AP to Advanced Academics

Starting in the 2022-23 academic year, Landon will roll out Advanced offerings in the Upper School to replace previously labeled Advanced Placement classes. These Advanced courses will challenge and engage boys at the highest levels of study. Freed from the confines of teaching to an Advanced Placement test, these courses will incorporate the five themes (listed to the right) that are driving our overall curriculum innovation and alignment efforts from Grades 3-12.

The school’s second Curriculum and Pedagogy Summer Week this summer for faculty focused on these five themes. Teachers of Advanced courses have been working for several years to identify essential elements from their previous AP courses while designing meaningful and challenging units of study to incorporate into new courses that will inspire, engage, and prepare boys for success in college and beyond.

Advanced Environmental Science teacher Chris Ros said, “The previous AP approach didn’t allow for deeper exploration and understanding and often just began to scratch the surface of the complexity involved. Moving to an Advanced class in Environmental Science will now allow me to focus on key issues that are currently unfolding around us. I will be able to take our students through a more thorough experience that brings more complex science to the curriculum, introduces challenging economic, social, and political influences, and provides opportunities to interact with the actual agencies and people involved in the issues we are studying.”

1. Incorporate resources outside the classroom

2. Augment interdisciplinary learning

3. Focus on independent scholarship/original work

4. Incorporate, as appropriate, student interest in course content and activities

5. Increase the creativity of our course offerings