This summer, I couldn’t wait for September 1 because that was the day the College Board was expected to publish the AP daily videos. I was excited to learn music theory, art history and psychology. However, on September 1, I had a cruel realization: the AP daily videos would only be published on the AP Classroom website, which meant students that weren’t taking the class could not view the videos. To the College Board’s credit, they have since posted a couple of videos for each course, but those are only sample videos. The College Board should publish the AP Daily videos in their entirety on YouTube to democratize AP classes.

AP classes offer students a unique opportunity to take college courses in high school and receive college credit at a fraction of the cost. But, unfortunately, not everyone has this opportunity. I experienced this firsthand in Nebraska because the school I attended only offered a limited number of AP classes. While Cinco offers more choices, there are still classes such as AP Comparative Government and AP Latin that are not offered. Even though Khan Academy and Crash Course have many videos, both lack resources for many AP classes. For example, neither offer AP Human Geography or AP Environmental Science. If the College Board published the AP Daily Videos, students in rural areas or low income districts could easily learn about subjects that are not offered at their schools.

Students could even take the AP test for college credit if the College Board published the AP Daily Videos. Students can register for all AP exams excluding AP Seminar and Research even if they don’t take the course, but many don’t have the resources to study for the exam. This is especially true for students of color and low income students who can’t afford AP tutors or Fiveable courses. In the past, the College Board partnered with Khan Academy to create a free SAT prep curriculum in an effort to address similar concerns. The College Board should do the same for AP by publishing the AP Daily Videos, which would make the AP test more equitable by providing quality exam prep to all students regardless of race or income. If the College Board went even further by linking all the resources on AP classroom in the Youtube video descriptions, it would be huge step towards an equitable education.

Finally, the College Board could say there is no point in publishing the AP Daily videos because few people have watched the sample videos and lectures they have published. But data shows the opposite is true. Most AP live videos were watched tens of thousands of times, and popular videos such as one featuring Lin Manuel Miranda has over 300,000 views on YouTube. The reason there have been fewer views on AP Daily videos is because the College Board has not been consistent in publishing them, and the AP test is almost six months away. Moreover, the fact that some videos were viewed by more than 100,000 students show students explored classes they were interested in even if they were not registered for the exam or taking the class. There is no better way to democratize AP than publishing the AP Daily videos which would allow students to explore any subject they are interested in.

In conclusion, the College Board should publish the AP Daily videos to make education more equitable for all students.