Testing Platform Issues Lead to PSAT Shutdown

by Katie Ng ’25

The College Board built a month-long testing window for administering the PSAT. Sherwood planned to administer the test on October 11 but had to reschedule it for October 24 due to challenges on the College Board’s testing site. The College Board released a statement apologizing for the late start to testing and inconveniences to school operations. Luckily, the makeup PSAT went smoothly.

On October 11, the College Board PSAT testing platform began experiencing issues. A surge in traffic caused schools to delay testing or remain unable to start. Consequently, MCPS central office reached out to schools and advised them to stop due to the issues with the testing platform. At 9:15 a.m., other schools in the nation resumed testing. The majority of MCPS schools did not resume testing.

“Based on the guidance from [the] central office, and continued difficulties accessing the testing platform by both students and teachers, Sherwood leadership determined it was necessary to shut down testing on the morning of 10/11,” said Assistant Principal Graham Lear.

MCPS Joins Lawsuit Against Social Media

by Liam Trump ’24

Frantz Law Groups announced MCPS has recently joined more than 500 different school districts in suing social media companies such as Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta. Surrounding Maryland school districts such as Prince George’s, Cecil, and Carroll counties have since become involved in the suit. The lawsuit alleges numerous social media companies have caused mental and emotional harm as seen in higher proportions of anxiety, depression, thoughts of self-harm, eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem among children and adolescents.

The suit seeks financial damages to go towards staffing and resources to lessen the costs that school districts are experiencing due to the crisis. In response to the lawsuit, social media companies have pointed out how they have features and parental controls meant to mitigate these problems. TikTok, for example, has noted their age-restriction features, YouTube has pointed to how it allows parents to set time limits, and Meta, which owns Instagram, mentioned how it has more than 30 tools that support teens through age verification software and notifications that take regular breaks. Just in May of this year, however, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy issued a statement that went over how extensive social media usage can lead to a child having a higher risk of poor mental health.

MCPS Paying for All AP Exams

by Aspen Weinberg ’25

For the first time beginning this school year, MCPS is now covering all fees relating to the Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The decision comes at a time when the cost of AP exams has been rising in recent years, with the College Board currently charging $97 per exam. At such a sticker price, some high-achieving students could pay nearly a thousand dollars for AP exams by the time they graduated.

Many students have found the recently rising exam fees to be inaccessible even with financial aid. Concerned that students would opt out of taking the exam solely because of the costs, MCPS made the decision to fully fund AP exams for students enrolled in one or more courses.

When students previously paid for their AP exams, a portion of those funds went back to schools to help offset the costs of paying for support staff and proctors to give the exams. It is unclear at this time how MCPS will provide other funding for these efforts. Math teacher Rebekah Byerly, who is the AP coordinator for Sherwood, said that the school has funding reserves from previous years of testing and will have enough money to pay proctors for the exams in May this school year, as well as paying substitutes for covering classes that teachers proctoring will miss.