Rose basketball highlights
Issue 1
September 27th, 2019
Knight kicks into exam writing
THURS. | 3-2-23 | NEWS
Advanced Placement (AP) Comparative Government and Politics teacher Liza Knight has been chosen as the first Rose teacher to write an AP exam. Knight is in the process of writing the AP Comparative Government exam for the 2024 school year in collaboration with other teachers across the country.
Knight has been teaching at Rose for 21 years and has been working for the Instructional Design Team for College Board since 2018. In 2022, she added Exam Development Committee to her roles with the organization.
“I received a phone call in 2018 from the person in charge of the Instructional Design Team telling me that I had been selected based on my students’ scores on AP Comparative Government,” Knight said.
Knight believes that her students' significant growth was the leading factor in receiving a position on the instructional design team. The Instructional Design Team is in place to create new teaching material and update the course curriculum.
Photo by Emmy Ingalls
“It was a very quick turnaround,” Knight said. “I got the call and then one week later they needed to fly me to New York for the training.”
After three years of working on the Instructional Design Team, she was asked by College Board to work in a position on the Development Committee for AP Comparative Government. The difference with the Development Committee is that they construct the exam, analyze questions and make sure they are fair questions for each student.
“It was a very tough decision,” Knight said. “I felt like I needed to do it to be more well-rounded.”
Having accepted the position on the Development Committee and continuing her work with the Instructional Design Team, she is expecting a rigorous year ahead.
“It was a tough call,” Knight said. “I ultimately decided I could balance it because I had been teaching AP Comparative Government for a long time, so it's not a new course for me.”
Knight believes that taking on these two positions will ultimately help her lessons in the classroom.
“I think the benefits of me doing it and the benefits my students will receive from me doing it will outweigh any negatives that may come from me trying to juggle a couple of different jobs at the same time,” Knight said.
Knight has already begun creating the questions for the 2024 AP Comparative exam and has strict criteria she must follow.
“I can’t say anything that will give my students an unfair advantage,” Knight said. “I have to be very careful I am not revealing any confidential information or secure testing information.”
Knight gave us a look into the format of the questions and a timeline of when different questions will be written.
“There are four different free response questions; they are written in the fall a year and a half out,” Knight said. “In October, the development committee met to work on the four free response questions.”
Knight is hoping to find many tweaks to incorporate into her lessons since these professors she is working with specialize in different governments from around the world. Knight believes this knowledge will perfect the criteria being taught in her classroom.
“I’m learning so much from [professors] that then I’m able to relay to my students,” Knight said.
