Parker is a school built on progressive principles. Its mission statement is “Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.” Some Parker community members argue that Parker’s system, which encourages thoughtfulness and whose mission is to produce responsible citizens, does not necessarily align with the AP (Advanced Placement) system, which is strictly number based.

Some classes at Parker, mainly senior math and science classes, follow the AP curriculum. These classes are college-level courses that are selectively taught mainly to seniors that are capable of taking an elevated course. “The idea that while you’re in high school, you’re able to take a college-level class,” Middle and Upper School Director of Studies Sven Carlsson said. “That used to be a really sort of crazy idea.”

The purpose behind taking those classes is to learn new material through the curriculum but also to prepare for the AP test for that subject. AP tests are placement tests run by the College Board that assess how much knowledge one has in a given subject, with a grading scale of one to five. Five is the highest score one can earn and one is the lowest. 

Students typically take these tests in May of their senior year and the College Board submits the scores to the college they will attend in order for the college to have an idea of what level of courses to place them in.

Taking these tests allows the College Board to look at one’s score and determine their level of academic success, which is a system that Carlsson argues is not aligned with Parker’s educational philosophy. “I think it’s an uneasy dance to sort of work with something that is branded AP because the College Board is not a progressive institution. It doesn’t align philosophically with Parker or sort of claim too,” Carlsson said. “They’re trying to create assessments that help people sort of differentiate between individuals based on numbers.”

Each of the “Advanced Topics” courses offered to seniors at Parker follows the AP curriculum with the hope that each student will take the test in May. Earning a certain score on the AP test is a way to bypass a college course, and each course costs money. It’s a financial incentive.

Advanced Topics in Chemistry teacher Leslie Webster has a binder written by the College Board with the topics needed to be covered throughout the course and the amount of days needed to be spent covering each chapter in order to teach every topic that will appear on the test in May.

Following this binder strictly would stray away from Parker’s style of learning, which is student-centered, so the science department as a whole typically does not like to spend the exact amount of time on each chapter as the binder calls for. The department also chooses not to use the term AP when labeling their classes. “We’re very careful not to say AP because if you buy into the AP mentality, then you are going to spend 14 to 15 class periods,” Webster said. “And if the students aren’t ready. ‘Oh well, right.’ And that’s not what we do.”

Webster teaches the class at her own pace, a mix between the AP curriculum and Parker’s style. “It’s my job to make sure I’m not pushing them too fast and I’m not pushing them too slow because I want them to be successful. I want them to feel successful,” Webster said. “But I also need them to learn some chemistry.”

Another Parker teacher, Steven Tyler, teaches his senior calculus class according to the AP curriculum because he feels like the AP Calculus curriculum really shows how useful calculus can be outside of the classroom. “The AP curriculum has really shaped it to be a very much real-life application scenario,” Tyler said. “Then students can actually see this is really done outside of a classroom, which is why I chose to do the AP.”

Tyler travels to Kansas City, Missouri every June to grade AP Calculus tests, so he is very familiar with the structure of the test and the grading scale. Because he knows exactly how it will be written, he can give the students assessments and worksheets throughout the year that model how problems will look on the actual AP test. “I typically tell the kids that when they take the AP test in May, there will not be a question that they will not have seen,” Tyler said. “So they come in with a huge amount of confidence because they feel like this is just any other day in class. ‘We’ve been doing this forever. I’ve got a shot at this.’ And that gives them confidence to do well.”

The progressive aspect of the way both Webster and Tyler teach is that their classes are not solely for the purpose of preparing students for the test in May. There is an actual learning and understanding of the topic that is prioritized first, and, at least for Webster’s class, the class does not move along to cover a new topic unless the previous topic is fully understood. 

Carlsson still has some reservations about AP classes, so he values the injection of progressive education into the curriculum and would be strongly opposed to a class that completely followed the structure of the AP curriculum book. “If you can keep your classroom fundamentally progressive,” Carlsson said, “I kind of am indifferent between does your curriculum follow the AP or not.”

Carlsson’s goal is that the students will take AP tests to hopefully gain college credits, but the most important thing for him is that students leave Parker maintaining that knowledge they gained from the class, as opposed to feeling there is no need to remember it right after the test. “Yes, we end up preparing kids for college, but we’re not a college prep school. Our goal isn’t that we get kids into the best college and now we’re done,” Carlsson said. “The idea is that we’ll get you into a great college, sure. But when you’re in college, are you curious to know how to learn? How do you treat other people when you graduate college? What kind of job do you do? What kind of citizen are you like? How do you impact those around you? How do you value community? Right. These are all the things that we really care about.”

Implementing classes that follow AP curriculum was needed at a school like Parker because without the College Board seeing a score on an AP test or AP credits from high school classes, the College Board did not understand how to assess Parker students. So having students eventually take AP exams by having AP-like courses (but not labeled AP courses) to prepare them, Parker is meeting them halfway. “I think that’s our sort of effort to play within the system that we know is the reality,” Carlsson said. “The quote on the building where it’s like the needs of society should determine the work of the school. I think the idea is that we have to kind of be aware of what society is and also should become. I think this is us dealing with what society is.”