The College Board: A Very Profitable "Nonprofit"

       Around this time of the year, tens of thousands of high school juniors are frantically signing up for SAT prep classes, buying expensive AP guidebooks, and paying for the SATs, AP exams, and SAT subject tests. Profits for all companies involved are exorbitant, but one company in particular stands out with an enormous revenue of $200,000,000 dollars and a profit of $62,000,000. And what company would that be? None other than the College Board, a “not-for-profit” company that capitalizes off of students’ anxieties.

       In 1999, the College Board was facing cash-flow problems, so it recruited Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia, to transform the nonprofit company into a thriving business. Fourteen years later, the College Board holds a complete monopoly over the test-taking industry; although it does have one competitor, the ACT, many students are still required to take an SAT subject test in order to apply to certain schools, and all students wishing to earn college credit for an Advanced Placement class must take the corresponding AP exam, which the College Board creates. Therefore, it makes sense that its profits are 317% of the industry average and its former President, Mr. Capteron, earned 444% of the industry average at a compensation of $1.3 million last year. Its newly chosen President, David Coleman, will earn a base salary of $550,000, with a total compensation of nearly $750,000. Additionally, College Board’s 23 executives make an average of $355,271 per year. These high salaries are extremely suspicious: if the College Board truly wished to create “testing equality for everyone,” wouldn’t it pay its executives less and instead use those profits to lower the cost of the SAT for all? Why is this company considered a nonprofit if its motives aren’t completely altruistic?

      “The College Board is capitalizing on the perceived and exaggerated importance of the SATs,” said Bob Sweeney, an experienced guidance counselor. Indeed, the College Board will tack on all kinds of extra fees for certain services, including the “Rush Order”, exam date changes, and the “question-and-answer” service. On the College Board website, the company even attempts to sell all sorts of products, including The Official SAT Study Guide for $31.99. Although the SAT registration cost itself can be waived for low-income students, the costs of these special services are not, giving high-income students an edge when preparing for the SAT and completing college applications. It’s becoming questionable whether the College Board is, in fact, dedicated to an “equity agenda” of “expanding access to higher education for the poor, African-Americans, and Hispanic.” If the College Board truly wanted an equal testing experience for everybody, it would offer all of these extra services for free to those who cannot afford them. Does it really seem fair that one student can afford an SAT study guide (produced by the test-maker!) while another cannot? Those students with the right amount of money reap the benefits, while the others are left in the dust.

      Perhaps even more questionable is the accuracy of these tests in measuring one’s “aptitude.”  Director of undergraduate writing at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Les Perelman, looked over around 50 sample essays from the SAT distributed by the College Board and found a very strong correlation between length and score. “If you just graded them based on length without ever reading them, you’d be right over 90 percent of the time,” he said of the controversial SAT essay. A report released a while ago by the National Council of Teachers mirrored Dr. Perelman’s criticisms; it warns that the SAT is pushing for a “formulaic” way of writing and that students don’t have time to rewrite on the 25-minute essay section – a major error when measuring one’s editing abilities. This style of testing just promotes conformity; in order to succeed on the essay, students must ignore their inner creativity and instead churn out mechanical, structured responses.

       It’s quite clear that the College Board has acquired some major flaws over the past ten or so years. Not only has it given wealthier students an edge over their low-income peers, but it also doesn’t accurately test certain abilities.  In short, this “nonprofit” company has gone completely downhill – and there are several things you can do to protest. For one, you can take the ACT instead – which many colleges find acceptable on its own. Some colleges, such as Bowdoin and Muhlenburg, don’t even require any standardized testing. So instead of paying all those extra charges, why not shun the College Board and promote real educational equality?