Eighteen of Corbett's forty-three graduates making up the Class of 2009 were named Advanced Placement Scholars by The College Board. This is an astounding achievement, and it could add to the claim (complaint?) that Corbett is just packed with students who are by nature exceptional. And there is some truth to this, as 16% of the class was identified as Talented and Gifted. That accounts for seven of the eighteen AP Scholars. And the TAG students did well. They passed an average of eight AP exams each during their careers. (eight passing scores will nearly always convert to a full year of credit at a pubic university, and many of our students begin their college careers as sophomores.) The TAG-identified seniors all passed AP Calculus, AP English Comp, AP English Lit, AP Statistics and various exams scattered across nine other subjects.
What about the other eleven AP Scholars? The ones who weren't identified as TAG? They made up a quarter of the class, they weren't identified as part of any special program, and they passed an average of more than four AP exams each. They had no common passing subjects, but they put up passing scores on thirteen different exams.
These non-TAG performers are, in a way, the epitome of Corbett's unique approach to education. Most districts in Oregon would not provide these students access to Advanced Placement classes simply because AP is not part of the curriculum. In most schools that do offer Advanced Placement classes, participation is limited to somewhere between five and fifteen percent of the student body. Many of our students would have been excluded for fear of hurting other schools' passing rates. In Corbett, students who would not be allowed to participate in Advanced Placement programs are not only expected to engage, they are required to, and they earn over half of the passing scores in the school!
Corbett is unique among Oregon schools in this regard. Virtually all students, barring a significant impairment, participate in Advanced Placement work. This year, all ninth graders are taking AP Human Geography, all 10th grader are taking AP World History, all 11th and 12th graders are taking AP Language and Literature. Seventy-five students (one quarter of the 9-12 student body) are taking Advanced Placement Calculus (ab) or (bc). Sixty students (many of these overlap with calculus) are taking AP Statistics. We will administer over 425 exams in these six areas, enough to make Corbett the leader among Oregon schools again this year. But Corbett offers eleven other Advanced Placement classes and anticipates administering several hundred exams in addition to the 425 outlined above. And we don't know ahead-of-time who will pass, and we make no attempts to screen students out in order to protect passing rates. The only students who don't take Advanced Placement classes in Corbett are those for whom we believe participation in the course is inappropriate to their academic needs.
We are OK with identifying students as Talented and Gifted. It's the law, so we will continue to do so. But we don't give out special privileges or special classes. They are treated exactly like everyone else in that they are expected to engage the curriculum each year at a level that constitutes their own next steps. They are required to prove themselves again and again, just like every Corbett student. And they have responded splendidly, but when they look around at the award ceremony they find that they are not alone. The stage is crowded with high achievers, including some who nobody else would have expected to be there!
Other schools have made the claim that their 'curriculum' is just like that of Corbett. I suppose if by 'curriculum' one means a document on a shelf somewhere, that might be true. But if by 'curriculum' one means the planned educational experience that is delivered to every student each year, I think that the above constitutes evidence that Corbett is utterly unique. Yes, Corbett students study the Civil War and the potato famine, just like students in every other school in Oregon. But somehow when we are done presenting the 'same' curriculum the experience of Corbett students is significantly different.
