Breaking news about the SAT…
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Buried in the NYT article was the fact that Harvard announced it will remain TO for the next four years. Was not aware of that. I assume that will result in the rest of the Ivies (and probably many other top 50 schools) following suit. Is this the beginning of the end for standardized testing or just a bump in the road?!
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I think it’s likely the beginning of the end…the number of test blind colleges has grown rapidly. Test optional seems to be a middle ground that some don’t like (AOs, students, parents)…either use tests or don’t. Time will tell, we will know a lot more by the time the switch to digital is made. Here’s the current test blind list: http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Test-Blind-Admissions-List.pdf
Other potential issues with a digital test include access to technology, wifi, and how to deal with tech disruptions/issues. Another issue is security concerns in an all digital format (CB to this day doesn’t offer SAT in mainland China because of security issues).
The digital test will also be adaptive, which is a not-insignificant change. Not sure how CB and ACT will be able to create a concordance table in that case…and colleges will require a concordance table.
There’s a good take by CompassPrep, google compass prep + digital sat
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would this affect c/o '24 or would it start affecting '25
ugh, adaptive tests. I hope they stop being required ever, if they are now going to be adaptive.
I’ve done a similar adaptive test in the last few years. The more questions you answer correctly, the harder the questions will get. Currently questions are classified as easy, medium or hard. Probably the score will be calculated on how many hard questions were answered and will work down.
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It probably means new test-taking strategies would be needed, such as to pay extra attention to the first section, as performance there affects the difficulty of questions presented in the second section (and, thereby, the potential maximum score).
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c/o '24 should be done with SAT by 2023. So this new format starting 2024 would only affect c/o '25.
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I’ve seen others say this too. Am I missing where students go in with “it’s OK to miss some of the questions” approach and now “I should get all of the questions correct” is a big change?
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You believe real-time online test are going to be less safe than shipping out paper tests days in advance?
All widespread cheating issues that I’ve seen over the last several years have been a result of proctors opening test packets early and sharing with their students so they can see the questions in advance and prepare.
I did not say online tests would be less safe than paper tests.
The New SAT
Test will be offered in digital format only and will be two hours instead of three, among other changes.
By
January 26, 2022
The College Board announced Tuesday that the SAT will be delivered digitally internationally beginning in 2023 and in the U.S. in 2024. The PSAT will be delivered digitally in 2023.
The new format does not mean a change in the place of testing—the College Board will continue to require the test to be taken in a testing center.
Students will be able to use their own device (laptop or tablet) or a school-issued device. If students don’t have a device to use, the College Board will provide one for use on test day.
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“If a student loses connectivity or power, the digital SAT has been designed to ensure they won’t lose their work or time while they reconnect,” the College Board said in press release.
The College Board did a pilot project of the digital SAT in the U.S. and internationally in November. Eighty percent of students reported that taking the SAT was less stressful than they expected it to be.
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give and more relevant,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of college readiness assessments at College Board. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform—we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible.”
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Other changes in the SAT include:
- It will be shorter—about two hours instead of three for the current SAT, with more time per question.
- The digital test will feature shorter reading passages with one question tied to each, and passages will reflect a wider range of topics “that represent the works students read in college,” the College Board said.
- Calculators will be allowed on the entire mathematics section.
- Students will get scores back in days instead of weeks.
The College Board is making the changes at a tough time for the organization and its main rival, ACT. Officials at ACT declined to comment on the changes to the SAT. Hundreds of thousands fewer students took the two standardized tests last year because of the pandemic. Many testing centers were closed, and most colleges went test optional. A few colleges, such as those in the University of California system, went test blind, which means they will not look at standardized test scores during the admissions process.
Prior to the announcement about the changes, the College Board briefed some college admissions officials about what they entailed. Those admissions officials were full of praise.
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“I think the digital SAT will be a shorter, more secure test that will be easier to administer—that is great for students and educators,” said Stu Schmill, dean of admissions and student financial services at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kent Hopkins, vice president of enrollment services at Arizona State University, said he was “thankful to see the eventual move to the digital platform.” He added that he hoped “to see more students sit for the test that is more a part of their learning portfolio than for a college admission test.” (Arizona State is test optional.)
John Barnhill is associate vice president for academic affairs at Florida State University, which has continued to require the SAT or ACT. “I like the decision to go digital,” he said. “I honestly think digital is more closely aligned with the world in which students live than a paper-and-pencil exam.”
He said the other changes—in particular the speedier grading—“should reduce the stress of the testing experience tremendously.”
The Critics
Long-standing critics of the College Board were less impressed.
“Changing the format from paper to digital is not surprising. They’ve been hinting at this for a while, ever since they’ve had massive security breaches with international exams, so I think it’s the natural evolution of testing,” said Jon Boeckenstedt, vice provost for enrollment management at Oregon State University. “If they didn’t do it first, ACT would have.”
He added, “The question for me is whether the test will be any more fair; even if it uses adaptive questions, fewer questions or shorter sections. If it’s the same SAT measuring the same thing as the current SAT, it’s unlikely to … That pretty much suggests the test is still measuring the same thing in the same ways with the same results.”
Robert Schaeffer, executive director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), said, “We suspect that continuing to administer the SAT in testing centers is both a recognition of the popularity and marketing ease of school-based testing (signing up large groups of students ‘wholesale’ by lobbying states or districts to make taxpayers cover registration fees, rather than recruiting kids one by one through ‘retail’ registration) and significant security, privacy and technology concerns that would accompany home-based testing.”
He added that “even with test-center administration, there will still be concerns about test takers using their own computers accessing outside information via the internet or stored materials (students will probably have to install some form of security software before taking the test).”
Does same place mean high schools, AKA test centers - with 50-1000 packed kids in many classrooms on a Saturday? How’s you internet?
Well…
Why let reality get in the way of a good marketing message?
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The Chicago Public Schools does a 3 hour adaptive standardized test on computers for their 8th graders every year for selective enrollment, an important process there. This concept isn’t new or particularly radical in 2021.
I know you might think that, but it will be extremely difficult to operationalize online testing worldwide in this manner using their schools and their current structure and process. I created and ran a large standardized test online at colleges with very high volume (about 1/15 of the SAT) and it is a nightmare. That is the reason tests like the SSAT allow people to do it at-home. Of course, that comes with its own set of issues.
The real point that should be made is that a 2 hour test (essentially invalid), using computers and schools, is just a way to get people to take it. The College Board is fighting back, but they are in a downward spiral and they are just saying what people want to hear to remain relevant.
I don’t disagree that operationalizing the digital SAT will be challenging. ACT has been digital internationally for several years and GRE has been online for maybe a decade, with relatively few issues.
The SAT test is under pressure no doubt, and I expect we will see more schools go test blind now that the UCs are. But CB is making fistfuls of dollars in AP testing and CSS Profile administration, so CB with those two monopolies is going to continue turning huge profits.
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Your experience is so valuable in this conversation, I would love to hear more nuanced perspectives from you. Sure there is some profit motive but there are also some that care about the mission. Sure there were nightmarish things about it but there were also some good things. If you were king for a day and knew this was going online, what do you think would make it more successful?
Here’s Jon Boeckenstedt’s (VP enrollment Oregon State and an industry key opinion leader) take on the digital SAT.
Some quotes:
The question for me is whether the test will be any more fair; even if it uses adaptive questions, fewer questions, or shorter sections; if it’s the same SAT measuring the same thing as the current SAT, it’s unlikely to.
For every first-generation and/or low-income and/or student of color the SAT has helped, it’s almost certainly hurt hundreds if not thousands. It’s myopic and duplicitous to measure the small victories without measuring the massive real and opportunity costs to society.
And any research conducted by College Board that sees the light of day will invariably support their case. So of course, everyone they asked likes the idea. Proctors are thrilled by no more boxes, forms, security, and #2 pencils. In that regard, it’s better.
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I think one of the differences between the SAT (which has had some online international distribution as well) and the GRE, GMAT is the physical place people are allowed to take the test. My gut is for this to go smoothly, SAT would need to utilize old fashioned test centers - PearsonVUE, Prometric and others in their network and force students into those centers. I do not see that going well as those are generally places for adults (conversation in itself) and much more expensive for College Board and/or test-takers. The other way I see that working would be with online proctoring and I would not be surprised if that becomes the preferred way of distribution - assuming this gets off the ground.
Again, the 2 hour test is a major change. Smarter people than we would argue “2 hours” is not enough time to measure what needs to be measured. From a marketing perspective, “2 hours” is a huge plus. People would be more apt to pay for a test, again and again, that only takes two. It is psychologically very pleasing.
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