The College Board has cancelled plans to host a special August sessions of the SAT for elite students in a $4,500 program. The plan was widely criticized as unfair because the results of the test would be mixed in with the normal June testing session. Admissions officers wouldn’t see a difference, even though the August participants might score higher due to exogenous factors, like taking the test at a less stressful time of the year. From Inside Higher Ed:
The College Board, facing widespread criticism, on Tuesday announced that it was abandoning plans to test out an August administration of the SAT this year. Many high school students want a summer option for taking the SAT, but many college and high school officials were upset by the College Board’s plan to try out the idea with a summer program of the National Society for the Gifted and Talented — a program whose $4,500 price tag led many educators to call the pilot a “rich kids SAT.”
Initially the College Board defended the idea of using that group to test an August SAT. But on Tuesday, the board issued a statement that said in part that “certain aspects” of the summer program whose participants would gain the August SAT opportunity “run counter to our mission of promoting equity and access, as well as to our beliefs about SAT performance.” The statement added, however, that the organization was “still very much committed to exploring the concept of a summer administration,” and would look for ways in the future to do so “in a manner that better aligns with our mission and the students we serve. Steps also are being taken internally to ensure that future initiatives receive the appropriate level of senior management review.”
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