Maggie Dugery ‘23
Sarah Kotapka ‘23
College Board statistics indicate that around 775,000 students took the AP Literature and AP Language exams in 2021. In recent years, Episcopal students are typically not among those taking the exams. Although Episcopal Academy features a wide-ranging, challenging curriculum that offers regular, honors, and AP classes in almost every subject, AP Literature (AP Lit) and AP Language (AP Lang) are two courses that EA notably does not offer.
While these courses are a part of many high schools’ curricula across the country, they have never been taught at EA. In fact, up until five years ago, Episcopal only offered regular English classes. Once the English Department made the decision to offer varying levels of courses, they purposefully chose to only offer honors and regular options. Anne Barr, Upper School English Department Chair and teacher, explains, “We didn’t want the AP course to decide the books we teach at EA for us. We wanted flexibility.”
AP Lang places emphasis on reading shorter pieces and rhetorical analysis, focusing on historical speeches like Malala Yousfazai’s address to the United Nations as well as letters and OP-eds like Groucho Marx’s “Letter to the Warner Brothers.“ AP Lang also leaves room in the curriculum for studying any current events at the time of the course.
AP Lit is comparable to EA’s Honors Literature classes, analyzing texts in depth—such as Native Son by Richard Wright and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in conjunction with classic short stories, like Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”— while also practicing writing AP essays to prepare students for the end-of-year exam. College Board’s course description communicates the differences between the focuses of AP Lit in comparison to AP Lang, informing, “The AP English Literature and Composition course focuses on reading, analyzing, and writing about imaginative literature (fiction, poetry, drama) from various periods.” In contrast, “The AP English Language and Composition course focuses on the development and revision of evidence-based analytic and argumentative writing and the rhetorical analysis of nonfiction texts.
Despite EA’s lack of AP Lit and AP Lang classes, students interested in sitting for the exam are still able to do well. Barr says, “I’m very confident that our Honors course is preparing our students as well, maybe even better than the AP courses. Our students traditionally do very very well.”
All students encounter some of the works covered in the AP courses. These include Shakespeare’s Macbeth, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, and The Crucible by Arthur Miller. They also get to explore authors not included in the AP syllabi.
English teachers are able to individualize EA’s course load while staying in touch with AP guidelines. Barr explains, “We are always aware of the texts that the AP is using, and we always take that into consideration.”
Despite the absence of AP Lit and Lang from available English courses, up until three years ago Episcopal offered the exam on EA’s campus. However, since then, EA stopped hosting the exam. Cynthia Crum, Director of College Counseling, provided insight into the impetus for this decision, noting, “Colleges are always looking at the rigor of a student’s curriculum, but it really matters how the school is defining those courses, whether the curriculum offered is AP/Honors courses, so from a college counseling perspective, not taking AP Lit or AP Lang exams at EA don’t really have an impact [on college admissions.]” She continues, “In terms of the scores, [students should] appreciate that many colleges don’t ask for them–it is more of a tool for placement than for entrance.”
Students still do have the option to take the exam elsewhere. Mariana Ramirez, Associate Director of College Counseling, however, advises against this. “Students have to seek the exam out on their own and then get the support from that school to take it there. It’s not necessarily something that we would encourage or know about,”she says.
Barr acknowledges some of the reasons College Counseling discourages students from taking the exam, remarking, “Some people might say, ‘Oh, don’t bother with those [exams], it’s money you shouldn’t have to pay, it doesn’t make that much of a difference to your college applications. And that’s fair, it probably doesn’t.’”
However, she believes in the benefits of taking the exam, commenting, “The reason why I would say to take them is that you can have the joy of knowing how well you do, it will make you feel good about yourself as a student, to know how well you can perform. I think it can be satisfying or personally helpful to take those exams.”
Elizabeth Boruff ‘23, an Honors American Literature Student, plans to take the AP Literature exam in May at Marple Newtown High School. She shares Barr’s sentiment, saying, “At the beginning of the year, I decided that I wanted to take the AP Lit or Lang exam at the end of the year because, why not try, and if it doesn’t go well at least I know that I attempted.” She adds, “Also, I do feel well equipped to take the exam since we’ve read many books in sophomore and junior year English courses that show up on the list of books for the essay.”
One final aspect to consider in this frame of perspective is whether or not students actually want to take the classes or the exam. Kevin Landaiche ‘23 remarks, “Despite being interested in English and literature as a whole, I have no desire to take an AP course in the subject or the exams. I think moving away from dependency on College Board courses allows for a greater degree of freedom in the curriculum, and makes the classes available more relevant and interesting.”
Photo courtesy of Ashley Kennedy ’22