Central Catholic Teachers Selected as AP Test Readers
Five Advanced Placement (AP) teachers from Central Catholic High School have been selected by the College Board to serve as AP readers this summer. An AP reader is a teacher or college faculty member who participates in the annual AP reading event to evaluate and score student responses on Advanced Placement exams in the subjects that they teach, ensuring accurate college-level assessment.
These teachers go through specific training before reading the tests. A comprehensive rubric is developed by the exam leaders, and teachers are trained on that rubric. The emphasis is on whether the students display a deep enough understanding of the concept being tested, and they review specific vocabulary and key ideas. Over 250,000 students may take each exam, so readers are trained in the various ways the students might answer the specific question, and still show understanding. They also grade sample responses for training and calibration before they start grading on their own.
Patrice Brock, a science teacher at Central Catholic, will be working as an AP Biology reader. This will be her eighth year reading AP exams. She will also serve as a table leader for the second time, which means she has extensive training on the scoring guidelines and will monitor the work of other readers, periodically reviewing the scoring of exams to ensure consistency and accuracy. Stan Sylak (Class of 2006) will be serving as an AP Government reader for the fifth time. Teachers who will be serving as AP readers for the first time this year are Mallory Lenhart, Logan Lorenzen, and Abbey Stone.
Lorenzen (Class of 2012) will be serving as a reader for AP Seminar, a class that teaches students how to find and use evidence from experts, and how to present the case from their own perspective effectively, both through writing and multimedia presentations. “I think grading will give me a deeper understanding of how the College Board evaluates student work,” he explained. “As a teacher, I’m always looking for ways to improve how I prepare my students, and being on the inside of the scoring process seemed like a great opportunity to learn more.
“I hope to gain insight into the nuances of the scoring rubrics and how different components of the performance tasks are weighed. I also want to see a wide range of student work from across the country, which I think will give me a better sense of what’s possible and what common struggles students face. I think this experience will help me be more intentional and clearer when guiding students through their tasks as I teach my AP classes. I’ll be able to explain the expectations more confidently and give feedback that is more aligned with how the actual scorers think. It’s going to sharpen my instruction and benefit my students moving forward.”
Lenhart will be grading for AP US History. “Many of our veteran AP teachers have told me that being a reader is one of the best ways to improve your teaching strategies,” she said. “I hope to gain more confidence in my own teaching and in grading. The written portion of the course can be really challenging! I also hope to meet some other veteran APUSH teachers and to pick their brains about their trusted methods of teaching the class. I do think that being a grader will change a lot about my approach and will give me more insight into best practices.”
Stone will be grading AP Computer Science Principles. “I attended the AP conference last summer, and they spoke highly of this experience,” she said. “I hope to gain a deeper understanding of the course coding task and written response expectations, which will help with my teaching in the future.”
“This is a great honor and opportunity for our teachers, and some of the best professional development they can get to make our students even better and more college-ready,” said CCHS Principal Morgan Connors (Class of 2011). “Central Catholic continues to have a robust, comprehensive, accessible, supportive, and high-achieving Advanced Placement (AP) program for our students.”
“I believe every AP teacher would benefit from this experience,” said Brock. “Being able to talk to the people who write the test questions, participating in the actual grading of exams, and spending time with dedicated professionals has been one of the richest professional development experiences of my career.”
