AP test retake ordered after table blunder at Marin County school

More than 100 students at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield are being asked to retake Advanced Placement tests because of a school error, officials said. More than 100 students at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield are being asked to retake Advanced Placement tests because of a school error, officials said. Photo: Andrew Ross, San Francisco Chronicle Photo: Andrew Ross, San Francisco Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close AP test retake ordered after table blunder at Marin County school 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Students at a Marin County private school will have to retake their Advanced Placement tests after the president of the school tweeted a photo of them that ran afoul of College Board rules and regulations, officials said.

Parents were informed Monday that 177 students at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield who took AP tests in chemistry, Spanish, government and English literature will have to retake the exams next week because the tables they were seated at weren’t wide enough and didn’t place them far enough apart, according to school President Tim Navone.

Administrators routinely tweet photos from student events using the school Twitter account, and Navone posted one such photo of students sitting for exams on May 1, the first day of testing. “AP tests in full swing. Show them what you know, Cats!” he wrote in a caption, referencing the school’s Wildcat mascot.

School administrators aren’t sure how the photo caught the eye of the College Board, but on May 4, the board contacted the school and expressed concerns about the testing conditions based on the dimensions of the tables the students took the exams on.

At the small school of 715 students, important exams such as the AP tests are taken in the gymnasium, which is set up with rented tables, Navone said

“When they contacted us, we ended up correcting the table situation and the rest of the eight exams were fine,” said Navone.

But the College Board still said the students who had taken the four tests on the narrower tables would need to sit for a retest.

“We went through several appeals processes because we stand by the integrity of what the test conditions were — we felt the tests were valid, that they were proctored appropriately. We wanted to see if they could find a way to sanction the school but not the students, who had spent all these months preparing for the exams,” said Navone.

On May 12, the College Board informed the school that its appeal had been rejected, although the organization did agree to waive any additional testing fee for students taking the retest, Navone said.

The fee for taking the AP tests is normally $93 per exam.

Navone said that despite understandable feelings of frustration and disappointment, parents and students have been remarkably understanding.

“Our parents have been unbelievably wonderful and generous in their understanding of a mistake, as have the students,” he said. “I think their response has been wonderful.”

A similar problem arose last year at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, when more than 800 students had exam scores invalidated because they were seated too close to one another and were not given different versions of the test, as College Board rules require.

And in 2013, the San Mateo Union High School District unsuccessfully sued the College Board when the organization said hundreds of students at Mills High School in Millbrae had to retake tests because of improper testing conditions.

Filipa Ioannou is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: fioannou@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @obioannoukenobi