Teacher of Two Minds on AP Courses

I taught AP U.S. History in the late '80s and early '90s. Test scores depended -- not surprisingly -- on intensive study, academic rigor and, most especially, a brisk pace of instruction.

In non-AP classes, I would regularly devote two weeks to the Federalist Papers. Not so in AP. There, the name of the game was coverage. Students sitting for the exam were just as likely to face questions about mid-19th century currency reform as they were to assess the constitutional debates of 1787. I finally concluded that by putting coverage over content, I was shortchanging students.

Since dropping the AP U.S. History course, I haven't looked back. I recently ordered next year's books. All my classes will be devoting a month to Tocqueville's analysis of early 19th-century U.S. politics and culture and another month to the rise of post-World War II American conservatism. Students will read and present debates among historians, exploring both ideological and methodological differences among them. While I could have been more imaginative with my old AP classes, doing so would have undermined student performance on a test that measures comprehensive knowledge more than it does analysis and evaluation.

It may seem contradictory, but I now teach AP World History and next week will be in Lincoln, Neb., grading AP World History exams. Why?

I volunteered to teach the AP World History course because the demands of course preparation gave me all the excuse I needed to embark on an intensive program of reading and study. I also felt that course's emphasis on interregional networks -- particularly commercial and cultural networks -- dovetailed nicely with my own interests.

I do not teach to the test. Students do not take any multiple choice tests or quizzes; instead, I evaluate their written work. While I model some of their questions on AP exam prompts, I prefer longer, more critical assessments of historical theory. In short, while I teach a college-level course, I do not teach an AP course.

Despite many reservations, I support the broad aims of the AP program. U.S. education is a wreck, but there is no solution on the horizon. No Ministry of Education establishes national guidelines for curriculum, teacher training or student performance. (I find No Child Left Behind a failure, but that is another story.) The AP program has its flaws but is the only academically demanding curriculum with something approaching a national presence.

AP raises the bar intellectually. A school that offers AP Biology will teach evolution. A school that teaches AP World History can give students a more nuanced understanding of Islam than they are likely to get elsewhere. AP exam results repudiate those districts that regularly assign coaches to teach history and historians to teach math.

So I'm happy Crossroads is dropping AP -- it gets in our way. I'm equally happy to help grade AP exams. The national program, for all its flaws, serves students.

-- Tom Laichas , history teacher, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Santa Monica, Calif.