More than 100 Advanced Placement exams taken at Western School of Technology in May have disappeared, leaving the high school students wondering if they will take the three-hour tests all over again.

Baltimore County school officials, in a letter to Western Tech families, said they “thoroughly investigated,” verified that the school packed and shipped students’ answer sheets, and got receipts confirming the College Board received the boxes.

But the College Board, the organization that runs the Advanced Placement program, said in a statement that they never received some tests students took on May 23.

“College Board is working directly with the school and affected students regarding their retesting options,” a College Board spokesperson said in a statement.

The College Board’s President Trevor Packer said every year boxes of students’ answer sheets break open and are lost before they get to the College Board. Packer said the College Board does not issue an AP score on the basis of course grades or when a student exam is lost in transit.

“Broken boxes and other transit issues are one of the reasons we’re now moving to digital AP testing only, in most AP subjects, moving forward,” Packer said in an email Monday. In May 2025, students will take most AP exams through College Board’s Bluebook digital testing application, taking shipping mishaps out of the equation.

Baltimore County schools spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala said the school district has been in touch with the College Board. “We have shared information on the submission steps we took as a system per our protocols and procedures and have asked for information regarding next steps.”

She did not say what those next steps are, but the letter from Western Tech Principal Jewell M. Ralph said that the College Board would offer alternatives to students, including taking the test again or receiving a refund for the exam fee.

Onijala said the system wants students’ “hard work on the exam and throughout the school year to be recognized. We understand how upsetting this is for our students and families and will continue to work with the College Board until this is resolved.”

Advanced Placement courses are introductory college-level courses offered at tens of thousands of schools across the country. Slightly more than a third of 2023 high school graduates took at least one AP class.

Students can take an end-of-year exam and receive a score of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. Many colleges will give course credit for a score of three or better, cutting the cost of college. Students also use passing scores in the college application process as a way of proving they are capable of doing college-level work.

Last year, students took about 4 million AP exams.

Western Tech senior Daniel Fitzpatrick, who took two AP tests this year, said students are in a bind. “I think it is terrible ... I put so much work in to it,” he said. “If they don’t find it, I don’t think they are going to be willing to give us a score that is passing on it.”

Fitzpatrick said “being allowed to retake it is not fair compensation” because it will require students to study for the tests again. The 17-year-old took the AP Human Geography exam on May 7 at Western Tech. Those exam answers did get scored, and he earned a 5. He took the English Composition test on May 23, answering 60 multiple-choice questions in the first hour and then writing three essays in the remaining two hours and 15 minutes. That test was lost.

Without a teacher guiding his review of the material and months past from the end of the class, Fitzpatrick said students aren’t going to be nearly as well prepared for the test.

“I feel like it is up to College Board to prove that I didn’t get a 5 on the test,” he said.

The letter Baltimore County school officials sent to parents said the College Board could not “locate” answer sheets for the English Language and Composition, Calculus A/B, Environmental Science, Physics 1, Psychology, or Computer Science Principles tests, all tests given on May 23. Onijala said that 101 students took the English tests and fewer than 10 students took each of the others. Fewer than 120 students took the tests in total, Onijala said, although she said the school system was keeping private the exact number of test takers.

“That is a lot of college credit,” Fitzpatrick said.

Western Tech administered the test at the school with teachers proctoring the exams. The tests were mailed to the College Board on May 24, and the school system said the College Board got the tests on May 28. The school was first notified by College Board on July 19 that some tests were missing, according to Onijala.