Social:AP Examination controversy - 2020
2020 Advanced Placement Examination controversy was a controversy which involved College Board, a nonprofit education company, allegedly performing a series of potentially illegal activities, including phishing students and creating unfair testing conditions.[1][2] Estimates indicated that 4,914,000 AP tests were taken online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with some experiencing technical difficulties while submitting their examinations.[3][4] In response, a lawsuit of 500 million USD was filed against the College Board over a planned operation of letting its students cheat in their exam to profit.
Controversies
Previous controversies
The College Board was notable for previous criticism received by other students and teachers. This involved fees to take an exam which were high if a student was taking it late.[5] Other activity was also reported such as sale of student data in 2019 (0.47$ per student name to access their info),[6] SAT Exams being recycled,[7] and reporting errors. In the earlier years, the College Board was allegedly was in violation of their nonprofit status on education, with the company's CEO earning more than $1.3 million in 2019.[8][9]
Phishing scam
On April 1, 2020, the College Board allegedly created an account and subreddit on Reddit, for the intention of posing as a student to find and cancel the scores of other students who intended to cheat. The account was later criticized for being a Phishing scam, attempting to collect student data of supposedly cheating students.[1] Before the events took place, the sub-reddit page r/APexams2020 was created in which posts have by the account included encouragements to cheat during the exam. On May 12, 2020, the subreddit was inundated with photos of anime pornography.
COVID-19 pandemic and controversy
As the COVID-19 pandemic prevailed and damaged education in over 190 countries, leading to school closures in many nations.[10] By March 2020, College Board announced the cancellation of several SAT test dates during the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[11] The AP examinations were taken online and only lasted only 45 minutes. Later, students reported troubleshooting problems that they were not able to submit leading to over 10,000 students that did not pass the exam and having to retake it. This led to a controversy of violating consumer rights.[5] As all the exams for a particular subject test were taken at the same time, regardless of time zone, many students who live outside of the United States claimed that the times were inconvenient to take the tests at, with some students needing to take certain tests in the middle of the night. [12] In response, the College Board has offered free CLEP testing to students overseas who were unsatisfied with their scores.
Lawsuit
Over the failure of many students, on May 16, 2020 a federal lawsuit was filed out with 500 million USD due to misleading, violation of non-profit, unjust enrichment and other. FairTest was involved criticizing College Board[13] for its controversial monopoly on education.[14] An earlier lawsuit was filed when the company was caught illegally selling student data.[15]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Kircher, Madison Malone (May 17, 2020). "Students Think College Board Is Running a Reddit Sting to Catch AP Test Cheaters". https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/college-board-fake-reddit-account-ap-test-cheaters.html.
- ↑ Altavena, Erin Richards, Samantha West and Lily. "Amid coronavirus, AP exams went online and had tech problems. College Board says it's investigating.". https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/05/15/coronavirus-ap-exam-2020-college-board-troubleshooting/5194639002/.
- ↑ Snouwaert, Jessica. "Nearly 10,000 students ran into issues submitting their AP exams because of technical glitches". https://www.businessinsider.com/students-experience-issues-submitting-online-ap-exams-2020-5.
- ↑ "Students complain that they cannot submit AP tests | Inside Higher Ed". https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/05/18/students-complain-they-cannot-submit-ap-tests.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "SAT Testing Fees". https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/fees.
- ↑ "Pricing & Payment Policies". https://collegeboardsearch.collegeboard.org/pastudentsrch/support/licensing/pricing-payment-policies. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
- ↑ "Taking the SAT is hard enough. Then students learned the test's answers may have been leaked online" (in en-US). 2018-08-28. https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sat-exam-leaked-20180827-story.html.
- ↑ Costello, Carol. (December 29, 2009). "Educating America: The big business of the SAT", CNN. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
- ↑ "College Board Leader Paid More Than Harvard's". Americans for Educational Testing Reform. 25 August 2011. http://www.aetr.org/2011/08/college-board-leader-paid-more-than-harvards/. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
- ↑ "Coronavirus Pandemic Complicates College Plans For High School Students". https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/03/20/coronavirus-college-plans-high-school.
- ↑ Group, JOCE STERMAN and ALEX BRAUER, Sinclair Broadcast (2020-04-21). "Coronavirus change has students taking rigorous AP exams in the middle of the night". https://wjla.com/news/spotlight-on-america/coronavirus-change-has-students-taking-rigorous-ap-exams-in-the-middle-of-the-night.
- ↑ "College Board says AP testing was a success, is sued | Inside Higher Ed". https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/05/26/college-board-says-ap-testing-was-success-sued.
- ↑ "Online college isn’t worth $15K? Class-action suit against Rutgers seeks refunds for remote classes.". May 24, 2020. https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/05/online-college-isnt-worth-15k-class-action-suit-against-rutgers-seeks-refunds-for-remote-classes.html.
- ↑ "New Lawsuit Claims College Board Illegally Sold Student Data". https://news.wttw.com/2019/12/10/new-lawsuit-claims-college-board-illegally-sold-student-data.
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