Looking at the Fairness of Advanced Placement Exams
Abrams, Annie. Shortchanged : How Advanced Placement Cheats Students . Johns Hopkins UP, 2023. Over the summer, I did "assessment" for the AP language & literature test. They had originally contacted me because I'm a Director of Undergraduate Studies for a university English department, and they paid $500 for the labor. Now, granted, this payment is partly for self-advertising purposes; now they can put a "UArizona" faculty member as an assessor on promotional materials. But they did solicit feedback on the quality and fairness of the questions, and overall I didn't think it was a bad exam. These AP tests are important, too. At the U of A, for example, a score of "4" or "5" allows an incoming freshmen to place out of English 101, so that's a significant savings in terms of tuition. It also improves retention and times to graduation. But I know Advanced Placement also faces a lot of criticism, which is why I just read Annie Abra...