Extra Credit An Analytical View of Advanced Placement

Author: Charlie Goulding

"It's an industry, it's the norm, and I don't buy it," stated Robert Schine, dean of faculty and father of a high school student, in discussing the College Board and the way in which the Advanced Placement (AP) exam has permeated academia. Debate has surged in recent months with regard to the college's stance on AP exams. In particular, the Educational Affairs Committee (EAC) has questioned the current policy of awarding Middlebury College credit for scoring, in most cases, a four or a five on an AP exam. "It is the view of the EAC that a college degree should represent work done at the college level," stated Secretary of the College Eric Davis.
Scrutiny of this kind boils down to a debate over the inherent nature of a college degree. "Are we a credentialing institution or an educational institution?" summarized Mike Schoenfeld, dean of enrollment planning and a member of the EAC. Other colleges like Harvard University, Amherst College and Hamilton College have already limited the academic weight typically awarded APs. Harvard first-year Todd Bartels stated, "the only thing APs allow you to do here is make you eligible for Sophomore Standing, which few people choose to pursue anyway." With regard to this change, Harvard Admissions Director Marlyn McGath-Lewis commented how the changes reflect "what a Harvard degree is worth" (Princeton Review).
Debate of this kind has called into question not only the inherent nature of a college degree, but also the intriguing relationship between academia and the College Board (the maker of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and AP) exams. Few deny the rapid, imperial growth of the College Board. To what extent, however, does this rapid imperialization put a strain on the tenuous relationship between academia and the corporate world? Who is the College Board?

A Brief History

The College Board is a non-profit organization founded in 1900 "whose mission is to prepare, inspire and connect students to college and opportunity." Initially, the College Board was composed of only a handful of colleges who wished to consolidate and simplify the transition process from secondary school to college. The College Board implemented the "common placement exam" to eradicate the hassles associated with individual colleges forcing each incoming student to take a plethora of entrance exams. This test would later be renamed the SAT.
The AP exam dates back to the 1950s, when two concurrent studies, one by the Ford Foundation for the Advancement of Studies, and one by Kenyon College, concluded that "high schools and colleges could and should work together to avoid repetition in coursework in the high-school and college levels and allow motivated students to work at the height of their capabilities and advance as quickly as possible."
The Ford Foundation, and other educational initiatives emanating from the corporate world, can be understood within the milieu of the post-World War II, Cold War era. The partnership of corporate America and the educational system is therefore as responsible for the inception of the College Board and its AP program as are America's colleges and universities.
After a successful pilot program involving 12 renowned prep-schools offering classes for college credit at 12 select colleges, the 24 schools decided to consolidate their efforts under the auspices of the College Board, who took over administration of the program in 1955. The College Board sought the services of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in order to provide a test with which to evaluate participants of the newly dubbed "Advanced Placement Program" (www.collegeboard.com).
The ETS, like the College Board, is a not-for-profit organization. The ETS creates standardized tests such as the SAT and AP, which are then administered by the College Board. Both the College Board and the ETS enjoy tax-exempt status due to the educational nature of their service under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code Publication 557 (www.irs.gov).

Rapid Proliferation and
Academic Consequences

The College Board has enjoyed a rapid expansion of its programs and testing services within the past decade, particularly with respect to its AP program. In 1997, 581,544 students took 921,601 AP exams. Last year, 937,951 students took 1,585,516 exams. Thus, over this time span, the number of students taking the AP test has risen 61 percent, and the number of tests administered grew by 72 percent (www.collegeboard.com).
The proliferation of AP testing has had many ramifications for the structure and nature of academia. Stated Schoenfeld, "in many high-schools, honors programs for exceptional students have been replaced by AP programs."
Furthermore, the pressure to inundate one's transcript with AP credits pervades the academic life of many high schools. "I felt inclined to take as many AP's as I could, as if they were some sort of achievement trophy," stated Bartels. "I took 10 in total and I can think of no benefit to them except as a way to impress admissions officers." Megan Hutchin '05 commented, "I took six AP classes total. I hated math and science, but I took Calculus AP, Statistics AP and Biology AP anyway - and killed myself in the process. All the other kids in my grade were doing the same thing, so I basically felt like I had to also in order to keep up."
Hutchin added that she thought the AP program provided students with an opportunity to challenge themselves. "I took five AP's," remarked Phil Koretz '05.5, "because I wanted to take the most challenging courses available. I feel fine about having done so, but I'd feel better if my AP courses were on par with the quality of my college classes. Thus far they haven't been."
Schine summarized, "my perception is that it's the norm at many high-schools with lots of talented students to try to adorn transcripts with as many AP's as possible. Students are arriving at our doorsteps with a heap of credits."
In 1997, 326 first-years entered Middlebury with a total of 1,105 AP credits. This year, 333 students boast 1,508 credits, a 36 percent increase, according to the College Registrar's Office. Interestingly, while the number of credits has grown, the number of students carrying them has remained stable. Thus, at least in Middlebury's case, the College Board has failed to extend the AP exam to a more diversified population. Instead, these numbers indicate that the privileged few are simply "upping the admissions ante" among themselves, accruing as many credits as possible in an effort to distinguish themselves as worthy candidates. As an anonymous student put it, "at select places, people assume that if you aren't taking an insane amount of AP courses, then you aren't serious about going to college."

Academic Sanctity

Regardless of how effective AP courses are as a replacement for honors classes, the role of the AP in academia has clearly transgressed its intended purpose. Both Schine and Schoenfeld concurred that the purpose of AP is to allow talented students to get a head start in a subject of their choosing so as to "hit the ground running," upon arrival at college. Many students enter college with eight or more credits to their name - sometimes two full years of college - often in courses in which they have no interest to pursue.
Many feel the proliferation of the AP program has had deleterious effects on the quality of high-school academics. "It completely poisons the motives of what education is all about," stated Hutchin. "For example, when I took AP Bio, we just raced through all the material, regardless of whether we understood the material or not. Everything felt so planned - it was like taking a year-long prep course so we could pass an exam. No one cared whether we understood what was going on."
Schine indicated that while many high schools offer exceptional AP courses, "there are some courses out there specifically designed to do well on the exam. I think that's a problem. I w
ould surmise that when a course is taught well for the purpose of scoring well on an exam, a student's education is not being served."
"At my daughter's school they teach to the test. Period," added one Middlebury resident, voicing a common criticism of the AP program with reference to her daughter's high school.
The College Board and the ETS have made an entire industry out of standardized testing and test preparation. "They make a tremendous amount of money," stated Schoenfeld. The College Board and the ETS have turned testing and the demand for test preparation help into a billion dollar industry, with companies such as the Princeton Review benefiting mightily. Test preparation books, tutors and the tests themselves, have built the world of standardized testing into a billion dollar industry. "I heard somebody make the analogy of a part church, part used car dealer," continued Schoenfeld. "I suppose you could extend that to the College Board: the church part sets high standards for you and pushes you to excel. Then the used-car part says: you gotta pay us to do it all for you."

The Numbers

The College Board 2000-2001 Annual Report states that the College Board received $325 million in total revenue for the fiscal year, a $25 million, eight percent, increase from the previous year (www.collegeboard.com). "Clearly this is what we would call a 'growth business,'" stated Robert Gordon, a New York City based Certified Public Accountant. The College Board also reported $311 million in total expenses, of which $123 million or 39.6 percent were attributed to "unrestricted net assets." Gordon continued, "This company has a lot of what we call 'leverage' - they basically have a monopoly on a veritable cash cow business."
"Any economist would tell you a company with a lot of leverage should be able to reduce expenses with respect to revenues. In this instance, expenses parallel revenues, and it appears as though they've been lumping all their expenses into their unrestricted net assets, which include employee payment and facility expenses. I can't tell what they are exactly because they don't say, but I'd be curious to see how much the executives of these companies make."
On Nov. 23, 2002, in an article entitled "Corporate Culture, Big Pay Come to Non-Profit Testing," the New York Times reported: "the ETS, the not-for-profit that produces the AP, SAT and GRE exams, last year gave one time bonuses of as much as $366,000 to 15 of its officers. It went on to say that Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, makes over $400,000 yearly while Kurt Landgraf, head of the ETS, makes $800,000 annually, which is more money than all but two college presidents earn (www.nytimes.com).
"A not-for-profit would be in violation of its tax-exempt status if it was found to be cashing out large portions of its expenses in the form of executive bonuses," said Gordon. "What they should be doing is using their excess revenue to cut costs, thereby allowing them to lower the fees of the tests they provide."
The AP currently costs $80 per test, the highest figure in the test's history. Given that 1.5 million APs were administered last year, the College Board made approximately $120 million on AP tests alone last year.
Davis added, "It's an expensive test. One of our chief concerns regarding the AP is that it's not equally available to all U.S. students."
On condition of anonymity, one of the Princeton Review's highest-ranking Master Tutor's, concluded "The College Board's a non-profit, but you should see where they work. Beautiful golf course, everything. It's like a country club." Princeton Review Master Tutors charge $250/hour for their services and knowledge.

A Flawed Paradigm?

The Advanced Placement program set a precedent for collusion between the corporate world and America's colleges which has not only persisted but flourished. Few doubt that the College Board has succeeded in consolidating America's educational system, and in promoting diversity for America's students.
The free reign and burgeoning power awarded the College Board within today's educational structure, however, should and must spark a discourse among colleges nationwide. "The SAT is no longer the innocent little test it was," stated Schoenfeld.
Indeed, while the college spends time defining what a Middlebury diploma truly means, an equally important question to ask is: what role must America's colleges play in regulating the power and influence of the College Board? "If it were to be done, that's something which I hope is done in unison, amongst all colleges," opined Schine. Meanwhile, the weight colleges award APs with respect to admissions perpetuates the AP problem. "The argument then translates back to tacit support for the College Board," noted Schoenfeld, "and consequently back to the institution itself."