Head of School Elizabeth English announced a break from the College Board’s AP course offerings beginning in the 2022-2023 school year. The announcement was made to the community in an email on Jan. 27 that also introduced Advanced Studies courses which will receive the same weighted GPA as the AP courses. 

Advanced Placement is a program created and run by the College Board offering high school students advanced courses in various subjects with set curriculums and an AP exam at the end of the year which students must pass to gain college credit.

The Advanced Studies that English introduced will go beyond the AP curriculum to provide students with “a deeper and more nuanced mastery of core standards and skills.”

“Archer is proud of its nationally-recognized excellence in teaching and learning,” English wrote. “… In evaluating the path forward, we are confident this shift will prepare and position our students for matriculation to the most competitive colleges and universities.”

To support the change to the curriculum, English referred to a task force of faculty and administrators in her email that began a multi-year examination of the AP program and its alignment with Archer’s mission. Some key findings she mentioned were the College Admissions Offices confirmed this shift in courses will not affect college admissions and the AP curriculum “does not offer the depth, complexity and relevance of Archer’s capstone classes.”

English followed these findings with the past experience of departing from APs in science beginning in 2008, referencing the many alumni who pursued degrees in STEM and attended elite engineering and science programs at Brown University, Stanford University and the University of Southern California, to name a few.

“Moving away from a standardized, test-driven curriculum in science has enabled our students to excel and succeed in college and beyond,” English wrote.