The College Board: A History of Expanding Access and Navigating Controversy
The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, stands as a prominent American not-for-profit organization with a rich history and broad influence on education in the United States and beyond. Best known for its college entrance examination, the SAT (formerly called the Scholastic Assessment Test and, before that, the Scholastic Aptitude Test), the College Board has played a significant role in shaping college admissions and educational standards for over a century.
Origins and Early Years
The College Board was founded as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) on December 22, 1899, at Columbia University in the City of New York. The formal establishment occurred in 1900. This initiative was spearheaded by representatives from 12 universities and three high school preparatory academies in the states of New York and New Jersey. The organization's creation stemmed from a need to bring order to the college admissions process, which in the 19th century was chaotic and inefficient. This was due to the wide curricular independence enjoyed by public schools across the United States and the variety of admissions practices and standards used by colleges and universities.
At its founding, the College Board had 12 institutional and charter members, all located in the northeastern United States. As a voluntary association composed of university- and secondary-level educators, it saw itself as having two major functions: (1) to provide a forum for the discussion of issues related to college admissions and access to college and (2) to design and administer a common entrance examination, the results of which would be reported to the colleges and universities to interpret as they chose.
Between 1900 and 1915, the entrance examinations administered by the College Board were tests of knowledge in nine content areas: English, history, Latin, Greek, French, German, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. In 1916 that original design gave way to a system of comprehensive examinations that placed a greater emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking while still testing students on subject-area knowledge. The examinations were read and scored by college and high-school teachers. Participation in the College Board’s testing program was confined mainly to well-established private colleges in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states, including several important women’s colleges. Many of the colleges that were members of the College Board continued to administer their own admissions tests in addition to the College Board examination until the end of World War I. Most Midwestern and Southern colleges relied on certifications from public high schools stating that an applicant was prepared for college or university study.
The Rise of Standardized Testing: The SAT
During World War I, the military began to use new “psychological” or “intelligence” tests, administering more than two million tests to soldiers and sailors. After the war, university admissions officials began to explore how intelligence testing could be used in the admission process. In 1924, Carl Campbell Brigham, a psychologist who had been involved in developing the military tests, was invited to chair a College Board commission on psychological testing, with the result being the adoption of the College Board’s first psychological examination, called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, in 1926. The test comprised two sections: the first measured verbal or linguistic aptitude, and the second measured mathematical and scientific aptitude. Essays were part of the examinations until 1941, when travel restrictions curtailed exam readers’ movement. (Essays were reinstated in 2005.) “Achievement” examinations (later called the SAT II: Subject Tests and, subsequently, the SAT Subject Tests), designed to test applicants’ content knowledge, were often administered in test locations after the SAT examination.
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By 1944, only 15 percent of American colleges were using the SAT as an admissions tool, but the 1950s and 1960s would be decades of unprecedented growth for the College Board as the SAT became the standard examination for college admission. Regional offices were opened around the United States and abroad. It also continued its mission as a voluntary association providing a forum for deliberation, discussion, research, and implementation of policies and programs relating to secondary and higher education. In 1954 the College Board set up the College Scholarship Service, which developed forms and guidelines for determining students’ need for financial aid.
Although early educational psychometricians at the College Board claimed that test takers would not be able to improve their performance on the SAT, in 1959 it introduced the Practice SAT exam (PSAT).
Expanding Programs and Services
Over the years, the College Board has expanded its programs and services to encompass a wider range of educational needs.
College-Level Examination Program (CLEP)
The 1960s brought a heightened interest in educational opportunities for people who had not attended college or finished their formal schooling. In response, the Carnegie Corporation, in partnership with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), established a committee charged with the responsibility of implementing a standardized national credit-by-examination testing program. In 1965 the College Board assumed responsibility and oversight for what would become known as College-Level Examination Program (CLEP®), and soon thereafter sought and received the endorsement of the American Council on Education (ACE). 1967 marked the establishment of 50 test centers throughout the United States and the first national administration of CLEP exams.CLEP has also served active duty service members through a Department of Defense contract since 1974. Recently, Montgomery GI Bill funding was extended to cover the cost of CLEP exams for military veterans, which allow veterans to focus on needed degree coursework as they transition from military to civilian life.CLEP allows students to demonstrate that they have acquired college-level mastery of course content. The 34 CLEP examinations include subjects that are generally taught in the first two years of an undergraduate degree program. Topical areas include: Composition & Literature, Science, Mathematics, Foreign Languages, History, Social Sciences, and Business.Students who successfully complete a CLEP® exam can enrich their degree programs with higher-level courses in the same discipline, expand their horizons by taking a wider array of electives, and avoid the need to repeat material that they already know. Research indicates that individuals earning credit through CLEP® are more likely than their peers to perform well in subsequent coursework and to persist in their degree progress.CLEP credit is accepted by 2,900 colleges and universities and examinations are administered via computer at more than 2,000 test centers throughout the United States and overseas. A complete list of CLEP test centers is available on the Web at www.collegeboard.com/clep.
Advanced Placement (AP) Program
The College Board's Advanced Placement Program (AP) is an extensive program that offers high school students the chance to participate in what the College Board describes as college-level classes, reportedly broadening students' intellectual horizons and preparing them for college work. It also plays a large part in the college admissions process, showing students' intellectual capacity and genuine interest in learning. The program allows many students to gain college credit for high performance on the AP exams, which cost $97 each, much in the same manner as the CLEP. Granting credit, however, is at the discretion of the college.
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Accuplacer
The College Board's Accuplacer test is a computer-based placement test that assesses reading, writing, and math skills. The Accuplacer test includes reading comprehension, sentence skills, arithmetic, elementary algebra, college-level mathematics, and the writing test, Writeplacer. The Accuplacer test is used primarily by more than 1,000 high schools and colleges to determine a student's needed placement. Often community colleges have specific guidelines for students requiring the Accuplacer test. The Accuplacer Companion paper-and-pencil tests allow students with disabilities (specifically students with an Individualized Education Program or 504 Plan) to take the test through its braille, large print, and audio tests. The biggest benefit of the Accuplacer and Accuplacer Companion tests is their ability to be scored immediately through an online scoring system and taken in remote locations. While there are normally no fees for taking the test, some institutions may charge a fee to retake the test. Note that if a testing institution is not local, an examinee may be required to arrange a proctor for the test. If so, a local library may be willing to serve as a proctor as there are not many other options for individuals in this case.
SpringBoard
SpringBoard is a pre-Advanced Placement program created by the College Board to prepare students who intend to take AP courses or college-level courses in their scholastic careers. Based on Wiggins and McTighe's "Understanding by Design" model, the SpringBoard program attempts to map knowledge into scholastic skill sets in preparation for Advanced Placement testing and college success. Units of instruction are titrated to students within and across all school grades, providing a vertically articulated curriculum framework that scaffolds learning skills and subject test knowledge. The curriculum applies to grades 6 through 12. Teachers are provided with formative assessments, professional training, and various teaching tools to track student progress. The instructional framework is integrated into the curriculum content and subject materials.
BigFuture
BigFuture is a free online resource that helps students plan for college, pay for college, and explore careers. BigFuture's National Recognition Program awards honors to underrepresented students, including African American students, Hispanic students, Indigenous students, and students who live in rural areas or small towns.
Bluebook
Bluebook is a secure testing application for Windows, MacOS, iPadOS, and ChromeOS. Bluebook is used to take digital College Board exams, such as the SAT, PSAT, and certain AP exams. All SAT and PSATs transitioned to digital only in spring 2024. Some AP exams are fully digital, while others are paper only or a hybrid of the two.
The Digital SAT
On January 25, 2022, College Board announced that the SAT will be delivered digitally in an attempt to change the format of the test itself. Vice President of the College Readiness Assessment at College Board, Priscilla Rodriguez, states "The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give and more relevant". Some new features of this digital version of the SAT include: a 2 hours testing period instead of the 3 hours period that has been used for the current SAT, more relevant topics that cover material that is given in college courses, and calculators will be allowed the entirety of the Math portion of the exam. Digital versions of the exam gives College Board the opportunity to address inequities that are associated with student accessibility to technology by providing students who don't have computers on testing days. This new change was brought forth by College Board following disruptions in testing that were COVID related. The digital SAT is an adaptive test, made up of 2 reading and writing modules and 2 math modules. If the test taker does well on the first module of a section, then the second module of the section will be harder, and if the test taker does poorly on the first module, the second module will be easier.
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Fees and Financial Aspects
The College Board, not-for-profit association of over 6,000 universities, colleges, schools, and other educational institutions, monetizes off of the students with the exams it provides. As far as income is concerned, the financial aspect of the College Board has been one of the major points of negative discussion. According to recent reporting from the New York Times, more than $490 million of the College Board’s revenue came from AP and Instruction. The organization originally founded to increase access to higher education now serves as a block in the road for many. The SAT is a fee-based digital standardized test for college admissions in the United States, first administered in 1926. Most students take the test during their junior or senior year of high school. Currently, the base test is $68. Various fees can accumulate-registering beyond the registration deadline results in a $30 late fee and changing a test date, center, or test type results in a $25 fee. As a result, student testing fees may run up to $200 or more for a single test. The PSAT/NMSQT is a fee-based standardized test that provides firsthand practice for the SAT for a cost of $18. However, the cost may vary based on state, district, or school. The test also functions as a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's scholarship programs. The SAT Reasoning registration fee was $68 as of June 2025 with an additional $34 fee for late registrations; as of March 2025, AP exams cost $99 with an additional $40 fee for late orders. The SAT Subject Tests cost a baseline of $26 with a $22 fee for each test. Other services can be added to the basic costs, including late registration, score verification services, and various answering available services. SAT score reports cost $12 per college for 1-2-week electronic delivery or 2-4-week paper or disk delivery.
On another note, opportunities for fee waivers, either for an individual or an entire district are available. The College Board allows high school administrators to authorize fee waivers for some services to students from low-income families, generally those meeting National School Lunch Act criteria. In addition, because of the competitive nature of the test, many students take preparatory courses or have SAT tutoring, which can increase costs. In 2017, the College Board had a $140 million surplus. Budget surpluses persist despite market-leading compensation packages for the College Board's executives - in 2009, the College Board paid out a $1.3 million/year package for CEO Caperton, more than the head of the American Red Cross or Harvard University.
The Profit Playbook: Testing and Underpaid Labor
Two strategies underpin the College Board’s financial dominance. First, its testing empire operates like a well-oiled machine. The SAT suite-taken by 2 million students annually-generates $200-300 million from base fees and ancillary charges like $15 score reports. Meanwhile, the Advanced Placement (AP) program, which administered 5 million exams at $99 each in 2025, rakes in nearly $500 million, supplemented by millions from course materials and teacher training . Even middle schoolers are monetized through the PSAT 8/9, an exam for 13-year-olds that locks schools into multi-year testing contracts. Second, Perhaps most ethically fraught is its reliance on underpaid educators. Teachers grade AP exams for about $30 per hour-less than half the rate of private tutors-similar to the honorarium paid to SAT and AP proctors. Schools generally pay the cost of proctoring the PSAT.School districts continue paying teachers’ salaries during school-based testing, such as the PSAT and AP’s. The College Board separately compensates AP proctors and some districts retain the funds, arguing that instructors are already on the payroll. For districts, the arrangement carries a hidden cost: they receive no reimbursement for salary expenses during proctoring hours, effectively subsidizing the administration of these exams. Compounding the issue is the significant loss of classroom instructional time-a resource critical to student outcomes-which translates to an additional, often overlooked, toll on both districts and learners. This labor model saves the College Board millions of dollars annually, often subsidizing profits through public school budgets.
Criticism and Controversies
Criticism of the Board and its exams goes back to at least 1922, with a Harvard Alumni Bulletin article from prep school teacher Morgan Barnes. Since the late 1970s, the College Board has been subject to criticism from students, educators, and consumer rights activists. The College Board owns the SAT, and many students must take SAT exams for admission to competitive colleges. Some colleges also require students to submit a College Board CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE when applying for financial aid. FairTest, an organization that advocates against over-dependence on standardized tests in school admissions, maintains that the SAT often underestimates the aptitude of African-American students and others.
In 2005, MIT Writing Director Les Perelman plotted essay length versus essay score on the new SAT from released essays and found a high correlation between them. After studying 23 graded essays, he found that the longer the essay was, the higher its score. Perelman found that he could accurately determine the score of an essay without even reading the essay. In his study, he discovered that several of these essays were full of factual inaccuracies. Perelman, along with the National Council of Teachers of English, also criticized the 25-minute writing section of the test for damaging standards of writing taught in the classroom. Some teachers have criticized AP classes as restrictive in the nature of their curriculum and yet indispensable due to the importance of AP classes in the college admissions process. The College Board can effectively control every aspect of AP classes directly or indirectly. The $97 fee, which is noted critically above, results only in a score report with the test name and grade. Additionally, starting with a pilot program in 2018 and officially rolling out to all schools in 2019, the College Board required students to sign up for AP tests during the fall before early-round college decisions are out. While the College Board stated that this was to ensure students commit to learning the material at the beginning of the year, the move drew criticism from students, stating that because they do not know whether or not the college they end up attending will grant credit for the test, the new, early registration deadline forces students to pay for tests that they will receive no benefit from. Traditionally, AP exams are given in a school setting and last two to four hours. However, in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the College Board created an alternate form of AP testing for that year. Students were to take exams at home in a shortened 45-minute, open-book format. In March 2006, it was discovered that the College Board had incorrectly scored several thousand tests taken in October 2005. Although the Board was aware of the error as early as December, it waited months to respond, and in late March, schools still did not have the correct details. Many colleges use the SAT score to decide acceptance and scholarships. The late reporting of errors upset many high-profile colleges.
As of September 2021, the College Board charges $0.50 per name for access to student information. An investigation by the New York Civil Liberties Union revealed that one of the College Board's customers was JAMRS, a military recruitment program run by the United States Department of Defense. The College Board and ACT have been sued over the use of this information. In addition, there is criticism that students are not sufficiently made aware that their data is being sold, or that disclosure of certain data is optional. On August 25, 2018, the SAT given in America was a recycled October 2017 international SAT given in China.
Mission Drift: When A Nonprofit Prioritizes Market Share
Recent controversies highlight how financial incentives increasingly override educational goals. The 2025 digital SAT rollout was plagued by technical failures, the launch stranded students mid-test, with critics accusing the College Board of rushing to outpace its rival, the ACT . Technical issues with AP Classroom and this year’s AP Psychology exam further erodes confidence. Its handling of the AP African American Studies curriculum sparked outrage when the organization diluted course content amid political pushback. The College Board lobbied aggressively to preserve SAT mandates. New America notes that the College Board spends millions each year to lobby state and federal representatives to maintain their market position. This decisions aligns with, according to Pro Publica, CEO David Coleman’s over $2.5 million compensation package-triple the average for nonprofit leaders-raising questions about whom the organization truly serves.
The AP Paradox: Equity Leader or Gatekeeper?
The Advanced Placement program embodies the College Board’s contradictions. While studies show AP courses improve college readiness for underserved students, barriers persist. Exams cost $99 each-a burden for low-income districts-and recent recalibrating of test scores have sparked concerns about score inflation. “Do the changes in performance mean that students are more qualified, or that the tests are easier?,” notes Jon Boeckenstedt, former Vice Provost for Admissions at Oregon State University.Moreover, schools often narrow curricula to align with AP frameworks. AP’s benefits are real but uneven. The program’s success hinges on equitable access, yet the College Board profits from the very inequities it claims to address. The College Board does offer discounts for documented low income students, but the over $50 fee is still steep for low-income students. As Doyoon Lee comments in the LA Times, “This financial barrier is particularly challenging for students from low-income families, who may already be struggling to meet basic educational expenses.”
The Bottom Line: Helpful or Harmful?
The College Board’s legacy is a study in contrasts. On one hand, AP courses correlate with higher college graduation rates, and standardized metrics help colleges evaluate applicants across diverse educational backgrounds. On the other, its products perpetuate systemic inequities. SAT scores, for instance, continue to be highly correlated with family income. At the same time, the PSAT 8/9 exemplifies profit-driven priorities, subjecting 13-year-olds to high-stakes testing with few studies showing evidence of academic benefit. Prominent among these issues is the organization's labor exploitation. By outsourcing proctoring and grading to underpaid educators, the College Board extracts value from public schools while privatizing profits-a dynamic that mirrors gig economy practices more than educational stewardship.
Leadership
David Coleman has been the CEO of the College Board since October 2012.
Conclusion
The College Board's journey since its founding in 1900 has been marked by significant contributions to education and college access, as well as ongoing debates about equity, affordability, and the role of standardized testing. As the organization continues to evolve, it faces the challenge of balancing its mission-driven goals with the financial realities of operating on a large scale. Its influence on students, educators, and institutions remains substantial, making it a key player in the landscape of American education.
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