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Wednesday, January 26, 2005
AP: It’s About Essays, Not Memorization
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The College Board’s report on AP courses gave me a chance to talk to Trevor Packer, executive director of Advanced Placement. I got to ask two questions that have been bugging me for a long time.
Q: Teachers say they have a hard time covering all the material in an AP course. They fear that as more borderline students are encouraged to take AP courses, they will spend more time on each topic and not be able to cover everything. What’s your response?
A. This is a big misconception. The AP program encourages in-depth knowledge of a subject, not memorization of a bunch of facts. Teachers often feel like they have to touch on every point that might be on the AP exam. But in reality, if you do really well on the in-depth essays, you [can miss a lot] of the multiple choice questions [and still] get a 5 (the highest possible score) on the exam. (In other words, teachers sometimes work too hard to cover every facet of the course, when students would be better served studying fewer facets but with greater depth.)
Q: Is the College Board profit-driven? It’s supposedly a nonprofit organization, but it’s hard to ignore the reality that at $82 per AP exam, the College Board is raking in a lot of cash.
A: We’re a nonprofit association. The College Board’s motives aren’t at all profit-driven. The main reason for the cost of the AP exam is the expensive scoring process. (The essays are graded by educators with advanced degrees who know what college-level work looks like, he explained) We invest all our profits back into the community. (He gave several examples such as training for AP teachers in schools without as many courses.)
Contest I’m accepting entries for the most annoying, bureaucratic eduspeak word. E-mail me your favorites by Friday, and you could win a very cool prize.
