Buzzing with nervous excitement, students gather around the door of the gym, waiting to be let in. They know this is their only chance to show their hard work for the year, and depending on how well they do, they can save thousands of dollars by receiving college credit or show the rigor in their course transcript to get into the school of their dreams. This is AP test season.
The College Board is the maker of these tests, and to many high school students, AP tests seem like the only option to stand out or get ahead. The College Board perfectly understands its position and preys on the students it says it aims to help, however, the College Board is not the only option.
Throughout early May, high schoolers stress over “Advanced Placement” tests from the College Board. These tests typically cost $99 per exam, which could be increased by other fees such as a late registration fee or cancellation fee.
With a waiver, low-income students only pay $53. The College Board is a non-profit and is exempt from income taxes because of its status as an organization. According to ProPublica, The College Board also has over 1.7 billion in assets, with $300 million a year in income, makes 31 million in investments a year, and routinely pays for first-class flights for its staff. They also created the SAT exam.
The ACT Inc. is considered a for-profit company, but the fee waivers for the ACT and SAT are almost identical. With the College Board’s hundreds of millions in income and its tax exemption being based on the public benefit they provide, I believe they should provide a fee waiver that makes their test more accessible compared to the ACT.
To me, an organization that makes $300 million a year untaxed, that is “for the public good,” should operate less like a money-hungry company exploiting students’ desire to get ahead or into good colleges. However, you may ask, even if some of the College Board’s practices seem greedy, how could students get around it?
While I will admit that College Board’s services do serve students, there are other options for college credit in high school. The College Board certainly does not have a monopoly, but that doesn’t mean that we promote other options enough. For example, California students can dual enroll at a community college for free, and they could get credit to avoid paying for remedial classes by scoring well on their CAASPP test through the EAP program, or they could attend a public high school that offers an International Baccalaureate (IB) program.
IB is similar to AP, but has a more rigid curriculum and is accepted everywhere in the world, which is benefi cial to students. Poway High could switch from AP to IB.
Another shady aspect of the College Board’s business process is selling student data. According to the New York Times, the College Board charges 43 cents per student name; this profi le is sold to various companies and includes all the data that students give them before a test.
This sharing of information can benefit students by connecting them to colleges, but the other non-educational companies to which the College Board sells this data are unnecessary. There is a way to opt out of sharing information on the tests, but consider the conditions under which someone might fi ll out the informational surveys. Nervous, excited, minors about to take a test that they believe could be the barrier between them and getting into the university of their dreams. Of course, they would not think twice before giving their personal information to a billion-dollar organization. Could you blame them?
According to Action Network, in the state of Illinois, the College Board settled a lawsuit with parents of test takers, because of a law that prohibits the sale of a minor under 16’s data without parental permission. According to the College Board, a similar settlement happened in New York recently.
The College Board should focus more on helping students, and not on what is in their wallets.
