Raymond "Skip" Hyser and Uma Venkateswaran

This past June, over seven hundred college faculty and high school teachers gathered in San Antonio at Trinity University to grade over two hundred thousand essays from the Advanced Placement Program© (AP) United States History examination. This AP reading offers a unique opportunity for college faculty and high school teachers to collaborate and to help shape the teaching of U.S. history. We invite college faculty to participate in this week-long “summer retreat,” which combines rigorous grading by day with informal research, collegial discussions and academic collaboration in the evening.

The AP exam assesses students’ understanding of material covered in a college-level U.S. History survey course taught in high school. In 2001, just over 200,000 students took this three-hour long comprehensive final exam, which consists of multiple-choice and essay questions. Students must answer eighty multiple-choice questions that evaluate command of factual knowledge, historical concepts and the ability to interpret charts, maps and political cartoons. Students must also write three essays. One is a document-based question (DBQ), which requires candidates to construct their answer from an understanding of approximately eight brief documents and their historical knowledge of the time period. The DBQ is designed to test the student’s ability to analyze and evaluate documents and build an argument within a historical context. Students are also required to write two thematic essays that are similar to many college-level questions. The thematic essays require students to assess continuity and change over time as well as demonstrate historical knowledge and understanding. College professors and high school AP teachers evaluate these essays at the annual reading. As faculty play a major role in developing and applying consistent scoring standards their input is critical to the success of this program. (This year’s essay questions can be found at <http://cbweb2s.collegeboard.org/ap/pdf/ushist_01.pdf> .)

The atmosphere at the readings is collegial. All readers are housed in dormitories, and dine on campus. The reading is done in small groups (usually six to eight people at a table) in one of the campus buildings. The work of ranking essays is done in an eight-hour workday, beginning at 8:00 a.m. and concluding at 4:30 p.m. There is a steady diet of reading handwritten student essays and applying consistent standards to determine the score for each essay. Breaking up what could be tedious hours of reading essay answers to the same question are the one-hour lunchtime and mid-morning and afternoon breaks, usually involving food, beverage and the opportunity for conversation with fellow readers. Tables take shorter, “internal” breaks to stretch tired muscles, exchange jokes or the most notable student responses, or simply to chat. Such breaks keep readers fresh, and help promote the collegial ambience of the reading.

The readings provide a wonderful opportunity for college faculty to interact with dedicated, talented and motivated AP high school teachers who share the same love for teaching U.S. history. Within the small groups of readers at tables, grading standards are discussed, and common sample essays are read and ranked to establish consensus and consistency in scoring essays. High school teachers and college faculty contribute equally to this group exercise. Such group dynamics are integral to establishing consistent and fair grading practices for the essays. In addition to discussing standards and student essays, there are numerous occasions to share ideas about teaching U.S. history, to discuss new books (both scholarly and popular), to consider historical interpretations and to share comments about students and administrators. Such discussions can be interesting and thought provoking as well as provide a common bond regardless of background and experience. This exchange among teachers of U.S. history is one of the hallmarks of the AP reading.

After each day’s reading there are numerous opportunities to interact with other readers. Most evenings there are teaching and historical scholarship presentations and discussions. There are also numerous social functions planned throughout the week. Some readers have long talks over dinner, or visit downtown San Antonio in small groups. Out of this kindred spirit emerges the most pleasant aspect of any reading—the people. Many readers return year after year because of the friends they have made, and the new colleagues they will meet.

From a college faculty member’s perspective, participating in the reading after an intense academic year of grading papers and exams may seem hardly inviting and even unappealing. Yet, each year, several hundred high school teachers and college faculty return to the AP reading to make a contribution to the larger process of teaching U.S. history.

College faculty who read AP essays can benefit in many ways. Certainly the group work on ranking essays helps to sharpen grading skills and to establish a consistent evaluation standard that can be easily transferred to their own student essays. It can also provide a framework for training graduate students to grade. Reading week is a great atmosphere to discuss the study and teaching of U.S. history in a friendly environment. The interaction with other historians and high school teachers can lead to an exchange of historical information, teaching techniques and creative assignments that can enrich any classroom. In some instances AP readers have created scholarly conference sessions as well as collaborated on publications as a result of the annual reading. Furthermore, there is the prospect of making a pedagogical contribution to the historical profession that goes beyond your university. The opportunities to establish bridges with high school teachers and to help promote the teaching of American history abound. Finally, there is the involvement in a nationwide test to help shape the teaching and testing of U.S. history, particularly through completing surveys, commenting on essay questions and grading standards, and working closely with other educators. It gives college faculty the ability to help shape the teaching of U.S. history while also gauging the level of historical knowledge of prospective college students. All readers, of course, also receive an honorarium.

If you would like more information on being a reader, please contact Skip Hyser <hyserrm@jmu.edu> or Uma Venkateswaran <uvenkateswaran@ets.org>. If you would like to apply to be a faculty consultant (reader), go to: <http://www.collegeboard.org/ap/readers/apply.html>. For additional information about the AP U.S. History course and exam, please see <http://www.collegeboard.org/ap/history>.

Raymond Hyser is professor of history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Uma Venkateswaran is an Educational Testing Service Consultant at the College Entrance Examination Board in Princeton, New Jersey.