Will test gimmick backfire?

Some school administrators and teachers at Potomac High School in Maryland might be trying to improve abysmal test scores by gaming the exam.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses offered at the Potomac High School have proven to be too difficult for the students taking them, according to a recent article in The Washington Post. According to county records, over the past 3 years 301 tests have been administered and none of the students managed to pass the test.

AP classes and their subsequent proficiency tests are offered to schools across the nation to give excelling students the opportunity to earn college credit while in high school. The test is graded on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the highest level of proficiency. Most colleges only accept scores of 3 or above.

According to the article, Sandra Nelson, Principal of the 1,400 student school, welcomes testing and diploma requirements: “She [Nelson] ….said efforts to help students meet Maryland diploma requirements that start with the class of 2009, including state exams for foundation courses….should pay dividends in AP scores.”

This school seems to be in desperate need for this kind of a change. Most students taking the AP tests are scoring the worst rating possible, according to The Washington Post. “Last year, 59 of 60 tests at Potomac drew a score of 1, the lowest on the 5-point scale.”

At least one teacher at the high school has vowed to change this dismal trend. The Post mentions Christopher Budano, an AP U.S. History teacher who bribed qualifying students with treats and gifts to get them to enroll in his course, “He plied them with homemade snickerdoodles and brownies. He gave each a thick reference book on presidents as a winter holiday gift,” notes the Post article.

Once in the class, however, it is unclear if his teaching will improve the bleak test score trend. The Post cited one example of the teacher’s coaching in which he told one student who was confused over the difference between Theodore and Franklin Delano Roosevelt to simply, “Just write Roosevelt,” explaining that big factual mistakes, such as that one, could lead to huge test score reductions. Apparently, learning the difference comes second to fooling the test graders.

Perhaps the real problem is that students accepted into the classes are not prepared for excelled course study, suggests the article. The executive director of the AP program affirmed that “courses taken before an AP class are crucial to students’ success.”

If this is the case, Principal Nelson’s hopes for an improvement in scores due to state and national standardized tests that target basic skills might be the student’s best chance of success.

Rosemarie Capozzi is an intern with Accuracy in Academia.