College Board investigates Environmental Science AP Exam

Kyra Williams

News Editor

Advanced Placement Exam Test Proctors dealt with an incident on May 10 in the Mira Costa small gym in which a student compromised an individual set of testing materials during the AP Environmental Science Exam.

The AP administration immediately secured the testing area and reported the incident to College Board. Mira Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale sent an email on May 20 stating that the situation did not impact other students and members of the administration have been working closely with College Board to ensure no other APES exams were compromised.

“We’ve done everything that College Board has asked us to do and we see no reason for red flags to be raised,” Dale said.

Between the end of section one and the beginning of section two of the APES exam, a booklet went missing and has still not been found, AP Exam Coordinator Joe Ciasulli said. The administration is currently waiting for a response from College Board entailing whether or not Costa students will be granted credit on the APES exam.

“Students were aware of the rules of College Board and I believe they are doing the best they can regarding our situation,” APES student and junior Alex Fry said. “However it is unfortunate that Costa and all the other APES students are having to deal with the consequences of one student.”

Ciasulli submitted an argument to College Board in which he explained the details of the situation and why he believes that Costa students did not get an unfair advantage on the exam. During the time the booklet went missing, there was only a brief minute or two where students were outside of the control of proctors and once the incident became apparent, students were immediately called inside, Ciasulli said.  

“Nobody in that room could have gotten an advantage and nobody in that room could have seen the answers,” Ciasulli said. “Since nobody in that room got an advantage, then their scores should count.”

According to the policy on the College Board website, in the case of a security breach, consequences could result in the invalidation of exam scores for the individual student or for all the students taking that specific exam at the school administration site.

“College Board considers this a terrible thing because someone could have gotten their hands on that booklet and sent pictures to American Samoa,” Ciasulli said. “We immediately had to report to College Board that it was missing because that is what College Board’s rules say.”

APES students took a survey on Monday morning in the small gym, where they answered questions including whether or not they were aware of the supposed cheating at the time, or if they had heard anything regarding answers to test questions. The administration is waiting to hear College Board’s decision and the outcome of the situation.

“I am very hopeful and highly confident that there should be no consequences to anybody in that room, but I can’t guarantee that,” Ciasulli said.