Faculty Board defends adjustments to AP scoring methodology

The Faculty Board has overhauled its scoring methodology for almost all of Superior Placement exams over the previous two years. On Monday, the nonprofit printed on its web site the first public acknowledgment of the shift in the way in which it scores greater than three million assessments every year.

Previous to 2022, AP exams in every topic space have been scored in response to requirements set each 5 to 10 years by a panel of 10 to 18 educators—about two-thirds of them faculty professors and one-third highschool academics—who used “particular person experience to estimate the proportion of AP college students who ought to earn every AP rating,” in response to a press release from the Faculty Board. The brand new methodology, known as evidence-based commonplace setting (EBSS), analyzes a lot bigger information units with enter from a whole bunch of college members who assessment the exams and advocate scoring distributions based mostly on their college students’ efficiency in comparable faculty lessons.

In an interview with Inside Greater Ed, Trevor Packer, head of the AP program, stated the Faculty Board had been seeking to revamp its scoring course of for years however solely developed the capability for the brand new methodology after 2019, when it launched AP Classroom, a digital platform for course supplies that instructors can use to trace pupil progress and administer observe exams. That allowed the Faculty Board to collect massive quantities of metadata evaluating pupil examination efficiency to grades in AP lessons, Packer stated, and undertake what he known as “a extra scientific, data-focused methodology.”

“[EBSS] guards in opposition to variations in panelists as a result of it retains the requirements tied to particular expertise and content material information demonstrations that we will keep over time,” he stated. “It additionally received’t fluctuate in response to faculty grade inflation.”

In 2022 and 2023, the Faculty Board used each its conventional panel-setting course of and the brand new EBSS methodology facet by facet to check scoring outcomes; when the 2 have been at odds, officers relied on the EBSS rating, in response to a Faculty Board spokesperson. This yr they switched the overwhelming majority of AP assessments to EBSS solely; 5 remaining exams proceed to make use of requirements set by panels however will transition to EBSS within the close to future.

The change in score-setting methodology explains a big improve in common pupil scores on many AP exams over the previous few years, which have led to headlines like “Are AP Exams Getting Simpler?” and infected issues that the Faculty Board is implementing much less rigorous scoring insurance policies to broaden the attraction of AP programs.

Packer stated the rise in common rating distribution for some AP exams is definitely a course correction for topics that had lengthy lagged behind others by way of the coed success fee—the variety of check takers who earn a minimum of a 3, the minimal rating most schools require to grant tutorial credit score. He stated the objective was to deliver all exams to between a 60 and 80 p.c success fee.

“We might by no means place this as a recalibration … these AP scores have moved round for many years,” Packer stated. “We’re utilizing proof and information to place scores the place they need to be.”

Not everybody within the AP group is on board. John Moscatiello, a highschool instructor in New Jersey and founding father of Marco Studying, an organization that helps college districts constructing AP and literacy applications, dubbed the scoring shift “the Nice Recalibration” in a essential weblog submit (and accompanying TikTok posts) that has made the rounds in AP instructor Fb teams and admissions blogs. He stated that even after seeing the official clarification on Monday, he’s unclear on how the scoring change is a response to goal information.

“This doesn’t appear to be reasoning your approach to a conclusion based mostly on proof; it looks like rationalizing your approach to a foregone conclusion,” Moscatiello stated. “It could be that that is the proper factor to do, and that scores have been misaligned for years, however I feel there are legit doubts about this methodology and why it all the time appears to provide the identical results of sustaining and elevating scores fairly than decreasing them.”

Swinging Requirements

Because the Faculty Board started implementing EBSS in 2022, 9 AP exams have seen vital will increase in pupil success charges: AP Literature, U.S. Historical past, U.S. Authorities, World Historical past, European Historical past, Macroeconomics and Microeconomics, and two science assessments, AP Biology and Chemistry.

For a few of these programs, the upward swing has been so sudden and steep that it’s raised eyebrows amongst observers throughout increased training. Rating distributions earlier than 2022 aren’t accessible through the Faculty Board’s webpage, which incorporates hyperlinks to scores for 2023 and 2024. However the information is nonetheless accessible on PDFs that have been at one time posted to the Faculty Board web site, which will be discovered via a easy Google search.

The success fee for AP English Literature, for instance, skyrocketed the yr officers switched to EBSS, from 43.9 p.c in 2021 to 77.9 p.c in 2022. For AP U.S. Historical past, the success fee elevated by 16.7 proportion factors in 2024, the primary yr EBSS was used; charges for AP Chemistry went up by 21 proportion factors between 2022 and 2023, additionally the primary yr EBSS scoring was launched in that topic.

The adjustments are putting on the particular person rating stage, too. In 2021 12 p.c of scholars earned a 4 on their AP English Literature examination, and fewer than 5 p.c earned a 5; the subsequent yr, in the course of the EBSS pilot, 27 p.c earned 4s and 16 p.c earned 5s. The inverse is true on the opposite finish of the size: 22.5 p.c of scholars earned a 1 on their AP Chemistry examination in 2022, however when EBSS was utilized the next yr, that quantity fell to only 8 p.c.

Packer stated scoring for such programs has all the time been extra variable than for the opposite 26 AP exams on supply.

“In most AP topics, that success fee has usually been between 60 and 80 p.c. However in these 9 primarily humanities topics, that’s been rather more risky … English [Literature], for instance, has ranged from a 70 p.c success fee to down within the 40s,” he stated. “These have been defensible methodologies and scores, however the variation was arduous to elucidate—we had a tough time explaining it to ourselves, not to mention to academics and college.”

Packer stated he thought of the chance that an explosion in AP check takers had led to a lower in common scores: from 2012 to 2022, the variety of excessive schoolers taking AP lessons grew by practically 220,000. However the EBSS evaluation didn’t bear that out, Packer stated.

“There’s no indication that AP inhabitants development has watered down college students’ skill to attain 3 or higher,” he stated. “I want that was the case—that AP was so broadly accessible now, and all college students going to school are taking AP, so you might be seeing a a lot lower-ability inhabitants. That’s simply not what the info present.”

Somewhat, it appeared the panel standard-setting course of itself was responsible for the decline, which Packer stated could possibly be because of the extra subjective nature of these programs.

“I’ve my very own speculation that faculty curriculum is much less constant throughout humanities disciplines than it might be in STEM disciplines,” Packer stated. “Perhaps that’s the reason the panel-based methodology was extra topic to variation over time, as panelists modified and introduced their very own establishments’ extra distinctive views to bear.”

Some faculty admissions leaders have supported the scoring shift regardless of the sudden hike in success charges. Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions and monetary help on the Massachusetts Institute of Expertise, stated he noticed no purpose to vary how MIT considers AP check leads to admissions selections or in granting faculty credit score.

“I’ve talked with Faculty Board workers in regards to the updates to the scoring requirements and really feel assured that the requirements are applicable and aligned with pupil efficiency in faculty lessons,” he wrote in an e mail to Inside Greater Ed.

Of the 5 hottest AP programs on supply, 4 noticed their success charges surge after EBSS implementation; the opposite, AP English Language and Composition, has but to maneuver to EBSS. That has raised issues that the Faculty Board’s true motives are to broaden the attraction of its fastest-growing AP choices by making it simpler to earn faculty credit score. Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment administration at Oregon State College and a vocal critic of the Faculty Board, known as the scoring shift “a callous try and generate extra income.”

“I’m very involved about successfully passing college students out of entry-level lessons and getting them positioned into extra superior lessons they may not be prepared for,” he wrote in an e mail. “For a corporation that claims to be student-focused, [the College Board] appears to be fully oblivious to the downstream results of their enterprise and income enhancement selections.”

Packer was adamant that the scoring adjustments don’t have anything to do with growing AP course enrollment.

“If the info steered we wanted to drop the scores, as panels have achieved prior to now, then we’d have … Now, we’ve proof saying the scores needs to be increased in these 9 topics, so we increase them,” he stated. “Self-interest is under no circumstances our motivation, as some might declare.”

Who’s within the Know?

Whereas the Faculty Board started utilizing EBSS to set AP check scores in 2022, as lately as Might 27 its webpage on scoring solely talked about the standard panel course of, in response to archived variations of the location on the Wayback Machine.

Packer stated the adjustments have been communicated to school admissions leaders, college and highschool academics as they occurred over the previous two years, in “1000’s of briefings” with Faculty Board workers and in supplies given to AP readers.

“Our precedence has been speaking in regards to the standards-setting course of and rating adjustments with the upper ed and AP communities … We do that as a matter of transparency and precept,” he stated.

However many AP academics and admissions professionals are solely simply turning into conscious of the adjustments and have stated they really feel blindsided by the late discover. In non-public Fb teams for AP highschool academics that Inside Greater Ed was given entry to, instructors reacted with a mixture of confusion and shock to the information. Some indicated they’d been vaguely conscious of adjustments in scoring over the previous few years, however many have been nonplussed by the main points.

“I’m a highschool instructor. I’m at these conferences and briefings they offer; I do know many different AP academics who’ve been, too,” Moscatiello stated. “We knew usually that AP exams can be recalibrated, however virtually all of us are stunned by this new methodology.”

Wednesday was the beginning of the annual AP convention in Las Vegas. Packer informed Inside Greater Ed he wasn’t certain he wanted to handle the rating adjustments; he believes the Faculty Board has been clear with increased ed leaders and highschool academics and is much less anxious about informing these within the test-prep enterprise. Moreover, he has extra pressing information to share, just like the AP’s impending digitization, which he stated he deliberate to announce in his opening plenary at the moment.

Moscatiello, the highschool counselor, can also be attending the convention, the place he’ll current a panel on AI in Superior Placement. He stated he’s gotten such an outpouring of curiosity within the new AP scoring course of that he plans to dedicate a part of the session to discussing it.

“We weren’t given sufficient readability about what’s going to find yourself altering how tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in faculty credit score is awarded yearly,” he stated. “Hopefully that can change quickly.”