More than 11,000 College and High School Faculty Convene to Score More than 4 Million College-Level AP® Exams This Month

NEW YORK — Last month, students at more than 18,000 high schools completed over four million college-level AP® Exams in 34 subject areas ranging from math and science to history and world languages. Over the next two weeks, more than 11,000 college faculty and high school AP teachers from across the United States and abroad will convene at a unique annual event to evaluate and score those exams and to help ensure that AP scores reported to thousands of colleges and universities accurately represent students’ college-level achievement. This event, known as the AP Reading, has been taking place for more than 40 years and is the only event of its kind in the United States. AP Reading sites for 2013 are the Kentucky International Convention Center (Louisville, KY); the Kansas City Convention Center (Kansas City, MO); the Duke Energy Convention Center (Cincinnati, OH); and the Salt Lake Palace Convention Center (Salt Lake City, UT).

 “Bringing top college faculty together with the finest AP teachers enables both groups to share their expertise and learn from one another, while at the same time ensuring that students receive a fair and consistent assessment of their work on AP Exams,” said Trevor Packer, senior vice president of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board. “The AP Readings are the culmination of the AP course and exam development process — created to bridge the divide between what is being taught in high schools and what is expected at the college level.”

While the multiple-choice sections of AP Exams are scored by computer, the free-response sections require the expertise of AP Readers, who score these sections using standards established by college and university faculty who teach the corresponding college course.

Each year, the pool of AP Readers is chosen to ensure a balanced representation of educational institutions, geography and years of teaching experience. While the majority of AP Readers are based in the U.S., educators from as far away as Argentina, Germany and Thailand will participate in this year’s event. Travel and other expenses associated with the AP Reading are covered by the College Board, which also provides an honorarium for each AP Reader. Readers can also earn certificates for professional development hours and continuing education units for their participation.

“It's a wonderful feeling to be part of a team working collaboratively toward a common and important goal: scoring AP Exams,” said Allan Rossman, professor of statistics at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and Chief Reader for the AP Statistics Reading. “I learn a lot from AP teachers and from reading student responses to exam questions. In many ways, I believe that the AP Statistics program has provided a model course for colleges and universities to live up to with our introductory courses.”

In addition to the unique professional development experience offered by the AP Reading, participants have the opportunity to attend special evening programs with celebrated scholars and authors. Among those scheduled to attend the 2013 AP Reading are: Karl Drlica, a principal investigator at the Public Health Research Institute and professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey; Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations and history at Boston University and a 2004 Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin; and Amitav Ghosh, an international best-selling author and finalist for the Man Booker Prize.

For many AP Readers, the interaction with fellow educators keeps them coming back year after year.

 “I can say without a doubt that having participated in the AP Reading has made me grow as a teacher,” said Dolores Gende, AP Physics Reader from Parish Episcopal School in Dallas. “The opportunity to gather with teachers and professors from all around the country to share resources, bounce ideas off one another for demos and lessons, and discuss the best ways to enhance the learning opportunities of our students is invaluable.”    

Research consistently shows that students who earn placement into advanced college courses through their AP Exam scores perform as well as — or better than — college students who first completed the introductory course at a college or university. In fact, students who succeed on AP Exams during high school typically experience greater overall academic success in college, and are more likely than their non-AP peers to graduate from college and to graduate on time, experiencing lower college costs than the majority of American college students.

Last year, 3,308 U.S. colleges and universities received AP scores for college credit, advanced placement and/or consideration in the admission process, with 95 percent of those colleges and universities offering credit in one or more subjects based on an AP Exam score of 3 or higher on a five-point scale.

A complete schedule for the AP Reading is below. For more information about the AP Reading — including details on the evaluation and scoring process — or to schedule a visit to the AP Reading, please contact the College Board Communications department at 212-713-8052 or [email protected].  

2013 AP Reading Schedule

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About the Advanced Placement Program®

The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) enables willing and academically prepared students to pursue college-level studies — with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement or both — while still in high school. Through AP courses in 34 subjects, each culminating in a rigorous exam, students learn to think critically, construct solid arguments and see many sides of an issue — skills that prepare them for college and beyond. Taking AP courses demonstrates to college admission officers that students have sought the most rigorous curriculum available to them, and research indicates that students who score a 3 or higher on an AP Exam typically experience greater academic success in college and are more likely to earn a college degree than non-AP students. Each AP teacher’s syllabus is evaluated and approved by faculty from some of the nation’s leading colleges and universities, and AP Exams are developed and scored by college faculty and experienced AP teachers. Most four-year colleges and universities in the United States grant credit, advanced placement or both on the basis of successful AP Exam scores — more than 3,600 institutions worldwide annually receive AP scores. In the last decade, participation in the AP Program has more than doubled and graduates succeeding on AP Exams have nearly doubled. In May 2013, more than 2 million students representing more than 18,000 high schools around the world, both public and nonpublic, took approximately 4 million AP Exams.