How We Learn: Saturday School

WHERE: Lincoln High School, Tacoma, Washington state

WHO: Forty of the AP Government students of social studies teacher and Washington state Teacher of the Year Nate Bowling (WA '13)

WHAT THEY'RE DOING: Spending their Saturday preparing for upcoming AP exams

WHY: "At Lincoln we do academic acceleration, meaning kids opt out of AP classes rather than opting in," Bowling explains. "Because of that we have kids who aren't traditional 'AP kids' — and I think that's a good thing. My job is to teach them up." Bowling spent the week prior to this photo in Washington, D.C., "doing Teacher of the Year stuff" (including visiting the White House and shaking hands with President Obama). His plane landed in Seattle close to midnight on Friday; he was at school with his students by 9 a.m. the next day.

Bowling, a passionate advocate for erasing educational inequality, says more of his students pass the AP Government exam than many neighboring schools have enrolled in their classes. "It's about access," he says. "We don't gatekeep. We provide additional support, and the kids rise to the occasion."