Here they come again with yet ANOTHER test to "label" your kid.

Parents Forum
1

<p>
[quote]
October 23, 2008
College Board Will Offer a New Test Next Fall
By SARA RIMER
Amid growing challenges to its role as the pre-eminent force in college admissions, the College Board on Wednesday unveiled a new test that it said would help prepare eighth graders for rigorous high school courses and college.</p>

<p>The test, which will be available to schools next fall, is intended only for assessment and instructional purposes and has nothing to do with college admissions, College Board officials said. </p>

<p>“This is not at all a pre-pre-pre SAT,” Lee Jones, a College Board vice president, said at a news conference. “It’s a diagnostic tool to provide information about students’ strengths and weaknesses.”

[quote]
</p>

2

<p>this is ridiculous.</p>

<p>eighth graders.</p>

<p>ridiculous.</p>

3

<p>Stop the madness.</p>

4

<p>They want more money since more and more colleges are thinking of dropping the SAT requirement.</p>

<p>WHAT A SCAM!</p>

5

<p>Before throwing rocks at the College Board, should you not consider the reality that there are plenty of tests offered by companies that hardly share the competence of ETS/TCB in designing tests. </p>

<p>Before screaming at this pre-pre-SAT, why should you not take the same attitude vis-a-vis tests such as the Iowa Test of Basic Skills or other similar tests?</p>

6

<p>i'm not a big fan of any standardized testing.</p>

7

<p>If there's no demand, nobody would want to be the supplier. Blame the school districts too.</p>

8

<p>Has anyone heard of the Midwest Talent Search from Northwestern Univ.? Most of the kids are our school take it. It sounds like this may be some type of competing test.</p>

<p>Center</a> for Talent Development :: Mission & Methods</p>

9

<p>Actually, the Midwest Academic Talent Search kids and kids who take other Talent Search tests are taking the real SAT Reasoning Test or ACT test at the age of middle schoolers. See </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/78732-7th-grade-sat-act-scores.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/78732-7th-grade-sat-act-scores.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p>for examples of scores.</p>

10

<p>Stop the Madness!!! +1</p>

11

<p>Diagnostic test? May be, may be not. Here is a conspiracy theory: the SAT team is losing to the ACT team. The SAT team tries a new strategy: hook 'em on the SAT while they are still in their cribs.</p>

12

<p>ACT has a testing program that they have used for years. The Explore is for 8th graders. It was often used by school districts as their regular standardized test for that grade. NCLB changed that as states began to develop their own tests. Many school still use the Explore as an additional measure to their state test since the Explore has national norms and the state tests don't. ACT also offers the PLAN at 10th grade. It is seen as the pre-ACT. It is open to individual students (unlike the Explore) but is also sometimes given to all students in a district for the same reasons they give Explore to 8th graders. Both tests have a career assessment with them as well. </p>

<p>Explore is used by the Northwestern University Midwest Academic Talent Search (NUMATS) for advanced 5th and 6th graders in the same fashion that they give the ACT or SAT to advanced 7th and 8th graders. </p>

<p>My guess is that SAT sees that there is a market for this type of testing to school districts who are not typically part of ACT country. Whether east and west coast schools are interested in this type of product remains to be seen.</p>