As students in AP Microeconomics (and likely at least a few other Advanced Placement classes), we all have experience with the College Board. The College Board is a nonprofit organization that controls the SAT, SAT Subject Tests, AP, and CSS/Financial Aid.
For most of these services, there are no generally accepted alternatives. While the ACT is a widely accepted alternative to the SAT, and IB is a lesser alternative to AP, the College Board unequivocally controls our educational opportunities and college application process. Many colleges require SAT Subject Tests or the CSS/Financial Aid profile to apply. In most schools, AP is offered without an IB alternative, and students are expected if not required by their teachers to take these tests, which are the only way to earn college credit in high school.
In particular, the AP program is becoming indispensable for college-bound high school students. Not only is it a way to earn college credit, but it has become a necessary method to show colleges that students are taking challenging courses and are ready for college-level coursework. At the same time, the usefulness of these exams is decreasing as many colleges have lessened or stopped giving credit for AP scores because the recognize the too-frequent emphasis on preparing for the test rather than actually learning, which is not equivalent to the experience of a college class.
The College Board, while providing services necessary to the college application process, does so at exorbitant prices. The cost of an SAT test is $64.50 with a nearly $30 late fee, and the cost of each AP exam is $94. When students receive their scores, especially for AP tests, they get a singular number without feedback or explanation. Then, students pay $12 per school to send scores. The College Board is taking advantage of the monopoly they have on education in order to profit off of students.
Another aspect of monopoly that the College Board illustrates is little incentive to improve. The processes of the College Board have remained relatively constant over time. Despite being a billion-dollar company, they do not take the time or use the resources to improve or even write new tests at times. For example, there was a lot of pushback when it was revealed that the August 2018 SAT was a reused test that was published online after being taken internationally in 2017.
Furthermore, the College Board does all of this while claiming to be a nonprofit, but with a surplus of nearly $60 million dollars, the company is far from it. The CEO made a salary in 2009 of $1.3 million, with 19 executives each making salaries greater than $300,000. These are generous compensations dealt out by a company that claims to be providing fair services to students to help them on their paths to college readiness.
As we take the AP Microeconomics test in May with $94 less in our pockets, I am sure we will all find ourselves to be manipulated by the monopoly that is the College Board. Hopefully, thinking of the prices we are paying for our exams can at least help us to remember the qualities of monopolized markets!
Works Cited:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDHO6e7hP7g
https://education.good.is/features/ap-classes-a-scam-or-smart-move
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Board#Criticism
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This is a great example because I personally have had many conversations with people about how unfair College Board prices are and how we feel they are taking advantage of students. You also bring up the counterargument that many students take the ACT but the College Board is still a true monopoly in regards to Subject Tests, AP Tests, and the PSAT. College Board has no competition with these tests because they are the only company distributing them, and with colleges often requiring these test the consumers have no substitutions they can turn to.
ReplyDeleteI found this post interesting because today I was talking to someone about how we have to pay to take the test (that we don't want to take) and pay to send our scores to colleges, or else we can't go to college. This means that we don't have much of a choice and contribute to the growth of this company and let it determine the success in the next steps of our lives because there is not another alternative. This company starts becoming a part of our lives freshman/sophomore year with the PSAT all the way to senior year with the SAT and AP tests. I think that it primarily takes advantage of its consumers with its high testing prices, however it creates easy process for the necessary tests we need.
ReplyDeleteI think what's also notable about the CollegeBoard is that the "brand loyalty" that makes it indispensable to students in terms of the college admission process or high school education is not from the primary consumers of their product. It's the colleges that have determined that the SAT and AP tests are a good way to test the aptitude of a student, and it's that loyalty to the testing system that makes it a monopoly. This also means that the exorbitantly high price setting on the part of the CollegeBoard gets no pushback from students because they aren't determining the value of the product. Another interesting thing to note is that CollegeBoard says that they are a non for profit company, which contributes to their extremely high revenues.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Teagan! The College Board certainly almost has a monopoly on standardized testing, and it does abuse its market power because of it. I'm certain that what they're charging is well above their cost, but their costs are still probably fairly high. Their distribution costs must be through the roof, considering how they have to provide tests and proctors at locations all over the country for ease of access. For example, I'm sure many of us only traveled within the Bay Area, and definitely within NorCal, to take our tests. However, I do agree that the College Board is abusing its power. I also believe that it may not be able to do so to the extent that it does for much longer. This is due primarily to the emergence of the ACT test, which is now as widely accepted as the SAT test. It's interesting how the ACT became a competitor to the SAT, seeing as how the College Board was essentially a monopoly before the ACT was introduced. It makes me wonder how much of the "nonprofit" status actually limited the College Board from exerting its monopolistic power. The ACT didn't have an easy entry for sure, but it was able to break in, which is theoretically impossible given the monopoly status of College Board. I'm interested in seeing how much the "industry" of standardized testing changes over the next few decades, with the potential of a monopoly becoming an oligopoly.
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