College Board: The education monopoly

An Advanced Placement (AP) test costs $97. Most AP students are taking more than one AP class, so that's at least $194 on testing alone; that's not including the $55 for each SAT test.

The only way for students to take these tests is through College Board.

According to their website, College Board is: "a mission-driven not-forprofit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity."

While these tests are not mandatory for students to take, they are strongly recommended for students interested in pursuing a four year university.

According to the 2022 - 2023 School Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA), in 2021 76.6% of the general student population was enrolled in at least one AP class. 33.3% of English learners were enrolled in at least one AP.

"I don't like that they [AP tests] are expensive. It's not very affordable for everyone even though anyone can take the class," said Emily Muscolina, a junior.

Carlmont is fortunate to have an AP coordinator to allow more students to have the ability to take these tests.

"I want to encourage students to apply for anything that will give them additional financial support in any kind of testing," said Nina Rasor, Carlmont's College and Career assistant.

On the College Board website, there are listed qualifications for those who want test fee waivers, and there are many scholarships available for students to obtain.

"Students who take the PSAT and opt into Student Search are connected to scholarships worth more than $300 million from providers like National Merit, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Jack

Kent Cooke Foundation, and the Gates Scholarship," Sara Sympson, representative of College Board's western regional office, said.

However, as more students enroll in AP classes, more families are buying tests, and with more tests comes more money. Each year, the SAT and AP tests get more expensive, which is reflected in College Board's revenue.

According to ProPublica,College Board had a net revenue of $1 billion with a profit of $58 million in 2019. By contrast, in 2020, College Board had a revenue of $778 million and a loss of $82 million.

Even with the decrease in funds, many consumers are left wondering: "Where is the money going?"

"As an AP grader, you get paid minimum wage, so the money goes towards developing the tests and grading the tests," said AP Biology teacher Sara Shayesteh.

According to ProPublica, 23% of College Board's 2019 revenue went towards "other salaries and wages" and 0.6% of their revenue went towards "executive compensation", leaving 77% of their revenue available for use.

The logical conclusion is that most of their money goes to the government through the companies income tax; however this may not be true.

College board is a not-for-profit company. This means, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that it "does not earn profit for its owners". Thus, all the money they earn "goes right back into running the organization".

Through this distinction, not- for-profit organizations can apply for tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), meaning that they won't have to pay sales or property taxes.

As perfect as this sounds, the education system has no other choice when it comes to test taking.

"It's hard because I don't have anything to compare it to, they kind of have a monopoly on all the standardized tests, so it's hard to say if they're doing a good job or not," Shayesteh said.

The only other somewhat known form of standardized testing is the International Baccalaureate (IB) exam.

However, IB exams are part of the IB Diploma Programme (DP) which is not offered at many high schools, but are accepted by many universities.

"If there were some cheaper form of testing, I would probably take that," Muscolina said.

Though it is not certain that College Board applied for this status, most of their money goes back into developing the company.

"We reinvest our revenue into fee waivers and reductions for lowincome test takers—about $130 million in a typical year—and in programs that expand educational opportunities for all students," Sympson said.

There is not much difference in terms of price between IB test and AP tests; IB tests cost $70 per exam.

Whether students love or hate college board, it is hard to deny how well the curriculum prepares students for college.

"I like College Board because they put out really high quality material. And I think for the most part, their material is pretty secure," Shayesteh said. "But at the same time, maybe they are a bit too big." l