AP question

[JennyD]

Does anyone know whether the CB has specific requirements for a school to be able to order AP exams?  Looking through the site, I see that the registration process asks a number of questions (size of school, etc.) but I don't see anything about whether there are any minimum requirements.  Parents and students can't order exams, obviously, but can other organizations?

 

[Lilaclady]

Yes, some other organizations can but they go through an intense scrutiny by the collegeboard. they are very particular about things like how many tables are in the rooms and the sizes of the table and spacing. They also do periodic audits and can also retract the accreditation from  the organization. This happened to us the first year my dd was scheduled to take AP and the organization could no longer offer AP exam and we were notified in March. It was crazy. 

[Farrar]

Yep. What Lilaclady said. There are homeschool groups that offer them occasionally, but these tend to be large groups backed with a lot of institutional systems and support. Basically schools. Getting approval requires a lot of bureaucracy. The organizations that offer them that aren't schools or a tiny handful of homeschool groups tend to be either organizations offering a single exam (music theory is often offered by music schools, for example) or for profit tutoring outfits that are charging an arm and a leg in really affluent areas.

[JennyD]

Thanks for the replies!  I am actually investigating this on behalf of a (very) small startup high school.  So, a real school, but it will be tiny, at least to start, and I'm not sure when accreditation will come through.  Does anyone know who the right person at the College Board would be to ask about this?

[Sebastian (a lady)]

22 hours ago, JennyD said:

Thanks for the replies!  I am actually investigating this on behalf of a (very) small startup high school.  So, a real school, but it will be tiny, at least to start, and I'm not sure when accreditation will come through.  Does anyone know who the right person at the College Board would be to ask about this?

This page on College Board lists the steps.

You may be too late for May 2022.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/launch-grow-ap-program/launch/get-approved

[daijobu]

On 11/17/2021 at 3:43 AM, Lilaclady said:

Yes, some other organizations can but they go through an intense scrutiny by the collegeboard. they are very particular about things like how many tables are in the rooms and the sizes of the table and spacing. They also do periodic audits and can also retract the accreditation from  the organization. This happened to us the first year my dd was scheduled to take AP and the organization could no longer offer AP exam and we were notified in March. It was crazy. 

I have a hard time accepting that there is much in the way of "intense scrutiny" given the hundreds of test locations, which I don't think anyone is auditing so much as maybe scanning social media.  Here are some examples:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/07/19/mills-high-schools-ap-test-scores-invalidated-students-cry-foul/

https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/05/18/gunn-high-students-asked-to-retake-ap-exams-due-to-testing-errors

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-jul-11-me-ap11-story.html

https://www.kusi.com/sdusd-seeking-restraining-order-from-federal-judge-over-voided-ap-test-scores/

Here's at tip:  Don't take photos of your test center and students and then post it to twitter.