A retake date has been set for Monday, August 10, at which time the 44 South Colonie Central School District students whose Advanced Placement biology and physics exams were misplaced by the company that grades them will be given the opportunity to try again, according to Superintendent of Schools Jonathan Buhner.
Buhner explained that while the district has packaging slips that prove all of the materials were sent to Educational Testing Services in New Jersey, the company notified the district last week that answer sheets from 15 physics tests and 29 biology tests had gone missing. From the physics exam, the extended answer sheet was missing and from the biology exam the multiple choice answer sheet was missing.
The exams of every student who took either the biology or physics AP exam are missing, as opposed to only a portion of students’ exams, Buhner said. Buhner also said that from each exam, only some parts are missing.
According to Sheila Jamison, a representative from the College Board, this type of situation is very rare for ETS.
`As of July 27, searches by the school and ETS have not recovered the missing materials and an investigation by both parties is ongoing,` Jamison said in a written statement.
`ETS has reached out to the affected students to offer the options of either retaking the exam free of charge, or cancelling their exams and receiving refunds.`
But Buhner said it is untrue that this situation is rare for the company, which he said is unfortunately the only company school districts can turn to for the AP tests to be graded.
`[This situation] is new to the district,` he said. `But it’s not new to ETS. They lose tests.`
Buhner said ETS did offer to score those tests for which they have located the multiple choice answers portion of the test based on the multiple choice section alone, but many colleges and universities do not accept that score if it does not include the extended answer section.
The other option ETS presented is to waive the fee for a retake, typically $86, and allow each student to take the exam again.
Board of Education President Brian Casey said the district would feel obligated to bring teachers back in order to conduct a review for the students, who have been out of school for over a month, to refresh their memory for the exams.
While Casey said the district is not at fault in this situation, the district may be forced to absorb some of the costs of bringing the teachers in. Buhner said, while the exact cost is not known, it should cost `a few thousand` to do so.
Still, Casey said the district owes it to the students to give them a fair chance to do well on these tests and have their scores count toward college credits, which is what they are intended for.
`We owe it to them,` he said. `As a district, I believe we owe it to them.`
When asked what happens if the students do not score as high the second time as they did the first, Casey said he does not know, but that he is confident that the students are bright and that if they did well the first time, they will do well the second time.
Buhner said he hopes, should ETS find the exams after the students take the retake, that ETS will honor the students’ best scores.
The district plans to send letters out to all affected students on Wednesday, July 29, as well as personally call each student whose exam has gone missing.
Two teachers will be brought back for the reviews: one for physics and one for biology. The reviews will be conducted from Monday, Aug. 3 through Friday, Aug. 7. Buhner said that while this may not satisfy all students, with some having summer vacation plans, that for others the review can be helpful in preparing them for the exam.
By mid-August, one way or another, Buhner said each of the 44 students should have their grade and the district is prepared to write letters of explanation to the colleges or universities the students are planning to attend should they have any trouble explaining the situation.
As for the future, Buhner said the district has a plan in place for next year’s AP exams. Multiple administrators will be responsible for signing off on an invoice that will be placed in each package of testing materials, he said. That way, when ETS opens the packages, they know the materials have been checked several times over by the district and the responsibility is in their hands.
Buhner said this ultimately would make ETS more accountable.
For more on this story, check back at www.spotlightnews.com, or read the Wednesday, August 5 edition of the Colonie Spotlight.
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