In the 25-26 school year, the Integrated Global Studies School (IGSS) is making some changes to their curriculum. This includes a new Advanced Placement (AP) aspect of the school—specificially, the addition of AP Seminar, and AP Research to come during the 26-27 school year.

According to the College Board, AP Seminar and AP Research classes allow students to select real-world or academic topics to explore and craft arguments on. For AP Seminar, this largely manifests in presentations, while AP Research places emphasis on writing. Both aim to instill a variety of key skills, but the question is, how does this fit into the unique IGSS structure?

“We came up with the idea because both AP Seminar and AP Research are skill based AP classes, not content based AP classes, and they’re skills that we already focus on in IGSS,” IGSS teacher Lindsey Tobias says. 

Without sacrificing the main objectives and values of the IGSS program, teachers have begun shifting some of the instruction to align with the College Board’s outlining. 

“We are more clear about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, which I think is really beneficial to students,” Tobias says. 

As time goes on, the hope is for a seamless integration of AP curriculum into the traditional IGSS framework.

“My hope for the future is that as we adapt to the environment, in the same way that we deemphasize grades, we deemphasize the outward elements of the level system at New Trier,” IGSS teacher Mac Guy says. “We can really blend it in successfully to what is ultimately a really learning environment that feels rich and relevant and fun to be part of.”

Students have begun to see larger and more frequent presentations, in preparation for the AP Seminar exam in May. The first major assignment was to create a pitch for a flexible elective to be a part of IGSS, during which Senior Margot Swibel had the opportunity to share her ideas for an entrepreneurship elective.

“Right now, the elective that’s part of IGSS is art, and [we were] thinking about what other electives could be mixed with IGSS instead of art or having the option to have other ones,” Swibel says. “We presented it to some people in the futures planning board.”

During this pilot year, current students will not see AP Seminar included on their official transcript, but they will have the opportunity to take the AP test in May. In this way, the current structure is comparable to 4-level World Geography and the AP Human Geography Exam. Students who take the 4-level World Geography course can take the AP Human Geography exam despite the class not being named an AP on their transcript. The actual AP Seminar exam, however, is a bit more unique: it consists of a team research project and presentation, an individual presentation, and a final written exam. 

Next year, as these changes are fully incorporated into IGSS, the AP credit will be officially recognized. Additionally, the program will begin offering AP Research to seniors, as the course has an AP Seminar pre-requisite. 

This new addition is meant to help address a previous concern that students who have chosen to take IGSS may be missing out on AP classes. 

“AP credit is broadly recognized as a badge of honor at New Trier and in the country more broadly,” Guy says. “We’ve got students that would have been on track to take AP courses, but can’t, because they’ve chosen to be part of the IGSS community.”

At the same time, the addition of AP classes allows students who may not take APs otherwise to experience a college-level course.

“It’s really great for students who don’t necessarily think of themselves as AP students, and that they can find success too,” Tobias says. “And there’s research that shows that for kids who take AP classes, even if they don’t do that well on the test, which I don’t think is going to be the case for our students, there’s a benefit to them in college.”

Thus, the goal here is to expand opportunities for students enrolled in IGSS, as well as helping to attract future interest in the program. 

“I think students will gain a lot of confidence as the process goes on,” Tobias says. “That is absolutely one of our hopes, that it helps students see that IGSS has a really rigorous curriculum, and also that students coming from a variety of levels are capable of really amazing work.”