A Long Time Coming: Faculty-Designed Advanced Courses at Chatham Hall

“The world today is not the world of 20th century education, and the processes and trends that have governed American education for decades no longer best serve our students and society,” she wrote.

Living Well at Chatham Hall
The current Chatham Hall Strategic Plan holds as one of its core goals enhancing and fortifying the student experience. In order to meet this goal, the School committed to reimagining the deployment of time in the academic calendar, academic schedule, and daily schedule. With the guiding principles of focusing on wellbeing, supporting students in appropriate academic and activity commitments, and allowing creativity and flexibility in course meetings, Dean of Academics Martha Griswold led a multi-year investigation into the School schedule. Concurrently, Dean of College Counseling Dr. Erin McHugh led an effort to analyze the Chatham Hall AP program in the overall curriculum. Both investigations took into account achieving a balance between academic requirements, extracurricular and cocurricular activities and “down time” for both students and faculty and staff, and an ultimate goal of determining what is right for Chatham Hall. These are also the tenets of the School’s Living Well philosophy.

“Living Well at Chatham Hall isn’t a stand-alone program,” noted Connell. “It is the underlying philosophy of all that we want to do here and will begin to inform every decision we make. We have identified nine dimensions of wellness – intellectual, physical, emotional, spiritual, social, occupational, environmental, financial, inclusive – and will rely on all nine as we develop exciting opportunities in curricula and academic programs, afternoon activities, Advisory chats, and themes for our grade-level programming. Living Well  at Chatham Hall will always be evolving and have certainly become the foundation of our decision-making.”

Adhering to the AP Program
For decades, AP courses were a go-to avenue for motivated students in an effort to ensure a challenging high school course of study while at the same time potentially gaining college credit for their work. They have flourished in schools across the country that may have similar profiles to Chatham Hall and appear almost identical to colleges and universities.

“As a college admissions counselor, it can be really hard to differentiate between students. APs can be one nice way to do that,” noted McHugh. “There are many, many schools in this country that often look very similar. Chatham Hall does not look similar to all those schools. Period. Colleges know that we are different, that we are a boarding school, that we focus on girls’ education, and that we have a fantastic profile built by a strong faculty and student body and that profile also explains all the things that we really care about. We are not in this group of schools that are really all lumped together and have to struggle to differentiate themselves. We don’t need AP courses for that.”

For any school that offers an AP program, there are some challenges as well as these main benefits.

“A huge downside is that, essentially, a main governing board decides what our students must learn,” said McHugh. “We pride ourselves on what we’re able to do here and how great our faculty is, and we have our own schedule that is slightly different from other schools. “So as we’ve been making this move towards the Living Well philosophy we realized we do have to evaluate time and content and see if it is really working for our students. We often try to squeeze as much content in as possible, which doesn’t always give them the chance to go deeper into subjects or choose something that they would like to explore. Their time is limited in an AP curriculum; they really always have to move on to the next thing. Not to mention that if we offer more AP classes, some students view this as a need to then take more AP classes. It’s added pressure on students, and not ideal for their success.”

Making the Decision
As both Griswold and McHugh continued their investigations, it became clear that AP classes offer far less flexibility and substance than those created by Chatham Hall faculty members. This was never more apparent than in spring 2020 when the campus was forced to close due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
“It was quite eye-opening last year with the pandemic,” said McHugh. “We all had to switch quickly to distance learning, and we realized that it’s harder for the classes that must follow an AP curriculum. Our teachers weren’t able to shift and pivot as much as they might have liked because they really had to focus on what this other governing board was saying they should do. That’s certainly not the main reason we’re making the switch, but it did shine a light on some different things.

“Really, we’re constantly evaluating the curriculum and making sure it’s the right thing for our students. We were doing this before the pandemic, and we will do it after. At different times things will change, and for years – even longer than I’ve been here – we’ve been keeping an eye on the Advanced Placement program and thinking about if it is still right for our girls. When we made the switch to APs it was the right choice for that time. It really helped us build up our profile. But things change, and now we have a fully established profile.”

Working with Colleges
Chatham Hall’s established profile gave the School a key reason to feel confident in moving away from AP classes: colleges and universities familiar with the School understand that faculty-developed advanced classes will provide at least the same challenge and rigor as AP classes. For those institutions less familiar with the School, the School Profile and individualized counseling letters from Dr. McHugh, which accompany all students’ college applications, put every student’s course of study in context.

“In our conversations with college admissions offices, including those in the Ivy League and those most popular with students and alumnae, we have been assured that Chatham Hall’s stellar academic reputation will ensure that our current students’ college applications will not be impacted by this move, and indeed that colleges today are interested in seeing substantive, relevant coursework that prepares students with 21st century skills rather than simply AP courses listed on transcripts,” Connell noted.

Creating New Courses
The move away from AP courses and towards advanced courses has been under discussion for many years at Chatham Hall. Throughout that time, faculty members have consistently expressed enthusiasm for such a change.

“Teachers have been waiting to do this for a long time,” said Griswold. “They are very excited about getting away from standardized tests that ask students, really, to do a lot of memorization. We know that when you ask students to just memorize things those are the things that are most quickly forgotten. That when you’re not allowed to do a deep dive into a subject matter then you’re really just teaching for a test. That’s unfortunately what we have found with the APs.

“We also know that our teachers are absolutely capable of providing the rigor that the students need and that the students want. Not to mention that students have been asking for this. They’ve been asking for the deep dives and topics that are relevant to them and relevant to the world now. This always comes up in conversation; students love teachers who can push them.”

In the move away from the prescribed curricula of the College Board, the School will be able to offer new courses allowing faculty and students much greater input and flexibility in the breadth and depth of their studies. The move will also offer greater independence to undertake research on topics that may not be covered or covered in depth as determined by the College Board. Examples of new, advanced courses expected to debut in the 2021-2022 academic year include A History of Western Civilization: Conflict and Accommodation, a study of artistic and intellectual movements, religious reforms, revolutions, and colonial independence struggles to examine historical tensions between individual or group power and state power; Hispanic Heritage in the United States, in which students will learn about the vast culture differences of the Hispanic population in the United States while also continuing to build their language skills; and Explorations in Advanced Math, a survey of multivariable calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra which will streamline two years of AP calculus courses into one class with topics typically reserved for a collegiate setting.

“For those of us teaching World Languages, moving away from AP classes gives us a chance to teach what we really should be teaching at advanced levels - literature and history,” noted World Languages Department Chair Kim Jackson. “I was a university professor for nine years, so I have first-hand experience with what is taught at the collegiate level. I know that the AP curriculum is not what is taught at universities. In fact, students who do receive college credit for an AP language course are typically only awarded a one hundred- or two hundred-level class credit which is a basic language class equivalent. Students really need to move beyond the basics into literature and history to move forward in their language learning. And for language faculty, teaching literature and history is a tremendously rewarding experience!”

“Teachers will be happier and students will be happier” agreed English Department Chair Dr. Mary Edmonds. “There will be less stress and more joy in the classroom. I think it’s going to make for a better learning atmosphere, and if someone really wants to get into a topic they’re going to be able to do it. And if someone really wants to be able to study an author, that is going to be possible. The kids are going to really benefit.”

Originally published in the Spring 2021 Chat.