Lost tests a blow to AP students

Raleigh Charter is state's only school with answers missing. Exam officials apologize but pass blame

Caitlin McDevitt spent hours each week studying and working with tutors for her Advanced Placement exams to get what she thought would be the payoff: college credit. But the Raleigh Charter High School student is instead getting apologies from the College Board, the nonprofit group that owns the AP exams, because her tests have disappeared.

Though many parents and students may not realize it, the College Board says 1,000 AP answer sheets are typically lost each year.

This year, they include five filled out by current and former Raleigh Charter students, who have three choices: retake the tests, get a refund or let the College Board project their scores.

"This is a terrible lesson for Caitlin to have to learn," said her father, Bob McDevitt. "The lesson is: Administrative accidents have consequences and, in this case, significant consequences. All the time spent taking Advanced Placement classes instead of some other course that had much less difficulty is for naught."

The College Board offers 37 AP exams in subjects such as biology, calculus and English. High school students usually enroll in AP courses before taking the exams in May that could give them college credit if they score high enough. The exams cost $82 each.

In May, students around the world took 2.3 million AP exams. In 2005, more than 34,000 North Carolina students took the tests.

"As long as you have 5 million pieces going through, there will always be some losses," said Jennifer Topiel, a spokeswoman for the College Board.

Trevor Packer, the College Board's executive director of the AP program, said parts of 1,500 AP exams were missing as of a few weeks ago. He said the Educational Testing Service, which scores the exams, would reduce that number by checking incorrectly filled answer sheets.

Packer said Raleigh Charter is the only school in North Carolina and one of 10 internationally from which answer sheets are still missing.

Packer didn't blame the College Board or the Educational Testing Service. He said the machines at the testing service's warehouse in New Jersey carefully weigh and account for all of the answer sheets.

He added that schools may forget to pack some answer sheets, or something may happen in transit. He said students may accidentally or deliberately take answer sheets home with them. He said many students improperly fill out the answer sheets.

But school officials say the answer sheets were properly accounted for, filled out and shipped.

"It's infuriating that they're blaming the kids," said Barbara Poe, whose son Rob is among the Raleigh Charter students whose tests are missing. "My son knows how to fill out the answer sheets."

Robert Schaeffer, public education director of Fair Test, a group that opposes excessive standardized testing, wasn't surprised that the College Board deflected the blame. Fair Test has consistently criticized the College Board for such problems as more than 4,000 SAT exams recently being scored too low.

"The attitude of the College Board and ETS is that the customer is always wrong," he said.

Students were told this month that their AP tests were missing.

Caitlin McDevitt decided to get a refund for her psychology exam.

The College Board was missing only part of Caitlin's chemistry exam, so she accepted its projected score of 3, which is passing, out of a possible 5.

Packer said it's possible to reliably project a student's score if part of the answers are there.

But Caitlin, 17, a senior, thinks she would have gotten a higher score if the rest of her exam had been found. The lower score means she won't get as much college credit as she would have liked. "I still learned a lot," she said. "But it's wasted in that I took the harder class and didn't have the college credit to show for it."

Rob Poe will retake the calculus and psychology exams in January if they aren't found. The Appalachian State University freshman won't get the credits he wants unless he does. He plans to spend his winter break cramming.

It has been several months since he took both AP classes, so his mother isn't optimistic. She anticipates paying $1,600 for a summer session at Appalachian in Boone.

Packer said it's fair to ask the students to retake the AP exams since they should retain their knowledge of the material.

Schaeffer said it would be more fair to let students know in June -- rather than September -- so the students could take them again while the material is still fresh.

Schaeffer also said students who will take AP exams in May have reason to be concerned. "The pattern of serious errors," he said, "should put every parent and test taker on alert if tests don't come back on time for them to press for answers."