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The Advanced Placement History Test: What does it Say to Historians?
Robert M. Saunders In early May approximately 140,000 high school students took the three hour Advanced Placement United States history test. Many colleges give credit for those who do reasonably well on the test. A few weeks later more than 500 high school history teachers and college professors trekked to San Antonio, Texas to grade the written component of the test which consists of two essay questions and the vaunted document based question (DBQ) that asks students to analyze and synthesize about eight documents into a coherent essay. Given the fact that the Advanced Placement courses are highly selective and that the tests are administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), America's most prestigious educational testing institution, one would expect the performance level on the test to be quite high. However, based on my experience as an AP reader, most of the essays are disappointing, if not downright dismal. How can one account for the yawning gap between the obvious ability of the students and the generally poor performance on the written portion of the AP United States history test? Test anxiety and the fact that the exam covers a year's worth of academic work rather than the normal one semester may account for some decline in performance. But based on my observations after grading hundreds of the essays and DBQ questions over a two year period, the explanation goes much deeper. |
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