1: New data from @CollegeBoard indicates a significant decline in the total number of #APExams administered in 2021. Will the pandemic kill off the AP program? A thread by our founder @HookedonJohnics.
2: Standardized tests and state assessments are not only being canceled, they are being CANCELED. Are these tests engines of inequity? What purpose do they really serve? Wouldn’t we better off without any standardized tests at all?
3: The AP (Advanced Placement) program is more than a standardized test: it’s a year-long program supported by teachers and professors who write the exams and grade them. Millions of students have skipped college requirements and earned credits through high scores on AP Exams.
4: For more than a decade, the AP program has been the largest standardized testing program in history by far—larger than the SAT and ACT combined. 
5: On the eve of the pandemic, total AP Exam registrations had ballooned to 5,335,125 in spite of popular alternatives, such as dual enrollment courses, which allow students to earn college credits without the exam.
6: When schools closed in March 2020, the College Board shortened the tests and offered free cancellations. By summer 2020, 4,751,957 exams were administered. This retention of 93.2% (compared to 2019) was much higher than that of SAT or ACT in 2020. secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalService…
7: Over the past two weeks, @AP_Trevor from @CollegeBoard has been posting information about the 2021 AP scores in advance of the full release of scores on Wednesday, July 21: allaccess.collegeboard.org/topic/ap-2021-…
8: His posts show a dramatic decline in total AP exams in 2021 compared to 2019. (Note that this data DOES NOT INCLUDE the June 2021 #APExams and is therefore INCOMPLETE.)
9: To make the data more complete, let’s assume that 90% of all AP Exams were administered in May. This assumption is based on (unscientific) poll data from thousands of students. This is the data, assuming that 10% of 2021 exams were administered after May:
10: On the one hand, this is a significant decline from before the pandemic. It shows that the AP program has taken a serious hit during the past two years.
11: On the other hand, many of the largest AP Exams have retained more than 90% of their pre-pandemic numbers. This is much better than many other testing programs. If the pandemic were going to kill off the AP program, it probably would have needed to make a much deeper impact.
12: Even if the AP program were to continue to decline by a whopping 10% every single year for the next five years, it would still be the largest testing program in history and be as large as the AP program was about a decade ago.
13: But there is no indication that the program will decline by this degree in the coming years. As frustrating as digital exams were (and as exhausted as teachers and students are), the vast majority of AP programs remain unchanged at more than 20,000 high schools in the U.S.
14: Moreover, the AP program is deeply entrenched in American state legislatures in two ways. First, many states provide funding for AP Exams to low-income students as a matter of law.
15: Second, many states guarantee college credits at their public universities by law: fldoe.org/core/fileparse…
16: Most of the recent campaigns against standardized tests have been aimed at the SAT and ACT rather than the AP program. One reason is that the SAT and ACT are seen as increasing barriers to entry to college, while the AP program is not (in spite of other objections).
17: There are signs that the AP program will continue to grow. As school districts are flooded with money, they are investing in supporting and expanding AP programs. Tennessee just awarded $10M to the @NiswongerFound to expand access to AP in the state: tn.gov/education/news…
18: Similar initiatives are taking place in other states, such as @VHSLearning's program with Massachusetts: businesswire.com/news/home/2021…
19: Will the AP program survive the pandemic? It already has. For it to lose its dominance, state legislatures would need to rewrite their laws, school administrators would have to divest from the program, and dual enrollment would have to expand dramatically in its place.
20: All of these things can happen, but the College Board is doubling down in its efforts to expand and sustain the program. What do you think about the future of #APExams? /END OF THREAD
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
