This article won an honorable mention in the 2023 Michigan Interscholastic Press Association spring awards ceremony.
All students and faculty at the high school are aware of the famous Advanced Placement (AP) Seminar course, a required Language Arts credit for sophomores. Recently, this class has been getting attention from outside of the school as well, since Northview is the only school in the country to have AP Seminar as a required class. College Board CEO, David Coleman, decided to take it upon himself to see how AP Seminar works when implemented in a real life classroom and to determine whether this course should be recommended for all public high schools.
College Board is the company in charge of all AP curriculums and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Their goal is to provide a smooth transition from high school to college for all students. In order to see their work in action, Coleman and a team of educators from around the country sat in on several AP classes at the high school on January 18th. This team included College Board officials, representatives from other schools in the area and other education officials from around the country.
In an article from MLive, Coleman expressed that he thinks that the expansion of education at the high school helps make school a more inclusive environment for all students.
“We found Northview to be a beacon of a more democratic, open approach to education that we’re very interested in,” Coleman said. “What we’re seeing is, it’s not just for what some call ‘the top kids in high school,’ but for a broader set of high school students to get excited about their learning.”
After visiting, Coleman sees that his program is facilitating a creative environment for students.
“To be blunt, across this country, too many of our young people are bored out of their minds in high school, and that means they’re not doing their best work. They’re not shining,” Coleman said. “At Northview, they let all the kids in 10th grade discover something that fascinates them. We want to give all young people that opportunity to take control of their high school, to take command of their career interests and what excites them.”
AP Seminar was not the only thing peaking the interests of these professionals, the execution of Pre-AP math, English and science classes are also a unique course of action.
First year English teacher at the high school, Brandon Lee, has been tasked with teaching both Pre-AP English 9 and AP Seminar. The task of demonstrating the course was not taken lightly by Lee.
“Before the visit I was nervous and excited. Nervous because I knew I was going to be teaching my first hour in front of 30 education professionals, [the top] people in my field,” Lee said. “Excited because that’s never happened before. I know education well enough to know this doesn’t happen very much, so it was a cool moment.”
Lee believes that College Board was given an accurate representation of how these courses are run in real life classes.
“They saw everyone from the AP Seminar team, and everyone from College Board saw me during first hour, which means that we were able to demonstrate the career and college readiness [by completing an assignment designed to teach students about their future opportunities],” Lee said. “Miles and Hower’s classes are working on the Individual Research Report so the College Board people got to see that process as well. We gave them a look at how Northview is doing AP Seminar in our own unique way and how we’re adapting it so all students can be successful in the course.”
Principal Mark Thomas thinks that AP classes have a crucial effect on a student’s self confidence and helps prepare them for the future.
“Our freshmen don’t come to the high school at the same starting point, they all start [with] different academic backgrounds,” Thomas said. “I think what Pre-AP and AP classes do for all kids is show them that you can be whatever kind of student you want to be here, despite your past. We’re just trying to help everyone be more prepared and feel better about themselves when it comes to their academics.”
Thomas believes that College Board visiting benefits not only the school’s image, but also the staff and students.
“I think it’s rare when you’re the only school in the nation doing something,” Thomas said. “The fact that a little school here in Grand Rapids is doing things that no one else in the nation is doing gives motivation to teachers and to students to feel really good about themselves. It really made me happy that [College Board] was able to come and give our students and staff that positive attention.”
Following the visit to the high school, Coleman plans to make a recommendation that AP Seminar be required for 10th graders in schools across the country, using Northview as an example of how this course is realistic for real life instruction.
