Recently I’ve become aware of the SBACs, and I’ve assumed that it’s just a standard test given to students to see how useful the test is and how it can be improved, however one of my teachers said that it’s critical when applying to colleges; something I haven’t heard before. Can someone clear this up for me and tell me exactly how important this test is? Thanks!
Is this something local to your state? Some local testing is critical to TEACHERS vs students. Usually we pretty much ignore any locally politically hot testing outside of encouraging my kids to do as well as they can to reflect the great work most of their teachers do.
It’s my impression that if you don’t clear a certain score indicating you’re not below grade level you may be held back for that subject/put in a remedial class, which would certainly impact you for college.
Quick answer: your SBAC score doesn’t matter much.
This year is not a field test like last year, so you will get a score. However, it’s the baseline year, so schools and colleges won’t yet have a good idea of how to interpret these scores.
If your district is one of the California CORE districts or is in another state than California, the scores may matter a lot to your teachers for their job evaluations. In the rest of the California districts, this year’s scores shouldn’t matter that much to anyone, and should be viewed as a baseline from which to improve in future years.
See my replies in http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1770150-all-teachers-refuse-to-write-letter-of-rec.html and http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1765807-ca-new-state-testing-sbac-does-it-matter-on-college-apps.html