AP Coordinator Responsibilities
Organize Exam Administration
Responsibility
School staff locates appropriate testing rooms/locations, finds proctors, assigns students to rooms, creates random seating charts, and communicates these assignments to students and proctors.
Why?
- Rooms must be able to handle the number of students and College Board's (CB) spacing between students.
- The correct number of proctors must be assigned based on the number of rooms and students.
- Students with accommodations may require different rooms.
- CB requires students to be seated randomly (not alphabetical).
Implementation
ROOMS: The first step is to figure out how many proctors and spaces are required for each exam. Several factors dictate this including the number of students, the size of the room(s) available, the CB's required spacing between students, the student to proctor ratio, and how many students have accommodations that require a different testing environment (extra time, small group, extended breaks/breaks as needed, etc.). Once the number and size of the rooms have been determined for each exam, students can be assigned to the appropriate rooms.
PROCTORS: Coordinators need to schedule proctors for all of their exams. The number of proctors is determined by the number of rooms and the student-to-proctor ratio in each room. Some schools will also use an extra proctor or two as floaters to give proctors a break during the exam administration. Sometimes getting enough proctors for the proctor pool is challenging. Schools often use current teachers, retired teachers, substitute teachers, counselors, administrators, and parent volunteers as proctors. Keep in mind, though, that a few things can disqualify a person from proctoring all or specific exams, such as being the parent of a current student taking an exam, being a current or past teacher of that subject, etc. Once proctors have been identified, they need to be assigned to each room.
COMMUNICATION: AP Coordinators must communicate with every proctor letting them know their assignments and schedule. Coordinators should also let each student know their specific exam schedule: exam, date, time to report, and location/room number to reduce confusion and stress.
Challenges
- Rooms
- Finding available rooms can be complicated as rooms are not available for all periods.
- The number of students with accommodations and the type of accommodations can significantly affect the room allocation.
- It may be necessary to displace an existing class for a period or two or use an off-campus location for testing.
- Proctors
- Finding enough proctors can be problematic.
- Some proctors are not available every day or both morning and afternoon.
- Some proctors are not permitted to proctor specific subjects.
- Communication
- Proctors must be made aware of their specific schedules.
- Difficult to provide each student with their individual schedule before exams.
Simplification
Total Registration (TR) has developed a system that is integrated across all types of data: exams, students, proctors, rooms, accommodations, schedules, and communications. This integration combines all the data, greatly simplifying the organization of the exam administration.
A Better Way
- A utility to add proctors and their availability to the system, link them to exams and communicate the schedule.
- Integrates accommodations with room assignments, rosters and seating charts.
- Extensive, "one-click" communication tools.
The Power of Integration
Once rooms, proctors, and accommodations have been entered, the system integrates all of this information to show on a myriad of reports and use in several utilities:
- Rosters - Students are grouped by room, and the proctors for each room will be listed. Accommodations can also be shown on the roster, assisting proctors in rooms that have students with accommodations.
- Room Assignments - The room assignments page displays the accommodations making it easy for coordinators to place students in the correct testing room.
- Email Students Exam Schedule - TR has a utility that allows coordinators to email a personalized exams schedule to ALL students at the click of a button. This email contains each student's unique schedule, including exam, date, time to report, and room number.
- Seating Charts - Coordinators can easily create random seating charts for each room. Students with accommodations are indicated so the seating chart can be adjusted if students have an accommodation for preferential seating. See https://support.totalregistration.net/hc/en-us/articles/206643677-Creating-seating-charts.
- Email Proctors Their Schedule - At the click of a button, coordinators can email ALL proctors their schedules, including the exams, dates, times, and room numbers.
- Students Exam Schedules - Students can log in to their TR account and view their exam schedule, including the exams, dates, time to report, and room numbers at any time.