Due to coronavirus concerns, the College Board’s annual Advanced Placement testing has been moved online, but glitches on the testing website are requiring some students to either email their test results or take a makeup test.
Students—including those in Leander ISD—began online AP testing May 11. Three different tests are being held daily through May 22. During May 11-15, some students after finishing their exam were unable to upload their test results to the AP website, according to Trevor Packer, the senior vice president of AP and instruction at the College Board.
Those students’ first test will not count, and they will have to take a makeup test, according to the news release.
Last week, several LISD parents said on social media that their students had problems uploading to the site after taking AP tests, according to LISD spokesperson Matt Mitchell.
"LISD students have encountered the same problems that other students throughout the nation have encountered," Mitchell said in an email. "We are in contact with the College Board to make sure we were receiving the most up-to-date guidance."
An online petition with more than 21,000 signatures as of May 19 is asking the College Board to allow students to resubmit their original tests.
It is unknown how many LISD students were affected. The College Board, not LISD, is responsible for AP testing. The College Board said 1% of last week's test takers could not upload their completed tests.
"AP students took nearly 2.2 million AP Exams last week, and we’re so proud of every student who tested,” Packer said in a May 17 Tweet. “However, some students had tech challenges submitting their responses. So we're providing an extra safeguard for students moving forward.”
The College Board said this week’s tests will provide an email address to test takers if the regular upload fails, according to the news release.
“Any student testing between May 18 and 22 who can’t successfully upload their response through the exam platform or send it to us by email, will need to request a makeup exam,” the news release said.
As of this writing, LISD did not respond to a request asking if any district students or families had informed the LISD about any upload problems with AP tests.
