The N.C. Department of Public Instruction received $229,180 this year under a federal grant program to subsidize test fees for low-income students, including those in nonpublic schools. But the DPI-administered program does not include private or homeschool students among the 3,000 students expected to receive aid.
The program is meant to encourage students to take Advanced Placement tests and obtain college credit for high school courses, reducing the time and cost required to complete a postsecondary degree.
The Advanced Placement Testing Program provides assistance for high school students concerned with college costs, or with simply getting into college. For $84 a test ($76 for the test and processing charges, and an $8 administrative fee to the testing center) high school students who pass an AP exam in a given subject can usually get college credit for the class, as well as regular high school credit.
The AP Program does more than just allow high school students to accumulate college credit, however. College admissions officials typically look at AP exam scores to judge the quality of a high school’s college preparatory program, and to assess the individual student’s ability to handle college-level material.
As a result, an increasing number of students take AP exams. For those targeting the more competitive schools, AP exams have become a virtual necessity. At UNC-Chapel Hill, 80 percent of the freshman class submits AP exam scores, and 50 percent have completed five or more AP courses. Sixty percent of NC State University’s freshman class submits AP exam scores.
Because of the increasing importance of AP exams to college-bound students, the College Board, the organization that prepares and administers the SAT and AP exams, has a program of fee reductions for low-income students. If a family fits one of the “low-income” definitions (income under 150 percent of the poverty level, for example), the College Board waives $22 of its fee and requests the testing center to forgo its $8 administrative fee, reducing the cost of the exam to $54.
The U.S. Department of Education decided that reduction of the costs was insufficient. It created a program in 2005 to cover the remaining $54 of the AP exam costs for low-income students. For fiscal 2007, $12 million was budgeted for the program, of which $9.23 million was awarded to the states.
According to Mary Daley, coordinator of the fee-reduction program in New York, the program “has made a big difference in New York, particularly in our urban and rural areas…our Appalachian counties, and our five big cities.”
As part of the application, the state educational authority must present its plan for the use of the funds, including the categories of students eligible for the grant. Out of the 45 states that run an AP Test Fee program, 31 of them specifically cover both public and private students, and several more do not discriminate between the different types of institutions. Texas will cover $30 per exam for all high school students, and an additional $18 for those who qualify for the College Board fee reduction, bringing the cost to a low-income student to $6. Utah specifically includes private school and charter students in its program.
“In New York, for all federal monies, we cover both public and non-public students. It is a policy of ours.,” Daley said. Additionally, as the federal funds are distributed under a “supplement, not supplant” requirement, non-federal funds allotted before the federal grant was received can be only added to, not replaced. In some states, this translates to an extension of the program beyond the federal standard, covering a single AP exam for all students of whatever income level, or covering all AP exams for some students that do not meet the College Board criteria.
In North Carolina, though, the availability of the fee reduction for low-income students is more limited. As administered by DPI, the grant applies only to public school students. Private, parochial, and homeschool students are on their own when it comes to AP exam fees. The College Board fee reduction is open to all, but the federal funds are unavailable to N.C. students not enrolled in the public schools, despite the fact that many nonpublic students are taking, and paying for, their AP exams at local public high schools.
Wandra Polk, director of K-12 Curriculum at DPI, said the distribution is a simple matter of jurisdiction. “We do not administer grants for nonpublic education,” she said. N.C. high school guidance counselors are administering other fee waiver and grant programs for nonpublic students, however. The College Board offers two free administrations of the SAT for low-income students upon verification of their paperwork by the local school guidance counselor. DPI administers another federal program of grants to provide speech therapy and other services for special-needs students, public and private alike.
Many nonpublic students actually take their examinations at a local public high school. Most states have the guidance counselor determine eligibility for low-income students and mark the number of exams taken under the College Board fee waiver, and College Board bills the state directly, which then disburses the required funds from the federal award. N.C. guidance counselors are already handling the College Board fee waiver requests of nonpublic students and are collecting their fees for the exams.
When asked whether it would involve any more paperwork for him if nonpublic students were included in the fee waiver program, Ron Speier, guidance counselor and AP coordinator at Smithfield-Selma High School, said it would not.
John Calvin Young is a contributing editor of Carolina Journal.