Message from the High School Principal - HS Community Update Regarding Last Year's AP Exams

[Devan Ganeshananthan]

Dear high school students and families,

We write to provide clear information about the status of the May 2019 AP
exams taken by ASL students. Please note that we are sending this letter to all
high school families in the interest of ensuring that everyone has accurate
information. Therefore, please understand that you or your child may not be
directly affected by this issue.

As was communicated in Devan Ganeshananthan’s letter of 24 July, ASL was
informed in mid-July by AP Services and the College Board that there would
be a delay in the posting of scores for some AP exams. We were assured at
that time by the College Board that the delay was solely due to storms in
the US that had impacted the College Board’s ability to sort and send exams
out for grading, and that there were no other issues. Since mid-July, Anne
Richardson, Luchano Bogdanov, Devan Ganeshananthan and Robin Appleby have
been in frequent and regular contact with the College Board, AP Services,
Educational Testing Services and UPS to try to obtain additional
information about the status of our school’s exams. Unfortunately, in these
multiple communications, we repeatedly received incomplete and
contradictory information. During the week of 19 August, we were informed
that the College Board was unable to locate 298 partial or complete exams,
something we were shocked and furious to learn. Fortunately, many of those
missing exams have now been found, but as of this writing, 69 exams remain
missing.

The College Board has apologized for this situation, but we know this will
be of small comfort to those impacted. We continue to work daily with the
College Board to ensure that the search for the exams continues.

Those whose exams are missing were informed about the situation via email
and through meetings with students and parents. College counselors continue
to work directly and individually with all students who have been impacted
by the situation. Students have the choice to retake a missing exam,
although this is not an ideal option.

We understand that this situation has resulted in undue stress and anxiety
for students and families affected and raised questions from our high
school community. Please know that our college counselors, Mr. Hauck, Ms.
Richardson and Ms. Thompson, are developing explanatory language that can
be included, if necessary, in the college/university application process
for those students impacted.

In our collective years as school administrators in more than a dozen
schools, we have never experienced a situation of this scope related to the
mismanagement of test scores, and we have made it clear to the College
Board that steps must be taken to prevent this from happening again. We
will continue to keep the general community updated as the situation
unfolds as we understand that this is important to all.

Sincerely,

Robin Appleby

Head of School

Devan Ganeshananthan

High School Principal

Anne Richardson

Director of Academic Advising and College Counseling


-- 
*Devan K. Ganeshananthan*
*High School Principal*

The American School in London
One Waverley Place
London NW8 0NP
United Kingdom

020 7449 1320
www.asl.org

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In accordance with The Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006:
* Registered name: The American School in London Educational Trust Limited
* Registered number: 784923
* Place of registration: England
* Registered office address: One Waverley Place, London, NW8 0NP
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