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We are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date resources and announcements from the college admissions testing landscape. Here are some of the top headlines from this past month:
SAT August Test Sites Limited
Summary: For the first administration of the August SAT this year, the College Board had limited success in securing test sites. Many cities offer significantly fewer test sites for the new August date than the October date, likely a result of the fact that a number of school districts are still closed for summer vacation in August. According to the article, there are only 1,970 sites in the U.S. but 3,440 in October. “In Virginia, there will be 134 test locations for October and 84 in August. Pennsylvania will open 231 sites in October, but only 87 in August. In New York, it’s 263 locations for October, and 53 in August. Massachusetts has 140 test sites in October and 37 in August. And in New Jersey, students will have 203 locations from which to choose in October, but only 69 in August.”
What this means: Many sites are filling up or are already filled for the August date. Students must register ASAP if they plan to take the August SAT. This is only the first time the SAT has been in August, so it’s likely that after the College Board sees the high demand it will add sites or seats in future years.
Register NOW: Test Sites Are in Short Supply for August SAT (Admission Intel)
Reactions to Khan and College Board Report on Score Increases
Summary: This past month, a report was released from Khan Academy and College Board that discussed SAT score increases by students who used Khan to prepare for the exam. News organizations from across the internet covered the story after its release. The biggest takeaways and responses:
- Impressed with Khan: Every news source was impressed that the free prep through Khan Academy seems to be working and students are using it. However, the stories largely raised more questions and critiques than praise.
- The College Board’s backpedal: Almost every outlet points out the fact that the College Board had suddenly done a 180 on the idea of test prep after insisting for over 60 years that test prep doesn’t work. The College Board has defended its change of heart by arguing it’s all about the new exam: the new exam is prep-able, but the old exam wasn’t. According to FairTest.org, the College Board is likely to use the fact that you can study for the exam as a new marketing tagline in its race against the ACT among students and school districts. (EdSource/Washington Post)
- New test is about content; Old test was about test tricks: College Board spokespeople followed up the report with arguments that “Too much of commercial test prep teaches to the test—looking for shortcuts and tricks to ‘beat’ the test. The SAT in its old format [with guessing penalties, vocabulary, etc.] lent itself to this approach.” But the new exam aligns more with content learned in school and taught on Khan Academy. (Washington Post)
- Other test prep not studied: All of the stories question the validity of the data and argue that it’s likely that students showing score gains used Khan in conjunction with other test prep resources, a fact that the College Board doesn’t deny. The study also didn’t compare score increases between those who used Khan only and those who used other test prep options (Inside Higher Ed/EdWeek/Washington Post)
- Cherry-picked data?: Because the College Board and Khan Academy did not release in depth data sets or statistics, Kaplan has raised questions about how the College Board and Khan developed their data sets and if students were cherry-picked for the study. (Inside Higher Ed)
- Racial differences: “A College Board statement said that ‘underrepresented minorities are spending approximately 10 percent more time on average practicing (on Khan) than their white peers.’” (EdSource)
What this means: The sharp change of course at the College Board does seem a bit hollow. To claim that the old exam was not prep-able and the new one is just because of the changed format doesn’t ring very true for most consumers and students (nor for any of the authors of these articles). The College Board claims it’s because there were tricks to the old SAT that test prep companies singularly focused on and that the new test is all content that only Khan can teach. The problem is Khan does teach some of what the College Board calls “tricks” and for decades test prep companies have been covering content.
College Board Releases Data on Khan Tutoring (Inside Higher Ed)
College Board Reports Score Gains from Free SAT Practice (Ed Week)
Free Khan Academy SAT Tutorials Boost Scores, Study Finds (EdSource)
Can Coaching Truly Boost SAT Scores? (Washington Post)
The Company Behind the SAT Finally Admits What Everyone Knew: You Can Game the Test (Quartz)
New SAT Official Guide Out
Summary: The College Board released a new version of its Official SAT Study Guide (the big blue book). It now contains eight tests—four more than the last edition—and full answer explanations for each exam. The tests in this book are the same ones available on the College Board’s website here and on Khan Academy.
What this means: The book is huge at nearly 1,300 pages! But it’s a key resource for any student preparing for the new SAT. We have already integrated these exams into the prep our students do at ArborBridge.
The Official SAT Study Guide (College Board Store)
College Board Partners with Chan/Zuckerberg Initiative
Summary: The College Board (CB) has announced a new multi-million-dollar partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI)—the philanthropic organization founded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan—to increase access to college advising and SAT prep. The two organizations will work together over the next two years “and focus on students in lower-income and rural areas.” The CZI/CB partnership plans to:
- Expand the work of the College Advising Corp (CAC) in California, Michigan, Illinois, and Texas. CAC pairs recent college grads with high-school students to act as “peer advisors” in the college application process, supplementing the efforts of in-school counselors.
- “Create in-school and after-school programs where students work with instructors on the Khan Academy resources” in preparation for the SAT.
- Make AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP) available in every school district in the country.
- Fund research by “Angela Duckworth, best known for her study on grit, and Stanford Psychology professor Greg Walton to study invisible barriers to higher education such as academic motivation, dedication, and sense of belonging.”
- Money will NOT be used to subsidize student exam fees.
What this means: This is a huge win for the College Board and further evidence of its push to both democratize college access and increase its market share against the ACT. It would be very interesting to see how the College Board and Khan Academy make use of the research on grit and academic motivation. One of the biggest drawbacks of students preparing via Khan is user drop off: most students just don’t have the motivation to use the materials on their own and in its current state.
College Board and CZI Partner to Provide Personalized Pathways to College Success (College Board)
College Board, Zuckerberg in Deal to Boost College Access (USA Today)
5 Things You Need to Know About the New Chan-Zuckerberg/College Board Deal (USA Today)
College Board, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Team Up on Pathways Work (Ed Week)
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Partners with College Board—But What Does That Mean? (EdSurge)
ACT Beats SAT in Popularity Among 2016 College Applicants
Summary: ACT continues its streak as the most popular college admissions test, a streak that started in 2012. “Last year, more than 2.09 million (or 64 percent of graduates from the high school class of 2016) took the ACT compared with the SAT’s 1.64 million. Some believe the ACT will remain dominant, since more states give it for free during the school day, and the jittery students who abandoned the SAT during its 2016 redesign will be hard to win back.”
What this means: This story is no surprise to anyone in the testing field. The 2016 applicants were the first to be hit by the new SAT and many cautiously avoided the SAT in its first year. We do expect the SAT to rebound this school year (and have already seen it at ArborBridge) as more students get comfortable with the new test, more states sign on to the SAT for school day testing, and more students attempt to take both the SAT and ACT now that they are so similar in content and format.
In Race for Test-Takers, ACT Outscores SAT—for Now (Ed Week)
