ARE AP EXAMS A SCAM?

This past year, my inbox and phone have been flooded with parents saying their high schoolers are bombarded with school-based academic and extracurricular commitments.?

14-16 hour school days.?

Endless hours of studying.?

School clubs and activities that are running like full conservatory programs.?

Anxiety. Stress. Not enough sleep.?

It is a hamster wheel that never stops.

And, I am waving the red flag.?

I see it from a unique perspective.?

You see, I am the Founder/CEO of Stage Door Dance Productions in Raleigh, NC. We’re a dance studio, but we are unique in that we are disrupting the traditional model. We dance, but we do so in a way that’s designed to push humanity forward. As an out-of-school extracurricular activity, we listen and learn a lot about the operations in the educational system.?

This is eye opening because our community is full of wildly intelligent students.?

I value their experiences.?

Of the thousands we have served over the past 15 years, I have a pretty solid pulse on the state of the youth.?

Right now, I’m deeply worried and passionate about tackling the topic of toxic achievement culture, which seems to have permeated education, extracurriculars, and beyond.?

There is irony in the fact that I am an overachiever myself.?

Full academic scholarship to college: check.?

Successful entrepreneur: check.

Author of 3 books: check.

Motivational speaker: check.

Corporate consultant: check.?

The difference?

My achievements haven’t been part of the toxic systems. In fact, for the majority, they’ve actually been in spite of the existing systems. This is why, years into my work, I’m now called fancy things like “disruptor” and “thought leader”.?

This is what I definitely know:?

In a world designed to prioritize recognition,? the systems surrounding us are seemingly designed to capitalize on subjective, pay-to-play assessments of our self-worth.?

Just listen:?

I first became attuned to this in my niche of dance education. A few years into my entrepreneurial journey, I realized that the wild west of youth dance competitions was the antithesis of my vision. I did something really bold and extracted my studios from it, reconceptualizing the idea of elevated dance education. I was told ridiculous things like I was a “sore loser” or “woke on steroids''.?

I didn’t care.?

I knew I was on the right track.?

And, I stayed on that track for years.?

It has served me well.?

Then, about a month or so ago, at peak levels of success, I started feeling some weird sense of self-doubt about scoring a 1 on my Advanced Placement (AP) US History Exam in 2002.?

(For those of you who don’t know, a 1 is literally the lowest score you can receive.)

A call from another parent about excessive high school rigor interrupted my brief bout of recurring imposter syndrome.?

As I sat at my desk, I couldn’t help but wonder:

“What are we doing to these students?”

I jumped up from my desk, ran to the next room, grabbed a white board, and wrote on it:

IN 20 YEARS, YOUR AP EXAMS WON’T MATTER!?

I asked a colleague to take a photo.?

And then I let it sit on my phone.?

I didn’t really want to share it.

Then, another email came in about another high schooler who was sick with stress about AP exams.?

I decided to go for it.?

I posted it everywhere: Facebook , Instagram , and LinkedIn.?

The comments came flooding in. People from every time period and sphere of my life? were sharing their stories about how they (a) bombed their AP Exams and (b) questioned their sense of self-worth while also recognizing that all of that stress lacked long-term significance. Even people who scored prestigious 4s and 5s were left saying, “why did we do that?”?

Humanity came together over this shared commonality of pressure and seemingly meaningless, forced metric of success.?

If this many people felt this way, there had to be something off. So, much like I did when I had a gut feeling regarding the negative impact of dance competitions, I started digging into the history of AP Exams and The College Board.?

I started with scoring rates.?

In 2023, 52.5% of AP US History Test Takers scored a 1 or a 2.?

So, I really wasn’t in terrible company if over half of test takers were scoring in the bottom quadrant.?

Then, I looked at participation rates for the number of tests taken:?

1964: less than 38,000 exams

1970s: 75,600

2000: 750,000

2006: 1,300,000

2016: 2,600,000

2023: 4,100,000

After seeing these numbers, I started looking at the finances.

The College Board, which produces the AP Exams, is designated as a not-for-profit by the Internal Revenue Service.?

The? company holds $1.6 billion and handsomely pays its Executive Team.?

($1.8 million for the CEO)?

When you consider these correlations and conversations, you have to wonder: are AP Exams achieving their marketed campaign of getting students ahead??

Or, are they stunting meaningful, scholastic conversations with subjectively formulaic exams that are undermining the worth of some of the country’s best minds?

The College Board has generated the buy-in and alignment of both high schools and the majority of higher education institutions. With this deep entrenchment, there’s no watchdog asking these questions about ethics, sensibility, or functionality.

Are the exams actually serving the students, or are they serving the deep pockets of an outdated institution??

For anyone that’s deep in the end-of-the-year overwhelm, here are the things I know that are counterintuitive to the messaging typically received:?

You can have a wonderful high school career without taking AP Exams.

AND

You can go to college and be successful without AP Exams.

Your AP Exam Scores (pass or fail) do not determine your success as an individual.?

So often, the things that become normalized are often serving something larger than our own personal interests.?

If it works for you, that’s fine, but if it doesn’t, that needs to be normalized, too.?

At the end of the day, we all only get one shot at life. Our youth get one chance at high school, and I’d love to see more joy as a part of that process. Instead of stress and overwhelm, I want to get calls about projects being worked on, questions being answered, and passions being activated and pursued. I want high school and college graduates to eagerly enter their careers with excitement and enthusiasm.

The College Board- this above scenario isn’t happening.?

We aren’t getting ahead.?

In fact, we are falling behind.?

And, ethically and morally, what are you going to do to help??

Are you going to wave the red flag, too??

For me, in my small space in the world, I’ll be doing everything in my power.?

And, as artist Caroline Caldwell eloquently stated, “In a society that profits from your self doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act.”?

Let’s all commit to liking ourselves a little more.?

If we lead by example, the youth will do the same.?