One of the major academic question marks for this new remote learning environment has been what will happen to the Advanced Placement classes and the year-end exams those courses typically provide. College Board, the giant non-profit that runs the AP program, weighed in a few weeks ago to announce that this year’s exams would be modified to be online, 45 minutes in length, and include only material that would have been covered in AP classes up to the first week of March. In other words, students who have had to shift to remote learning situations will not be held accountable for any new material that they received outside of a traditional learning environment.

 

That accommodation had less impact on our students who continue to receive synchronous instruction and meaningful interaction with their teachers, but it does recognize the fact that even in our situation, there was no way teachers and students would be able to cover the same amount of content they normally do. College Board also appropriately recognized that not every student across the country would be able to receive a high quality AP experience once they shifted to learning from home.

 

Just last night, more information about the tests themselves and the testing procedures that would be put into place were revealed. I will highlight some of the major points below. Students will hear more specifics from their classroom teachers as to the specific content and formats of their particular tests in the next couple of class days, as more information becomes available and those teachers are able to process what they learn.

 

First and most importantly, the testing dates will be May 11-15 and 18-22. As usual, the tests will be spread out over the two-week time frame and will occur at designated time slots. (For example, the AP Calculus AB exam will occur on Tuesday, May 12.) However, because the tests are only 45 minutes in length, each day will include three separate testing windows instead of the usual two. In the mountain time zone, those windows will be 10 a.m., 12 noon and 2 p.m. While it is conceivable that a student could have three exams in one day, the College Board has effectively spread out the kinds of exams to minimize this possibility. The exact testing schedule and calendar will be available online by midday Friday, April 3.

 

On the day of their exam, students will be able to “unlock” the test they are going to take through a code. They will then take the exam online using one device, which can be a laptop, iPad, even a phone. Most answers will be submitted electronically, but students will also have the option to handwrite their answers and submit a picture of those handwritten answers. This is something not before allowed by College Board.

 

Another new development—and one that will be met with enthusiasm by classroom teachers—is that the College Board will return the students’ exams to the teachers no later than May 26. While these returned tests will not yet be scored, they will allow teachers the chance to see how their students did and factor those into trimester grades. Usually, teachers do not receive the exams so quickly and because the scores are not revealed until early July, teachers had no way to know how their students did by the time they posted trimester grades and had no way of including the AP exam performances into their assessments of the student.

 

Many questions about the security of an online exam have understandably emerged in the past few weeks. College Board asserts that great pains have been taken to ensure the security of these exams. Even though students will be doing these exams at home by themselves with no proctor, there are features built in to ensure that students cannot cheat or plagiarize. The presenters on Thursday night were candid about some of their strategies and more secretive about others. Obviously, we will have to see if indeed the integrity of the exams will be maintained. But I have no doubt that College Board has spared no expense in doing everything possible.

 

For their part, colleges and universities are assuring everyone that they will honor AP exam scores in the same way they have traditionally done.  Already there is a wide range of practices as to which colleges accept which scores in which subjects, so Seniors in particular should consult with their teachers and their college counselors about this. But again the colleges are in a position to be flexible and forgiving when it comes to the way they utilize AP scores in this unprecedented school year.

 

In all, College Board is looking to “honor the work teachers and students have already done” by moving forward with an exam plan rather than cancelling the exams altogether. Obviously, they have their own interests in doing so, but I applaud the effort they have made. Just as so many of us in education have done, they have pivoted, re-grouped, and tried to salvage something positive out of a highly unusual situation.