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Proposed policy would restrict use of AP scores

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High school teachers in Poway Unified will likely face significant new restrictions next school year limiting how they can use scores from Advanced Placement exams to determine grades in AP classes.

The new set of restrictions, which were presented to the Poway Unified school board Monday night, were prompted by a controversial policy at Westview High School that gives students in AP classes an automatic “A” if they get a high score on the AP exam — no matter what their grade was before the exam. Students and parents at other Poway Unified high schools, where such a policy is not in place, have argued that such a policy creates severe inequality when it comes to college admissions.

While the new policy would not totally eliminate the use of AP exam scores in determining class grades, the new policy would prevent teachers from using AP scores as the sole factor in a student’s grade, prohibit schools from adopting campus-wide policies regarding grades in AP classes, and stipulate that a grade could only be increased one level, from a “C” to a “B” or from a “B” to an “A.”

While members of the school board said they would have preferred a new policy that did not feel like such an unsatisfying compromise, four members of the five-member board indicated that they would be willing to approve this policy at next month’s board meeting on June 27. The policy would take effect when the new school year begins this August.

Kevin Skelly, a Poway Unified assistant superintendent who met with teachers and administrators this spring to hammer out the policy, conceded to the board that it was virtually impossible to achieve consensus among the committee staffers.

“Many teachers want a policy saying that AP scores should never be used as a factor,” Skelly said. Board member Steve McMillan took a similar stance Monday night, urging his colleagues to outlaw the practice.

But Skelly noted that the state education code allows teachers great discretion in determining grades, and he said the “district office should not be dictating to teachers.”

Skelly said the policy would only be temporary, and that after studying its effects the board could tweak it in fall 2006.

The policy would allow teachers to use AP scores as a tie-breaker for students with grades bordering between A and B or B and C. They could also use AP scores as “a specified addition” to a student’s grade, or teachers could consider the AP grade as a specific percentage of the overall grade.

However, the proposed policy is extremely clear that scores on AP exams should not carry too much weight. “If used, the AP score will be one factor, but not the primary or sole factor in determining a student’s grade in an AP course,” the policy states.

The policy would also outlaw another common practice at Westview, changing grades from pre-requisite courses based on AP scores. Teachers at Westview have been changing grades in courses like precalculus if students score well on the AP Calculus exam many months later.

Board Member Jeff Mangum initially asked district staff to search for a policy that could garner greater consensus, but Superintendent Don Phillips said that time is of the essence because summer is coming.

Mangum eventually called the policy “inherently imperfect,” and Board Member Penny Ranftle called the new policy “a reasonable compromise.”

Mangum also noted that the controversy has stirred up much anger and emotion at local high schools. “I have never seen this kind of division among schools in the PUSD,” he said.

And Jonathan Wong from Mt. Carmel High, who serves as a student representative on the school board, said that such a noncommittal policy might make people even more angry and widen the gap.

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