AP courses teach Glenbard students how to research

Alyssa Hale causally describes what she's reading these days.

Scholarly articles on equine therapy? That's just one of the stages in a year of research she's carefully mapped out.

"Now I feel like I get deeper into all the questions and ask myself why?" Hale says.

Her peers are studying a gender gap in welfare, stress in top students, immigration to France, and so on.

They all will write a lengthy paper, defend their conclusions in front of a panel next spring and aim to fill the gaps in existing research.

"I won't know what to do with myself," Hale says of the moment when she's finally done.

It wouldn't be that surprising if this was the world of academia. You know, professors in tweed jackets and leafy college campuses.

Except Hale and the rest of this tight-knit group have to balance their time with some other big milestones ahead. Prom. Turning 18.

"They grow up," their teacher Karen Beardsley said. "Oh my gosh, do they grow up."

Their maturity, their confidence, their curiosity - Beardsley has seen all that grow in Glenbard East High School students during AP Capstone, a two-year program that puts even the high achievers into an elite group.

Last year, the College Board launched the program with the first of two courses, AP Seminar, and only a handful of high schools in Illinois piloted it. Two were in Glenbard High School District 87: Glenbard East in Lombard and Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn (Glenbard North has since joined the roster).

This school year, the second course in the program, AP Research, was introduced. The classes are now in such demand that the College Board has put schools on waiting lists and can no longer take applicants for the 2016-17 year.

Capstone is unlike any other Advanced Placement course. Instead of fitting into the sciences or arts or other disciplines, Capstone gives students the chance to dig deep into real-life issues that interest them.

"Essentially, if you think about it, they are putting together a dissertation," said Rebecca Gemkow, who teaches the research portion at East.

Ask teachers in a district that's gained attention for the program - the syllabus for AP Seminar is a model nationwide - and they say they strive to let students take "massive ownership" of their work.

"The hardest thing for me was the shift in my mind that it's all about the skill and not the content," said Glenbard West social studies department chairwoman Kristin Brandt, who co-teaches AP Seminar with science department chairman Sean Byrne.

He sits on a committee of eight educators from high schools and colleges that steers the curriculum.

"The College Board will say it was instigated by the colleges who said we've got a whole bunch of kids that are really good in their content," Byrne said. "But writing and analytically across the content - they are not able to perform at the levels that we want them to."

The curriculum isn't cookie-cutter, but it helps to have small classes because students critique their peers throughout the courses, teachers say. Hale, a senior, now considers her Capstone classmates close friends.

"They're challenged by one another and they encourage one another," Gemkow said. "To have that small group creates a better bond."

Which students are the right fit?

"It is a unique, aggressive course, and it's not for everyone at this point in time in their development," said Beardsley, who teaches the seminar portion at East.

She and Gemkow look for teens who are motivated to work outside of the classroom and contribute to a team.

"They need to be the kind of child who really likes to dig deep into a topic and is curious and hates it when they have to move on the next thing because the curriculum is moving," Beardsley said.

By the end of the program, students will have produced a 4,000- to 5,000-word paper, worked with mentors, and defended their findings in about a 20-minute presentation before Beardsley, Gemkow and an administrator at East.

"One of the things I love so much about the course is, at the end, the kids can come away feeling confident about finding answers," Gemkow said. "They might not have an answer, but they can go out and get it somehow."

What's more, students can highlight their projects - that they designed, not teachers - on college applications. They're able to show that they can tease out reliable sources, focus their research on a narrow question and find solutions to a problem.

Those kinds of "heavy-duty" skills, Gemkow said, distinguishes students in a "separate, special pile" in highly competitive admissions at colleges.

"Becoming an expert in any thing is very enabling for your future," Beardsley said.