ACT Scores hit a 30 year Low

I agree there are likely to be problems with the digital SAT, some known, some unanticipated.

I am no fan of CB, but it does seem they have thought through a lot of things, for example students will be able to hide answers (so they can eliminate and choose between two), and use a pencil and paper to work out problems. The reading passages will be short….so no long passages as before, so they will be able to see the whole passage on the screen at the same time.

Students will be using their own device for the test. And CB can provide devices if necessary.

I expect that the problems that do arise will be more frequent and detrimental to limited income students.

I encourage parents to have their kids take a practice digital SAT at a local test provider, and urge their HSs to offer digital PSATs as soon as they are able.

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One thing that my kid has noticed tutoring mostly African-American students for the ACT and SAT is that most of his clients plan to take the test only once (some are only taking a standardized test due to parental influence) and move on regardless of score because they can just go test-optional at many schools. The only exceptions recently have been 2 students (Florida and GA residents respectively) who were trying to get to the next tier of the Florida Bright Futures scholarship or to reach the GA Zell Miller Scholarship standardized test cut off. I believe that the amount of test takers would fall even more if scholarship dollars were not tied to standardized tests scores.

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I have mixed feelings about standardized testing. In terms of the ACT, it wasn’t widely available during covid (in our area) and the local HS hasn’t hosted a sitting since covid (they used to offer it at least once a year). In our area it has always been much less popular than the SAT (New England) so I’m not sure how much of a loss it will be for students in my area.