New SAT policy

I read in the New York Times that the College Board has changed its policy on score reporting for the SAT. Rather than having all scores automatically sent to colleges they’re applying to, students can select only the score or scores they want the colleges to know about. The goal, according to the article and the policy statement, is to help students relax about standardized testing and be confident that they can give colleges a good first impression. In reality, all it does is give students more incentive to retake tests over and over… though I’m not sure how big a change that is from the status quo. At any rate, college admissions committees are overall not pleased.

The SAT currently has three sections, taken on the same date: critical reading, mathematics, and writing. (Critical reading and writing were split from the old verbal section.) Each section gets scored separately from 200 to 800 and a total score is calculated. With the new “Score Choice” policy, students can choose which date’s scores to send, but they can’t pick their best subscores from multiple testing dates. Surprisingly (to me), this is one of the complaints that colleges have. Many schools apparently only care about your best reading score, your best math score, and your best writing score, and they pull those scores from your full report then disregard everything else (even if it’s all 200s). Colleges won’t be able to extract information if students choose to send only the test results with the highest total score, and in some cases that could actually harm their chances of admission.

That’s a pretty charitable policy, and I didn’t realize it was as widespread as it seems to be. The other common practice is to consider only the test with the highest composite score, no matter how many test dates are reported, which — I also didn’t realize — is done by most colleges. (The US Naval Academy is the only school I can find that takes the average of tests taken. Thanks, Congressman Connie Mack!) [EDIT 1/5: Commenters tell me that this information is no longer accurate. My apologies. If anyone knows of a school that really does average scores on multiple tests, please let me know.] For schools who truly consider only the highest composite score, the Score Choice policy doesn’t seem to make any difference at all. There are some minor complications coming from schools that say they require all scores but will only look at the best one — but if they only look at the best one, what does it matter?

The reason it matters, of course, is that many schools aren’t only looking at the best composite score. Sure, they’re using that number to fill in the “Total SAT Score” blank on the summary sheet, which helps the student to a degree. They’re also looking at how many times the student had to take the SAT in order to achieve that score. The fact is, that information is relevant.

I could tell you I made a free throw with my eyes closed, but that doesn’t make me as good as Michael Jordan. It’s important to know the additional information that it would take me ten thousand tries to make it once, purely by chance. An NBA recruiter doesn’t just want to hear about the best shot you ever made; he wants to know about your entire history as a player, because that’s a better predictor of your future success. College is very similar. If you had to take the SAT every time it was offered from sophomore year right up to the college application deadlines (along with, probably, plenty of tutoring and additional practice), in order to get a score you felt comfortable submitting, it would be a lot less impressive than if you were able to get that good score on the first try.

I don’t think the SAT is a perfect test, but I think there are useful things that admissions committees can glean from a student’s SAT performance. (I’ve explained this in some comments here already.) Given that, it seems like an incorrect decision to limit the amount of information colleges get. We shouldn’t forget that the College Board makes a ton of money off SAT registration fees, and stands to make more if students retake the test in larger numbers. They’re not being purely charitable and thinking only of students’ test anxiety here. However, as long as students rather than colleges are the paying customers of the College Board, the College Board policies are going to shift according to student demand, not in the best interest of education in general.

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January 4, 2009 · Written by
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Comments

3 Responses to “New SAT policy”

  1. John Identicon Icon John on January 5th, 2009 2:58 am

    The US Naval Academy only takes the highest score from each section and encourages candidates to test often. There was a time when they took an average, but that was several years ago. Candidates are not punished for a lower score if they test badly on one day, and better on another.

    I’ve been a Blue and Gold Officer for the Naval Academy for 15 years and have worked under both systems. I think taking the higher score is in the best interest of the student.

  2. Pat Identicon Icon Pat on January 5th, 2009 11:21 am

    The information posted above that the “United States Naval Academy is the only school that takes the average scores” is INCORRECT. The US Naval Academy will take the highest verbal, and the highest math, scores that are submitted; scores are not averaged as reported.

  3. Z Identicon Icon Z on January 5th, 2009 11:38 am

    John and Pat: Thanks for letting me know! I’ve inserted a correction in the post above. Sorry about the error.

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