Senior Director, AP English Language and Seminar Generalist, Curriculum and Assessment

About the Team 

The AP Curriculum and Assessment Team at College Board (125+ staff) collaborates with colleagues across all aspects of the AP Program to develop, manage, and deliver AP's 43 courses in a wide variety of subject areas. AP® is a rigorous academic program built on the commitment, passion, and hard work of students and educators from secondary schools and higher education. AP provides willing and academically prepared high school students with the opportunity to study and learn at the college level. AP's course teams comprised of educators and disciplinary experts ensure that course curricula are aligned to higher education expectations and reflect the state of the art in the discipline, contribute to instructional resources and tools for teachers, and develop assessments that allow students in these courses to demonstrate their mastery of course content and skills. AP leads in strategic use of AI to expand student access, strengthen instructional design and professional support, and enhance assessment creation and exam analysis. The English, World Languages, and Arts department, which includes English Literature, English Language, Spanish Language, Italian Language, French Language, German Language, Chinese Language, Japanese Language, Latin, Music Theory, Spanish Literature, and Art and Design is currently made up of 28 people supporting 14 courses in the AP portfolio.   

About the Opportunity 

As the Senior Director I, AP English Language and Seminar, Assessment Generalist you will be responsible for preserving and improving the quality and validity of the AP Program's core deliverables within the subject domain: the exam, the course curriculum, and the professional development content. You are also responsible for item development and management from authoring to administration across multiple course titles; training and collaborating with subject-matter experts (SMEs), typically college professors and secondary school teachers. You will ethically and effectively integrate AI technologies in assessment creation and review, providing leadership and modeling for course experts across multiple course titles. This includes judiciously using AI assisted tools to support fairness, validity, and innovation in AP assessments. You will train SMEs on assessment development protocols, translate between academics and technical experts (psychometricians), and collaborate to develop formative assessment materials and resources to support AP English Language and Seminar teachers worldwide. You will serve as a point of contact in AP for committees and communities of subject-matter experts and will be responsible for the curriculum and assessment for AP English Language and Seminar, and, in partnership with other AP teams, further the strategic growth of AP English Language and Seminar across the globe. Additionally, you may have the opportunity to present, speak, and moderate dialogue with academic and membership audiences to ensure that ongoing change and improvement within AP courses and exams is understood, accepted, and supported in secondary and post-secondary educational communities.  

In this role, you will: 

Assessment Development and Scoring (40-50%)  

• Serve as an assessment leader for AP English Language and Seminar with primary responsibility for assessment development and final assessment (items and forms) approval for AP English Language and Seminar .  Your work will vary from year to year, with accountability across multiple test titles, requiring assessment and content domain expertise across multiple subject areas. You will be accountable for developing and reviewing content, and providing final program sign-off on test forms. You will be assigned work based upon needs that vary year to year, which means you will be accountable for seamlessly moving in and out of assessment workstreams across subjects, leveraging your expertise about assessment, assessment processes, and content domain expertise. Your work in developing and revising test content is of the quality that typically requires no adjustments based on feedback from your manager and other program leaders.  

• Independently lead processes for authoring and revising assessment content, including training educator constituents. Leverage generative AI (as appropriate for subject/discipline) to author and/or review assessment content to improve and/or make more efficient assessment processes and outputs. 

• Independently lead the development and management of assessment content (formative and summative) and scoring materials for AP English Language and Seminar through iterative review stages with multiple internal and external stakeholders, including the AP English Language and Seminar , Assessment Production team, Test Development Committee, and the Chief Reader, as appropriate. 

• Independently lead the development of assessment forms for AP English Language and Seminar , ensuring the AP Exam development aligns with approved curricula and test specifications. 

• Lead multiple face-to-face, weekend meetings, and virtual meetings (during work week, evenings, or weekends) annually with the AP English Language and Seminar Test Development Committees. You independently strategize and develop an agenda and approach to ensure the committee's meeting time is of the highest productivity; you successfully adapt and pivot during the meeting as needed; and you successfully resolve all post-meeting item content edits. 

• Train and directly supervise Test Development Committee members in AP English Language and Seminar as content development contributors and reviewers.  

• Lead the successful scoring of student responses for AP English Language and Seminar Exams at the annual scoring event in person and online—the "AP Reading"—and produce AP Reading publications materials for teacher and student use. You independently plan all-year, with increasing intensity in the months leading up to the Reading, ensuring all workflow steps for this incredibly complex event, as well as all post-Reading activities, are accounted for and successfully executed. 

Assessment Quality and Process (25-30%) 

• Contribute to current research and best practices in assessment, and engage regularly with AP Curriculum & Assessment colleagues to align on standards and shared principles guiding AP's assessment directions 

• Provide functional leadership of cross-subject assessment workstreams to ensure consistency and leverage efficiencies. Will serve as an expert resource for course team and leadership consultation.  

• Provide formal training and informal mentoring to other Course Experts within your AP English Language and Seminar , based on need. 

• Develop strong efficiencies in item development through well-defined and well-documented task models, item development training and processes, and highly effective use of generative AI.  

• Independently lead (with limited managerial support) initiatives to refine and improve question task models as well as exam design in collaboration with AP Curriculum & Assessment leaders and aligned to other College Board initiatives including AI innovation and professional learning best practices that scale assessment to achieve psychometric and disciplinary best practices on AP English Language and Seminar exams. 

• Monitor exam validity, security, reliability, fairness, and quality, as well as reader reliability in accordance with established Program thresholds for AP English Language and Seminar exams. Identify areas for improvement and independently (with limited managerial support) lead and execute targeted initiatives to improve. 

• Collaborate with psychometrics and AP Curriculum & Assessment staff to establish fair, reliable, and valid cut scores for AP English Language and Seminar exams. 

Staff Development and Capacity Building (25-30%) 

• Train and support course experts in assessment development practices, including quality, validity, fairness, and use of generative AI, deepening their understanding of the item and test development lifecycle, and effective use of item authoring and item bank platforms. 

• Mentor team members in effectively facilitating test development committees and working with external stakeholders.  

Course Development and Program Support (0-10%) 

• Refine and improve AP English Language and Seminar Course Framework to ensure clear and explicit learning outcomes that align with strategic priorities, including ensuring college/disciplinary standards as well as expanding the scope of reaching a broader audience of AP students.  

• Collaborate with AP teams to support the development of new products for AP English Language and Seminar designed to address unmet teacher instructional needs, potentially including developing prototypes, participating in small-scale market-testing, and creating models for subsequent development in conjunction with other AP workstreams.  

About You 

You (have): 

• A Master's degree in English, Rhetoric and Composition, or a directly related discipline, and knowledge of current trends in the discipline (required), although a doctorate in the discipline is strongly preferred  

• Expertise in English, Rhetoric Composition, or a closely related field with at least 10 years of experience in standardized assessment development or related work; experience with digital assessment and teaching preferred 

• Strong oral and written communication skills, with solid technical proficiency and a customer-focused mindset 

• Excellent organizational and planning skills, with the ability to manage multiple tasks and maintain close attention to detail, including proofreading 

• Demonstrated ability to implement processes and procedures, manage project plans and schedules, and maintain tracking documentation 

• Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively across all levels, and engage in giving and receiving constructive feedback 

• Ability to travel 6-8 times per year, plus up to two additional weeks for the AP Reading; must be eligible to work in the United States 

All roles at College Board require: 

• A passion for expanding educational and career opportunities and mission-driven work 

• Curiosity and enthusiasm for emerging technologies, with a willingness to experiment with and adopt new AI-driven solutions and comfort with learning and applying new digital tools independently and proactively.  

• Clear and concise communication skills, written and verbal 

• A learner's mindset and a commitment to growth: welcoming diverse perspectives, giving and receiving timely, respectful feedback, and continuously improving through iterative learning and user input. 

• A drive for impact and excellence: solving complex problems, making data-informed decisions, prioritizing what matters most, and continuously improving through learning, user input, and external benchmarking. 

• A collaborative and empathetic approach: working across differences, fostering trust, and contributing to a culture of shared success 

• Authorization to work in the United States 

About Our Process   

• Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days. 

• While the hiring process may vary, it generally includes: resume and application submission, recruiter phone/video screen, hiring manager interview, performance exercise such as item review and analysis, a panel interview, a conversation with leadership and reference checks.    

What We Offer 

At College Board, we offer more than a paycheck- we provide a meaningful career, a supportive team, and a comprehensive package designed to help you thrive. We're a self-sustaining nonprofit that believes in fair and competitive compensation grounded in your qualifications, experience, impact, and the market. 

A Thoughtful Approach to Compensation 

• The hiring range for this role is $112,000-$165,000. 

• Your exact salary will depend on your location, experience, and how your background compares to others in similar roles at the College Board. 

• We aim to make our best offer upfront, rooted in fairness, transparency, and market data. 

• We adjust salaries by location to ensure fairness, no matter where you live. 

You'll have open, transparent conversations about compensation, benefits, and what it's like to work at College Board throughout your hiring process. Check out our careers page for more.

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