School's out? Not quite yet for graders of essay tests

Last week, as Collier County teachers were preparing for the start of summer, Robert Topping was packing his bags and heading to college.

The Palmetto Ridge High School teacher was getting ready for a week of intense schedules, living in dorms and eating cafeteria food.

But Topping wasn’t going to Trinity University in San Antonio to relive his college experience; he was going to grade the Advanced Placement U.S. History essay tests, and he wasn’t alone.

This year about 8,000 teachers and professors will head to college campuses across the United States to grade the essay portion of the exam, said Trevor Packer, executive director of Advanced Placement programs.

“They love this because it is such a valuable experience,” Packer said of the teachers.

Topping has been grading the essays for three years, but said he almost turned around the first year he signed up. The idea of grading essays for 7¤½ hours a day didn’t instantly appeal to him, he said.

“I did it for the money initially, to be up front about it,” Topping said. “I actually considered getting back on the plane in Houston and coming home, but when I got there, it was pretty darn fun.”

Packer said some teachers describe the experience as being in summer camp.

“We eat in college dining rooms, we stay in the dorms, there’s guest speakers and socials,” Topping said. “You can go or not go; it’s up to the person to choose. (But) the experience itself is so much fun. I never find myself looking at my watch, wondering when I’ll be done.”

The participants, called readers, have so much fun, Packer said, that they are asked to retire after seven years to allow more teachers and professors the chance to grade the exams.

Teachers choose to return because of experience they gain through participating, Packer said. While the days are filled with reading exams, nights are filled with professional development seminars and a chance mingle with college professors.

It’s that time to meet others in his field that keeps Topping going back.

“(The teachers) find it a really valuable experience,” Packer said. “The high school teachers love to rub shoulders with the professors.”

But the weeklong grading period is more than just a chance for high school teachers to get to know their college counterparts. Educators are there to work and, with more students taking the tests, they are having to read and grade more tests in a short amount of time.

About 1.2 million students took more than 2.1 million AP exams in 2005, according to the College Board, the organization that administers the tests.

Topping said he graded about 900 essays last year.

Teachers must have three years’ experience teaching the Advanced Placement class they would like to grade, Topping said. And while teachers must go through a rigorous application process to prove they’re best suited to be a grader, Packer said many of the subjects have long waiting lists, so it could take years before they’re even able to grade.

Once chosen, teachers are trained and tests are calibrated at the grading site, Packer said. The readers’ performances are tracked, and often they are asked to regrade tests to prove they are grading tests the same way each time.

But teachers aren’t the only ones benefiting from becoming graders, Packer said.

In an uncorrelated study, the College Board found that students whose teacher grades the exams score slightly higher than those who don’t, Packer said.

Topping said he thinks the fact he’s graded the test for three years in a row has made him a better teacher.

“It’s kind of nerdy, but it reinvigorates you to teach your students,” he said. “It helps prepare me better for the next class. Knowing what the readers are looking for in the essays, I think it helps me prepare my students.”

Each of the 35 Advanced Placement exams has an essay portion of the test, and all of the essays are expected to be graded by the middle of June, Packer said. Students will begin getting their scores in the mail in early July, he said.