Earlier AP Regestration Hurts Low Income Students

The Advanced Placement program, despite the criticism it receives, remains a popular way for high school students to demonstrate their commitment to rigorous instruction. Many students who attend high schools in which Ivies and flagships are the norm for college applications, compete to successfully complete the greatest number of AP courses.

High school counselors, even those who have doubts about students’ obsessions with APs, see these courses as crucial for their students. At high schools where students take multiple AP courses and score highly, there was no question about whether or not to sign up for the exam.

On the other hand, the situation is very different in schools where students take fewer APs and do not necessarily do as well. Students try to figure out if they stand a chance at earning at least a 3 (generally the minimum for earning college credit). Many of them may not think that's likely. Some see this issue as extending beyond low-income high schools to the majority of high schools where it's not a given that many students will earn 5s. And someone has to pay for those exams. "Now the College Board has added an extra stress for all students, in particular, low-income students, by requiring them to register for AP exams in November, rather than in March," says Matthew Ibrahim ‘21. " School is just getting started in November and there is no way anybody knows at this time whether or not they will be prepared for this high-stakes test. This unreasonable deadline is an unnecessary pressure for students and not in their interest."

A petition formed goes on to predict that the College Board will see revenues rise under the changes, despite all the school counselors objecting. "The College Board doesn’t care about students -- they only care about their bottom line," the petition says. As of Sunday, the petition had more than 97,000 signatures. The College Board has maintained that the earlier deadline will motivate students to study hard in their AP courses and to prepare for the exam.

Total Registration, which works with high schools on managing AP and other exams, found in the data that when the College Board tested the new system with some high schools, "3,141 additional low-income test-takers at the pilot schools but only 742 additional scores of 3+. This gives a pass rate (scores of 3+) of 23.6 percent for the 'additional' low-income test-takers. Another way to look at this is that 76.4 percent of the low-income students who were coerced to take the exams because of the new deadline, late fees [and] cancellation fees did not pass (scored a 1 or 2)."

A College Board spokeswoman, Lynda McDowell, said that the changes resulted in more students from all groups taking AP exams, that the base exam rate is not changing and that many states subsidize exam fees for low-income students. As to the data being cited in the petition and elsewhere, the spokeswoman said that "these false statements are a reckless and futile attempt to thwart the College Board's efforts to launch the new AP model" and that companies that work with high schools on tests are defending not student interests, but their own businesses.