AP and the Call for Grace

With special focus on the question of curves, retakes, extensions and open-note tests

I teach at a high-performing high school where site and district leaders, for the second year in a row, have called on teachers to show their students “grace.”

If your site and district leaders were to encourage you to show grace, what would that mean to you?

Below, how various education bloggers have answered that question.

• Grace means not doing anything different until your site and district leaders offer specific guidance or suggestions.
• Grace means giving students second (and third, and fourth) chances.
• Grace means curving AP Classroom tests to reflect the green and yellow coded bar system appearing on AP Classroom.
• Grace means choosing to be in a good mood every day and, if that’s ever beyond you, owning that fact and apologizing to your students.
• Grace means making an effort to remember students may carry a burden unknown to you, and thus giving them the benefit of kindness.
• Grace means continually training yourself to look for and celebrate the best in each of your students.
• Grace means confronting a student who is oppositional or infringes on another’s ability to learn with patience and a restorative approach.
• Grace means giving your students increased freedom to learn at their own pace, in their own place, and at their own time.
• Grace means giving those who want to excel and move beyond what they need.
• Grace means giving those who need a break what they need.
• Grace means believing in your students as they would like to believe in themselves.
• Grace means providing your students with as many opportunities as possible to understand and apply what they have learned.
• Grace means doing what you can to help students get through their challenges rather than simply holding them accountable.
• Grace means providing students with more support, more time.
• Grace means helping students be responsible in a different way.
• Grace means displaying consistently (to paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald) an irresistible prejudice in your students' favor.

After hearing from dozens of AP teachers on the question of grace, the majority I’ve heard from say that grace means not doing anything different unless admins “tells us to do something different and even then, I probably wouldn’t — there’s no place for grace in AP.”

SIDENOTE:

There’s an especially wide range of opinions when it comes to the question of whether AP teachers should, in the name of grace, implement curves and allow retakes, open-note tests, and extensions.

Talk of curves, more so than talk of retakes, extensions, and open-note exams, often grows heated.

I believe in curves, with my MCQ, SAQ, LEQ, and DBQ curves appearing below, along with some additional information I think students should find of value.

A colleague of mine whose judgment I respect tremendously views the above as “grade inflation.”

I view the not-applying-of-a-curve as an AP teacher's way of supersizing their course (aka placing it on academic steroids and thus making students work harder than they need to work in order to pass the May exam). Not fair!

“Curve schmerve,” said an AP teacher in response.

Below, how others have weighed in.

“At your school, APUSH students earn an additional credit point for taking the class, so the class is already weighted. Your curve allows students to double benefit from taking AP. Talk about unfair.

“I had a mentor one time who told me to keep the rigor and standards on the tests, curve the grade. That way they learn the expectations, but it doesn’t kill their average.”

No curve on m/ch. I want their class grade to reflect their ability to perform on the actual test. On the other hand I do curve FRQs. Earn half the points = 75.

No one should curve after a unit test. The May exam is testing the entire content of the course. My tests are only chapter or at most one unit tests. They shouldn’t need a curve, or not much of one.

I curve. An 85%+ is a 4. 75–84% is a 3. 65–74 is a 2. Everything else is a 1. They can also redo/retake every test… ultimately my goal is for kids to care less about their grade and more about learning and making progress over time.

Everyone should curve, IMO, to the same degree as they doing on the actual exam.

I only curve the frqs: 6/6 95–100, 5/6 85 4/6 80 3/6 75 2/6 70 1/6 60

My interpretation of the green and yellow color bars comes from dialogue with experienced teachers. It’s not an official description provided by the AP Program itself.

As for the question of retakes, extensions, and open-note tests, I will on occasion, though not the biggest fan.