Voorhees College history teacher serves as a ten-time AP reader
July 02, 2016
Voorhees College Professor of History Dr. Leland Barrows recently traveled to Salt lake City because he was selected for the tenth consecutive time to evaluate and score Advance Placement (AP) student free-response answers.
Each June, AP teachers and college faculty from around the world gather in the United States to administer multiple-choice and free-response AP exams to test students’ mastery of rigorous college-level coursework. Once the scoring is complete, teachers earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs) and development hours from College Board’s AP and Educational Testing Service.
The AP Program enables academically prepared students to pursue college-level studies with the opportunity to earn college credit, advanced placement or both while still in high school.
Barrows supports AP courses and testing because research indicates that students who score a 3 on an AP exam typically experience greater academic success in college and are more likely to earn a college degree.
“It is important that as an educator I not only promote students going the extra mile to advance themselves, but assist them with the process,” Barrows said. “This is one of the reasons I have been a professor for so long”
During scoring and evaluating sessions, the participants are trained on updated scoring standards, interact with the AP Development Committee and assess the current teaching strategies with college faculty and AP teachers.
Barrows, a World and African-American history professor was an associate professor of history at Voorhees College from 1975 to 1978. He subsequently taught for 3 years at the University of Constantine in Algeria and then served for 21 years as Senior Editor, Program Specialist, and Professor at the UNESCO European Center for Higher Education in Bucharest, Romania. He returned to Voorhees College in August 2004. He has accumulated 518 professional development hours and 51.8 CEUs as the result of his work with the College Board.
For more information, contact Megan Freeman, director of communications, at 803-780-1191 or at mfreeman@voorhees.edu.