<p>"Trying to prod more students to prepare for education after high school, St. Paul Public Schools announced Wednesday a plan to provide -- and pay for -- college preparation tests for all students. The district will offer PSAT and PLAN exams and one ACT test at no cost...."</p>
<p>They only announced this on Wednesday? The school district in Minnesota that I live in (while we homeschool) has gone from, two years ago, not knowing that tenth graders are permitted to take the PSAT to now wanting most tenth graders in the district to take the PSAT. My son gets to take the PSAT, as an in-district homeschooler, for five bucks this year. </p>
<p>Minnesota has a more general statewide plan to subsidize taking AP tests too. Typical price here is $25 per test. For students eligible for subsidized school lunch, I think the fee is waived entirely. The AP coordinator at another high school in town, in the district where one of my homeschooling friends lives, was very helpful last year in making arrangements for my son to take five AP tests while he was nominally a ninth grader.</p>
<p>Fairfax County Public Schools pays for the PSATs in 10th grade but the students can also sit for them at their own expense in 9th grade as well as the important junior date.</p>
<p>In our district, every junior takes the PSAT and every soph takes the PLAN on the district's dime. It's coming up this Wednesday - they call it "Super Wednesday". 10th-graders who want to take the PSAT do so on Saturday at their own expense.
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/reg/dates.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/reg/dates.html</a></p>
<p>In our district, all sophomores and juniors who wish to take the PSAT without charge during the school day, on a weekday. I believe students who choose not to take the PSAT take a vocational interest test or something similar.</p>
<p>In our county, the county pays PSAT only for the sophomores. Any one else has to pay to take the PSAT so even the critical junior year for scholarships--parents foot the bill. THey also pay for ONE AP test per year.
The others are $86 and are up to the parents.
They pay for NO SAT I or ACT....although many tests have waivers I think for financial reasons.</p>
<p>I personally think a large segment don't care, don't take it seriously and it is a waste of tax payer money. They need to have a benchmark--c average or something where they MIGHT be able to go to college.</p>
<p>Fairfax also pays for any and all AP and IB exams for FCPS students.</p>
<p>In my DD school district in Georgia, they paid for PSAT tests for all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. Then yesterday she comes home with information that the state will pay for one SAT or ACT tests if certain criteria are met, nice that they gave us that in October of senior year....? I was really excited about the invoice for IB tests, $336, ugh!</p>
<p>My school</a> system pays for PSAT exams for 9-11th graders and pays for all AP and IB exams, provided you're in the accompanying classes.</p>
<p>The State of Maine requires all 11th graders to take the SAT and pays the fee; this replaces an older state-designed standardized test (the MEAs) which were not terribly effective. One of the other rationales was that requiring the SAT caused low-income students (and Maine is not an affluent state) to consider college; there was some anecdotal evidence that college application rates did rise among such students.</p>
<p>Here's an old thread on that state's program:</p>
<p>Actually Fairfax County, VA pays for all 9th, 10th and 11th graders to sit for the PSAT. The only expense to the parents would be if you want the scores in the 9th and 11th grade. Then you must pay $15.00. But each child sits for the test for free.</p>
<p>Our school system, like Warblers, pays for PSAT for all grades and AP, IB exams and we get the scores. Also just got an email that next month all high school seniors in our school and I'm assuming our system will be able to apply to instate colleges from the high school computer labs with no application fees. It's a one day only thing and the student is only eligible if he/she has not already applied to a college at that time.</p>
<p>FCPS Mom2two, I didn't realize there was a separate price for the scores vs. the sitting. We had to pay $16 for our 8th grader this year and I remember paying a small fee when our oldest was a freshman and junior.</p>
<p>How much is the sitting fee and the score fee? The CollegeBoard website mentions $13 and says some schools add on an admin fee but I thought that covered everything.</p>
<p>The NYC Dept of Ed pays for the PSAT for 10th annd 11th graders (taking place tomorrow).</p>
<p>Yep, Senior son is so happy that he's not taking the PSAT. Our seniors get to sleep in and arrive at school at 10:30 tomorrow.</p>
<p>My school this yr is paying for all 10th and 11th grade PSATs so i get to sleep in tommorow.</p>
<p>Our district has been all over the map in the (many) years that I've had high school kids. The one that I think makes most sense is paying for the PSAT in 10th grade. It identifies those who really should take it for NM in Jr year, and is cheaper and shorter than taking the SAT as a soph.
AP tests have always been squarely on the parents, with a mean twist.... most teachers will exempt a senior from the final if he or she takes the AP exam. Even if by then your kid knows that their college won't accept the credit, he or she will want Mom to cough up $83 so they can sleep in during finals week!</p>
<p>Everyone in our system who takes an AP is required to take the AP exam...school system pays for all of them. Then there is no final exams for AP classes during exam week.</p>