GHS teacher grades AP exams in Daytona

Gaffney High English teacher Rick Hopping will spend the last week of school in Daytona Beach, Fla., grading Advanced Placement exams.

Hopping has been selected to serve as a reader at the College Board's 2006 AP English Literature Reading in Florida. College English professors and AP teachers will spend June 2-8 at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach reading essay questions written by high school students.

Students take Advanced Placement exams in an attempt to receive college credit. Exams are scored on a 1 to 5 scale with most colleges giving college credit when students score higher than a 3 on an Advanced Placement exam.

The exams taken most often this past year were English Literature and Composition, English Language and Composition, Calculus AB and Biology, and U.S. History.

Hopping has been teaching Advanced Placement English for the past 10 years. This marked the first time he had applied to become an AP reader.

He is among 8,000 college professors and high school AP teachers nationwide who will be involved in scoring exams in 20 subject areas over the next month.

"I'm looking forward to it," Hopping said. "It's a good opportunity to meet new people and gain new ideas for teaching English."

The Education Testing Service pays each AP Reader a stipend of $1,450.

Hopping and the other AP readers will receive training in the consistent application of scoring standards and using those standards to score student responses. They will interact with members of the AP Development Committee responsible for revising the AP English Literature exam.

There is an opportunity for AP readers to discuss student achievement, testing, and teaching strategies with other college and AP high school teachers, Hopping said.

Each reader receives 4.7 continuing education units towards maintaining their teacher certification.

The College Board expects AP readers will grade 2.2 million AP exams in 20 subject areas. With the exception of Studio Art, all exams have multiple choice and essay questions.

"The program's acknowledged success is due to an evaluation and scoring process that reflects the high standards of faculty members, who by virtue of their experience and expertise, have appropriate student performance expectations within their respective disciplines," Advanced Placement Program Executive Director Trevor Packer wrote in a recent letter to Hopping.

Daytona Beach is one of six sites where AP exams will be scored and evaluated over the next month. Other sites include Clemson University, The College of New Jersey, Colorado State University, Trinity University in Texas and the University of Nebraska.