Away from the AP: Advanced Studies U.S. History

For Stuyvesant students, academic rigor is a key feature of student life. Preferences during spring course selections often revolve around one crucial metric: the number of Advanced Placement (AP) courses a student can feasibly secure a spot in. Over the years, however, AP courses have become more than just opportunities to take college-level classes; they act as indicators of ambition and intellectual seriousness in a college admissions landscape where transcripts increasingly serve as key signals of potential.

Created and administered by the College Board, the AP program was originally designed to bring college-level rigor to high school students by offering standardized curricula that lead up to nationally administered exams in May. In theory, these courses allow high-achieving high school students to demonstrate their mastery of college-level coursework and even to earn credit for those courses once they go to university. However, critics argue that this model has failed in practice. The exam-centered structure of these courses can shape classroom priorities in ways that sometimes value efficiency and rote learning over curiosity and deeper exploration of material. As a result, teachers must revolve their instruction around a fixed exam date, while students are pulled between necessary preparation and intellectual interest. At Stuyvesant in particular—where most students are “high-achieving,” and AP spots are limited—this tension only grows.

In light of these circumstances, history teacher David Hanna is piloting a new course for Stuyvesant in the upcoming 2026-2027 school year: Advanced Studies U.S. History (ASUS). Hanna proposed the course to the administration in March 2025, and, after much discussion, it will be offered to juniors as an alternative to the AP U.S. History (APUSH) course. Similar to “advanced” classes in other schools, ASUS hopes to preserve the rigor and intensity associated with AP courses while simultaneously shifting the focus away from standardized testing values. The course would also satisfy the same 11th-grade U.S. History requirement as APUSH does, but through a fundamentally different approach. 

Hanna’s motivation to create ASUS partially came from yearslong critiques of the Advanced Placement model. One early encounter was an op-ed written by English teacher Kerry Garfinkel in The Spectator, in which he voiced a disenchantment with the role standardized tests play in classrooms. That piece, “Ditch the A.P.s,” questions whether the prevalence of AP courses risks narrowing the scope of student inquiry by encouraging both teachers and students to prioritize exam performance over genuine engagement with the subject. “He articulated something that I had been feeling for some time,” Hanna said in an email interview. For Hanna, ASUS is an opportunity to teach history in a way that reflects his academic aspirations within Stuyvesant. “I want to teach history at the highest level I can within the secondary school context,” he said. “If I can’t do that at Stuyvesant, then I can’t do it anywhere.”

Another key influence for the creation of this course came from Hanna’s experiences as a parent. While his sons were in high school, he observed the differences between the two models firsthand: one son was enrolled in ASUS, while the other took APUSH. According to Hanna, “The former emphasized reading and writing, while the latter emphasized strategizing to achieve success on the AP exam. The one thing both courses had in common was rigor.” Since the two thrived in their respective yet inherently different courses, Hanna came to his conclusion about their possible coexistence at Stuyvesant.

Indeed, as AP offerings have expanded in recent years, many students feel pressured to maximize the number they take, reinforcing the perception that academic rigor is synonymous with the College Board system. Stuyvesant, however, already offers a variety of AP courses, but with drastically limited seats, restricting access for many qualified students. Thus, ASUS serves as one possible way to introduce rigor without increasing the number of AP courses. Hanna framed the class as an alternative pathway for students seeking a different type of challenge. “AS is not meant to replace AP. It’s meant to be a complementary alternative to AP,” he said.

Importantly, Hanna emphasized that his concerns do not stem from a dissatisfaction with teaching APUSH itself. He noted that AP classes often bring together motivated students who are genuinely interested with challenging material, and he values that intellectual vitality. Rather, his concerns lie in the rote structure of the AP model. He said, “I love teaching AP U.S. because of the subject matter and the types of students it generally attracts. The rest of it holds little interest for me.” When there is only a single exam determining whether a student’s learning was considered “successful,” everyone involved inevitably devotes significant time to only mastering that format.

One change that will be introduced in ASUS is the elimination of multiple-choice testing. While multiple-choice questions can offer efficiency and standardization, Hanna argued that those types of questions typically fail in capturing the complexity of history. “Multiple-choice is uncommon in college-level history courses,” he said. In his eyes, multiple-choice questions encourage memorization and pattern recognition over sustained analysis. Similarly, ASUS will move away from the typical Document-Based Question (DBQ) model due to its formulaic grading rubric, a format Hanna described as ineffective. “The DBQ is little more than an obstacle course—it bears little resemblance to what people who research and write history actually do,” he said. Instead, the course will focus on expository writing, traditional blue-book essays, and slower-paced, deliberate document analysis. Additionally, because instruction for ASUS will continue until June (as there is no AP exam), the material will not be compressed into a limited timeframe; students will get to fully engage with the content through writing, simulations, skits, and presentations.

Student responses to ASUS include both enthusiasm and skepticism. Sophomore Isabella Glassberg, a prospective student who is currently taking Hanna’s AP European History course, expressed her excitement for getting to experience history as more of a narrative rather than a checklist of exam topics. She noted that AP courses often create a sense of urgency to prepare for exams, which shifts attention away from the value of historical study. “I think taking history as an AP and focusing on the exam can detract from your connection to history,” she explained in an email interview. “You see it all as a curriculum you have to finish, rather than the story of how the world came to be how it is.”

For Glassberg, the appeal of ASUS lies in its emphasis on engaging with American history as a way of understanding the events that helped shape our society today. She noted, “U.S. history is especially important for us as American students, because we need to be informed on our own history so that we can form our own opinions on the world around us.” However, Glassberg also recognized that AP courses still hold a cultural and institutional weight. Although she believes that many colleges will recognize the rigor of an Advanced Studies course, she acknowledges the difficulties for students to choose it over a more traditional AP class. “As much as I try to do everything for myself and not ‘for college,’ it’s hard to do that completely,” Glassberg said.

Another student currently taking Hanna’s AP European History class, sophomore Sam Bokor, offered a more cautious perspective. While he acknowledged the drawbacks of the AP system, he expressed a genuine appreciation for the diversity of assessment formats in an AP history course. He explained, “I like varied tests like DBQs and multiple choice, because I don’t think it’s necessarily about taking an easier test, [but] it’s about learning how to be tested in multiple ways.”

Bokor also raised concerns regarding the disadvantages of not choosing an AP course in relation to college admissions. He noted that colleges often interpret AP enrollment as evidence of academic rigor. “I do know that the average AP student gets into a college that accepts 10 percent less than the average college of a non-AP student,” he said. Ultimately, while Bokor finds the idea of ASUS intriguing, its seemingly negative influence on transcript records may be the determining factor for him during course selections.

Crucially, when asked about his views on the transcript implications of an AS course, Hanna highlighted the preface for the draft proposal shared to the Parents Association. Written by Director of College Counseling Jeff Makris, it reads, “College admissions offices are aware that for large, highly competitive public high schools like Stuyvesant High School, it can be very difficult to meet student demands for AP coursework and exam administration. Qualified students may not always be able to take the courses they desire due to these logistical limitations. But, offering challenging, clearly identifiable coursework outside of the College Board AP umbrella is a possible workaround.” The preface argues that AP courses are not inherently synonymous with rigor in many high schools, including Stuyvesant, which offers many post-AP advanced courses, and that creating other challenging opportunities would benefit everyone overall.

The pilot nature of ASUS reflects both ambition and humility. Hanna admitted that, whether it succeeds in its initial form or not, he views it as an attempt made with positive intentions. Hanna explained, “It also implies that AS, begun in U.S. history, could possibly then expand to other courses and subjects, potentially opening up whole new possibilities for teachers and students alike. But big dreams have to start somewhere.” Humanities subjects, in particular, may benefit from more flexibility in how rigor is defined and assessed—in these subjects, there may not always be one “right” answer. 

As the spring course selection season approaches, students must weigh the practical implications of AP and possible AS courses against their personal goals as learners. For some, APUSH will remain the ideal option, offering a familiar structure and alignment with traditional norms for success at Stuyvesant. For others, however, ASUS may open the door to exploring history in a way that prioritizes curiosity over conformity. By offering both courses, the Stuyvesant administration would acknowledge that academic rigor need not be monolithic. In a school as large as Stuyvesant, it is imperative to allow different students to thrive under different conditions, and to encourage both students and staff to reflect on what learning might look like if the endpoint were not solely an exam.