The Validity of the Advanced Placement English Language and Composition Examination

Abstract

FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS the College Board has offered Advanced Placement examinations in various subjects to well-prepared secondary school students. The purpose of the Advanced Placement Program has been to foster the teaching of college-level courses in high school and to provide a means for the achievements of students in such courses to be recognized by the colleges they later attend. The examinations rely in varying degrees on essays or free-response questions in addition to multiplechoice questions. In June of each year, the essays are read by college and secondary school teachers at a central scoring session supervised by Educational Testing Service (ETS). The essay scores are added to the multiple-choice scores (with appropriate weighting) and the students' AP grades (5 [high], 4, 3, 2, 1 [low]) are then determined by the Chief Readers for the respective subjects.' In May 1980 a new Advanced Placement examination in English Language and Composition was offered to secondary school students. Developed by the same committee of college and secondary school English teachers that has developed the parallel AP English examination in Composition and Literature, it was intended for those students whose preparation has been chiefly in composition rather than in the study of poetry and imaginative prose literature. Both examinations consist of one hour of multiple-choice questions and two hours of essay writing, and in 1980 they shared a common subset of multiple-choice questions testing analytical reading and a common essay question. The new examination in language and composition is in-