Preview this article: Opinion: Going APE: Reading the Advanced Placement Examination in English Composition and Literature, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ce/43/3/collegeenglish13814-1.gif

IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DIFFICULT FOR ME to become enthusiastic about credit-by-testing programs. Perhaps because I've never done that well on standardized tests myself. Perhaps because I distrust the self-interest and power of credit-giving conglomerates. Perhaps because I see nationwide as a threat to my own job security (such as it is). Perhaps because testing, testing embodies the sort of dehumanized, regimental process that so much of literature warns against. So I admit that when I was initially appointed to be a Reader for the Advanced Placement Examination (APE) in English Composition and Literature, I had many reservations. However, at the time I remember advising myself to be realistic. The phenomenal success of credit-by-examination programs argued for their increasing influence on the direction of education in the future. I did not want forever to be accused of being out of step with the realities of our modern technological society. And so in 1978 I became a Reader of the free-response section of the APE. I have now been an APE Reader for three years, and, as I write, I have recently returned from the week-long summer grading at Rider College. What I am writing here is my own resignation from the process. APE is the child of the College Entrance Examination Board delivered by the Educational Testing Service. Although English is by far the largest, the AP examination is offered in thirteen fields. The sure growth of the program can be observed in the facts that in 1956, eighty readers scored 2,199 essay examinations, while in

Preview this article: Uptaught Rethought-Coming Back from the "Knockout", Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ce/40/1/collegeenglish16133-1.gif