THE UNCERTAiN FUTURE OF THE SAT

by Bricen Chitty, web Director

The pandemic put a temporary pause on the SAT, but as 2021 applications creep closer, many colleges have committed to putting an end to standardized testing as a whole. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit back at the start of 2020, it created an enormous logistics nightmare for College Board, the creators and administrators of the SAT. According to Forbes, College Board lost millions of dollars from canceled tests. But why continue to move away from the SAT? That’s because the “Standardized” test has fallen under scrutiny for creating a racial and economic divide, allowing for “affluent, white and Asian-American students” to have an advantage according to The New York Times.

According to Melissa Furlong, Director of Admissions and Recruitment at California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly) “Overall, test scores being utilized as a single variable do not necessarily tell the entire story of a student”

Before the 2020 admission cycle, the SAT, and other variants like the ACT, were used as a way to measure students ability from around the country, but ultimately the removal of the test has created a much more equal environment for students, especially students at PRHS who can now apply to every California state school without an SAT score.

This solution isn’t temporary either, as more and more colleges across the nation have committed to finding new forms of standardized testing or removing standardized testing completely from their holistic review. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), back in 2018, 46% of colleges said that SAT scores were very important in the application process. Contrast that to the current year, where 84% of colleges won’t require the SAT for submissions for 2021 applications. 25% of the colleges that responded to the NACAC survey will be completely test-blind, meaning they won’t even glance at submitted scores.

“It’s very difficult to be inclusive [in the SAT] of language, culture, and make it accessible to all students… It’s very inequitable all across the board” Tara Walker said, a college and career counselor at PRHS with 12 years of experience.

If the SAT has been under so much scrutiny for so long, why has it never changed? According to Forbes, several data points are looked at during the admissions process, and the removal of standardized testing would have required colleges to completely revise their entire admissions system, “retraining admissions officers, redoing applications and rethinking entire methodology.” Ultimately it was an inexorable decision, and a perfect example of the school system favoring tradition over progress.

The next several years are crucial for the future of the SAT. According to Furlong, whether or not the CSU will utilize test scores moving forward is a systemwide decision. The future

2017: 50% of application based on SAT (2018)

82.8% of colleges consider SAT important

2021: 84% of colleges test-option or test- blind (2021) 25% of colleges testblind in the US (2021) of the SAT is uncertain, but as more colleges lean away from standardized testing, the door slowly closes on the SAT. While Covid-19 created countless problems in the last two years, it’s forced many colleges to reevaluate their application process and has leveled the playing field for students across the nation, including students at our very own PRHS.