Scoring AP Essays and AP Reading May 2008

Contributing Readers Cynthia Tong Jim Petersen Amy Perruso Carrie Sato AP World History: teacher, Reader Jim Petersen AP European History: teacher, AP Administrator Amy Perruso AP U.S. History, AP Government: teacher, Reader Carrie Sato AP European History: teacher, Reader Kim Clissold Ane Lindveldt: AP World History: teacher, Table Leader

Writing Rules MUST be in ink, preferably black or dark blue MUST be in English MUST be in essay format – no outlines, webs, bullets, lists MUST be on white pages of pink response booklet

Writing Tips Memorize the scoring rubric Understand the question Thesis MUST answer the question Quality is far more important than quantity DON’T skip lines, underline the thesis, or draw pictures

General Scoring Guidelines World History essays are scored on “Core Scoring” for all essays European History has “Core Scoring” ONLY for the DBQ U.S. History and Government and Politics essays do not have “Core Scoring” Readers always look for ways to give points Readers do NOT deduct points for bad spelling, grammar, or handwriting

General Scoring Guidelines The order in which you write the essays doesn’t matter to Readers Readers generally ignore “wacky” history. If you write something brilliant in one sentence but the next sentence is really awful, Readers try to give points for the first sentence and ignore the next sentence.

What You Should Know… Scoring rubric is based on a sampling from actual essays completed Readers are trained, standardized, and re-standardized. Every essay has the potential to be scored by five different readers Reader, Peer Reader, Table Leader, Question Leader, Chief Reader

What You Should Know… Multiple efforts will be made to read tiny or bad handwriting Readers are 50% college professors and 50% high school teachers of the course at almost every table Table Leaders “back-read” essays to check for standardization

Go to the Reading!

AP Reading – Why Do It? BEST professional development on the essays for teachers Collegiality with… professors who wrote the texts teachers who teach the course worldwide question leaders who write the questions Student scores improve

AP Reading Last week of May through mid-June Eight (8) continuous days, 8 hours a day with breaks and lunch Several locations with one to three subjects scored in a single location College Board pays airfare, transportation, room and board. Readers receive a stipend.

AP Reading Readers grouped by tables Two tables to an area with two Table Leaders

AP Reading Essays shipped in cartons to Reading site Paid helpers sort and stack essays and input essay scores Essays rotate around site to different groups of Readers

Eligibility Actively teaching the course Have taught the course for three years or more Complete the Reader Application on the College Board site