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Most standardized tests - the SAT, the ACT - have been put on hold this spring. But one test is going forward. It's for high school students taking Advanced Placement courses. Because of the pandemic, the AP exams are going to look a lot different this year, and that's raising questions about fairness. From member station WBUR in Boston, Carrie Jung reports.
CARRIE JUNG, BYLINE: There's a lot at stake for students taking the AP exams, even in normal times. If you score high enough, you can earn college credit. It's also a big factor in college applications. But for some students, the idea of studying right now feels impossible.
ELISE: I'm constantly thinking about making sure that my family doesn't get sick and that I don't get sick.
JUNG: This is Elise. She's a high school junior outside Boston. We're not using her full name because she's worried that speaking out could hurt her college applications. Elise is concerned about the new test format. Instead of the three-hour, multiple-choice and essay-based exam she prepared for, it's now an online, 45-minute, open-response test.
ELISE: It just feels like I have, like, no idea what I'll get when I open up that test now.
JUNG: For other students, it's the idea of taking the test at home that's causing anxiety. Seventeen-year-old Kayleen Guzman from Boston says it's hard to find peace and quiet in her house right now.
KAYLEEN GUZMAN: Currently, it's me, my mom, my dog, my sister and my stepdad. Sometimes, you know, I feel like it's too much - like, so much chaos. So it's a lot.
JUNG: Guzman says she's glad she still has the opportunity to earn college credit. But it's still unclear exactly how much credit students will get from this year's test if they do decide to take it.
ANDREW HO: None of us would say that we are confident that a 3 or a 4 or a 5 on the AP exam this year means the exact same thing as a 3 or a 4 and a 5 on the exam last year.
JUNG: Andrew Ho studies the reliability of educational tests at Harvard University. He says this year's scores won't be measuring the same thing. The new test will cover less material. And changing where kids take it, from a proctored classroom to their laptops at home, is a big deal. But Ho adds...
HO: Just because it's not completely comparable doesn't mean that the colleges, through their own policies, couldn't adjust.
JUNG: So how will colleges adjust? Some schools, like the University of California system, have come out explicitly to say that they won't change the way they credit AP scores. Other colleges that didn't want to go on the record said that they are working on changing their policies.
In a statement, a spokesman for the College Board, which makes the AP exams, says the organization wanted to give motivated AP students the opportunity to earn college credit. He added that the group is, quote, "making a significant financial investment" to make the tests available online, from cheating prevention software to helping students who may not have an Internet connection or access to a computer. But some teachers worry that those efforts won't be enough.
SAVANNAH LODGE-SCHARFF: This situation has created a lot of distraction.
JUNG: Boston AP physics teacher Savannah Lodge-Scharff says a lot of students still have to juggle additional responsibilities at home.
LODGE-SCHARFF: So that's taking care of brothers and sisters. I have some of my students who are working 40, 50, 60 hours a week at the grocery store right now in the fear that their parents are going to be laid off.
JUNG: And then there's the question of geographic equity. This year's tests will be administered at the same time worldwide, meaning some students in Hong Kong will have to be up at midnight to take it.
For NPR News, I'm Carrie Jung in Boston.
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