Impending Significant Change in AP Tests

marite
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:37:34 +0000

True standardization is only happening if everyone is taking AP exams and schools are getting similar distributions of scores. I think there is a lot of “AP packaging” and not a lot of “AP achievement” going on…



This is misunderstanding the meaning of standardization. The curriculum is standardized and thus enables colleges to evaluate applicants from all over the country and from wildly different schools using the same yardstick–scores- and knowing that said scores reflect the degree of mastery of a particular set of materials. This is unlike GPAs which reflect very different grading practices for courses whose contents colleges are mostly unfamiliar with (what did students in different schools read for Senior English? for instance? How much writing was there…)
Standardization of outcome (similar distribution of scores) would necessitate standardization of students and teachers. I don’t think it’s going to happen. :)