Cape Cod Canal, has installed a camera in Sippican Harbor. His goal is to establish the migration patterns of vertebrates and invertebrates while also creating a campaign that encourages the Tabor community to visit the camera’s website and observe Sippican Harbor’s marine life year-round.

Another student built a 50-gallon tidal tank, which the school will be able to use for years to come. “He engineered the design using air pumps to make water come in and out as a tide would fluctuate in our area,” Cassista says. The student plans to turn the tank into an artificial environment to conduct behavioral research on fiddler crabs.

A striking aspect of these projects is how they offer genuine scientific value. One student is currently studying the effects of fertilizer runoff while exploring a less toxic alternative. “He’s culturing phytoplankton from our shores and growing them in masse,” says Cassista. “He dehydrates and rinses the phytoplankton so they’re not salty, and he’s trying to use it as fertilizer to grow terrestrial plants.” The student plans to enter the project in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s high school science fair.

Another student was inspired after learning about how the Navy is using slime secreted by hagfish to create ballistic-resistant gear. “She’s going to harvest this slime, harmlessly, and she’ll work to break it down to the macromolecule level and study the tensile strength of the strands of mucus,” says Cassista. He notes that the student plans to share her findings with the Navy.

Documenting and sharing their work is an important part of students’ experience in AT Marine Science. They present their projects to the entire school every spring, and Cassista says his goal is for students to submit their research to external publications. “Imagine if you send your son or daughter to Tabor and before they even go to college, they have a published article in a scientific journal,” he says. “That’s huge.”