Assignment 16- Mary Huffman- College Board should be scared

Mary Huffman

Mr. Matthew Logsdon

AP English Language & Composition

17 December 2019

The College Board Conspiracy

What I plan to do here today in less than eight minutes is not to abase an entire education system. Nor do I intend to admonish the actions of anyone in this room - more on that later. But the issue I will be discussing is centered around a massive, monopoly-holding corporation each of you- including Mr. Logsdon- have an integral connection to. At this point, if you’re still listening, you may be trying to figure out what company this speech will be about. Here it is: the College Board.

College Board is the company that brought you the increasingly irrelevant SAT, the unattainable National Merit Scholarship, and the almighty, all-encompassing Advanced Placement courses. In this speech I will discuss several benefits and flaws of the AP program and College Board as a whole, and offer a few possible solutions to help extinguish the flames of an imperfect organization.

You are quite familiar with the possible benefits of AP classes. Upon passing an AP exam, students can earn credit for college courses at a fraction of the cost of an actual university credit. AP classes boost students’ grade point averages as these courses are weighted more heavily than general or advanced classes. According to a longitudinal study published in the Roeper Review, “advanced classes helped provide students with the opportunity to develop their potential abilities and promote personal growth, as well as provide the challenge needed by academically talented individuals.” 

However, the Advanced Placement system is not without its flaws. The success of AP students is obviously heavily dependent on the effectiveness of their teachers’ methods. Significant disparities in AP achievement between races are even more concerning. In 2017, 64 percent of exam taken by white students received passing scores. When compared to the same statistics for other races, black students had a 30% pass rate, and 42% of Hispanic students passed the AP exams they took.

Author Bryan Caplan was interviewed about a book he wrote, entitled “The Case Against Education,” in which he argues that much of one’s education is spent “showing off,” attempting to impress college admissions officers and potential employers. In my personal experience, the most common way of flaunting one’s accomplishments is to tack an AP exam score onto a resume, despite its actual worth to me or my plans for the future. The baseline for high school students at this point is to take several AP classes, preferably with passing scores on their exams.

For this and many other reasons, AP classes are unavoidable, especially with the largely predetermined schedule for rigorous programs like the Academy. In no way am I suggesting students are responsible for the shortcomings of the College Board’s prodigal child. But it’s imperative that you- the students- understand the positive and negative aspects of the organization which influences so much of your academic life.

If you’re like me, you raised an inquisitive eyebrow when it came time to register for AP exams this year. Why was College Board forcing us, its loyal customers, to commit and pay so many months in advance? If you didn’t pay by the October deadline, exorbitant late fees awaited. I felt like I was being forced into buying a car- but the only dealership around was trying to snatch as much money as they could, trying to pressure me into buying a car I’d been told would be great to have, just in case I needed it. And don’t forget that this was a deal that couldn’t be passed up. The sleazy College Board salesman said, “I’m sure you’ll need this car...eventually…” One of the four cars I bought this year, each for the non-negotiable price of $100 plus processing fees, was...AP Calculus. There is not a single other corporation in the United States that can offer me this car, with all the same dials and promises that the seatbelt will work properly when and if I choose to use the car. 

This is a rather simplified explanation of a monopoly, something the College Board would know a lot about. The only other corporation that offers similar services to high school students is the lesser known International Baccalaureate, whose reputation is less solidified thanks to its fewer years and limited popularity in American public schools. Even if there existed more third parties to grant high school students college credit, would these companies find such success as College Board has? Say I don’t like the idea of only one car dealership being made available to me. I may find another car lot a few towns away, but their cars won’t be guaranteed to be accepted by most colleges. And their cars will most certainly be more expensive. This dealership isn’t as well-established in its sketchy sales, so it is trying to make the most profit it can, just to keep the lights on.

Again, the College Board dealership demonstrates its monstrous monopoly. Being the sole provider of college-level classes in high school means it can charge whatever price it wants for exams, AP-approved teaching materials, review books. Have we solved the mystery of College Board’s money-hungry new policies?! Not yet. 

As of 2018, when Total Registration published a report on the College Board’s financial standings, the “non-profit” held over $1.1 billion in Cash and Investments. In 2017, College Board made nearly $140 million. 140 million. That is the profit margin for a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect “students to college success and opportunity.” 

“College success and opportunity” certainly don’t cost $140 million a year. Where is all this money going, if not to lower the cost of exams, student and teacher resources, or even late fees? It goes into the oversized wallets of College Board’s 23 executives, who make an average of over $355,000 per year. If nothing more, this so-called “not-for-profit” company is guilty of immoral conduct as it increases costs for students while its executives’ salaries only grow.

The issues of transparency and accessibility is not one that can be solved immediately. But the first step in democratizing the College Board is to remove its status as a non-profit. Publicly strip the company of its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status and the education-focused students and parents of this country may come to realize the financial value of their own investments in their future. The position of the Advanced Placement program is not one that will disappear from American education anytime soon. But it is an institution with a great need for reform and reorganization to once again emphasize the student as the basis of the nation’s complex educational system.

Works Cited

Digby, Joan. “Got AP?” Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council, vol. 17 no. 2,  Fall-Winter 2016, pp. 31-35, files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1132011.pdf. Accessed 30 Sep. 2019.

Donald, Brooke. “Are AP courses worth the effort? An interview with Stanford education expert Denise Pope.” Stanford News, 22 Apr. 2013. 

 “Follow the Money.” Follow the Money - College Board Finances, Total Registration. https://www.totalregistration.net/AP-Exam-Registration-Service/Follow-The-Money-History-of-College-Board-Finances.php. Accessed 17 Dec. 2019.

Illing, Sean. “Why this economist thinks public education is mostly pointless.” Vox, 20 September 2018. www.vox.com/conversations/2018/2/16/16870408/public-education-libertarianism-democracy-bryan-caplan. Accessed 30 Sep. 2019.

Perrone, Kristin M., et al. “Looking Back on Lessons Learned: Gifted Adults Reflect on Their Experiences in Advanced Classes.” Roeper Review, vol. 32, pp. 127–139, 2010. search-ebscohost-com.proxy.kyvl.org/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid,cpid,url&custid=s1176192&db=a9h&AN=49142591. Accessed 30 Sep. 2019.

Weissmann, Elena. “The College Board: A Very Profitable ‘Nonprofit.’” New Brunswick, NJ Patch, Patch, 14 June 2013. https://patch.com/new-jersey/newbrunswick/bp--the-college-board-a-very-profitable-nonprofit. Accessed 17 Dec. 2019.

Zhou, Amanda. “More students are taking AP exams, but researchers don’t know if that helps them.” Chalkbeat, 3 Aug. 2018. chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2018/08/03/more-students-are-taking-ap-exams-but-researchers-dont-know-if-that-helps-them/. Accessed 30 Sep. 2019.