The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall: Lawsuits Against the College Board
It is no secret that almost all major corporations fall victim to legal issues at some point in their existence. The College Board is no exception to the rule, having seen its fair share of lawsuits over the course of its long reign as the leading developer of standardized testing and curriculum for schools across the United States. Under the coronavirus pandemic, the College Board’s latest testing strategies have proven problematic for the organization. Forbes reported on May 20th that a class-action, multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed against the College Board on the behalf of high school students who were unable to submit their responses for this year’s online AP exams. The chaos does not end there, as calls for the resignation of the CEO of the College Board, David Coleman, have been plentiful.
Picture this: you are a junior in high school who has been preparing for the big test in your Advanced Placement class for just under a year. The coronavirus outbreak poses a threat to AP testing, but then the College Board announces that it plans on administering the AP test online, assuring you that it will be a painless process.
Test day comes, you type your response, and with five minutes left, you click submit - only nothing happens. You click submit again and again, and still nothing. As panic begins to set in, you are forced to watch as the clock runs down and then you are faced with your fate: an error screen, similar to the one posted here, informing you that the College Board has not received your response.
This scenario was an unfortunate reality for thousands of AP students across the country, who were unable to submit their work and were later told that they would be forced to retake the test they just completed at a later date. All that time, work, and energy put into one big test, only for the worst possible outcome. As if distractions and other issues were not enough, the College Board provided what is mildly described as a vague, insensitive response to students who had trouble submitting their work. Students were instructed to request a test retake, meaning that they would be required to complete the exam for a second time, beginning in late June if they planned on receiving credit.
Students were quick to express their outrage on social media, with the popular social platform, Tik Tok, being flooded with emotional videos of students expressing their resentment toward the College Board’s failed attempt to administer this year’s Advanced Placement tests. The organization stands accused of rushing to create a testing platform solely for the purpose of making money. An article by Inside Higher Ed reported, “FairTest: The National Center for Fair & Open Testing joined the suit, which claims breach of contract, gross negligence, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment and violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act”. Such allegations come with a hefty price tag, as the College Board may be required to pay over $500 million dollars in relief. Fairtest’s executive director stated, “The College Board rushed ‘untested’ AP computerized exams into the marketplace in order to preserve the testing company’s largest revenue-generating program after schools shut down this spring, even though they were warned about many potential access, technology and security problems” (“College Board Sued Over AP Exams”). In other words, the College Board made the decision to administer the AP tests, fully aware that students were highly likely to experience issues. The notion that the College Board’s motivations are purely monetary is far from new, as this is not the first time the corporation has been accused of neglecting the welfare of the millions of students it serves.
The combination of ineffective leadership by the College Board’s CEO, David Coleman, and a series of misleading marketing techniques has led students and educators alike to become increasingly distrusting of the organization. Coleman has faced backlash throughout his six-year career for his handling of sensitive situations. In 2018, Coleman issued a statement to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting that “seemed to treat the tragedy as a marketing opportunity”. Jon Boeckenstedt, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management at Oregon State University, claimed that the organization took a series of ads that were designed to appear as real news articles in an effort to discredit the test-optional movement that colleges are adopting in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Each of these individual incidents has contributed to revamped efforts calling for Coleman’s resignation.
To make matters worse, the College Board recently rescinded their announcement of plans to administer an at-home SAT test. Instead, the College Board is now set on holding regular SAT testing for prospective college applicants beginning this August. The stress that the College Board has caused students, teachers, and families, will be difficult to reverse. The AP testing scandal combined with a series of questionable decisions by the organization has left students and educators scrambling in the midst of a global health crisis, serving as further proof that the organization’s priorities are warped, to say the least.
If you would like to learn more about the action being taken against the College Board, visit the links below.
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