The College Board Announces Bold
Plans to Expand Access to Opportunity; Redesign of the SAT
College Board and Khan Academy partner to provide free
SAT test preparation for the world
05/03/2014
AUSTIN, TX —
College Board President David Coleman today laid out the organization's plans
to move beyond delivering assessments to delivering opportunity — announcing
initiatives designed to be used in concert with assessments to propel students
toward college success. As part of those initiatives he presented changes to
the SAT® exam. Coleman was joined by students, community leaders and
College Board members at the announcement event in Austin, Texas.
"What this
country needs is not more tests, but more opportunities," said Coleman.
"The real news today is not just the redesigned SAT, but the College
Board's renewed commitment to delivering opportunity."
Citing input
from College Board members in the K–12 and higher education communities, as
well as students and parents, Coleman outlined two bold new actions the organization
would take to deliver opportunities to students.
The College
Board's first action expands the organization's recent outreach to
college-ready, low-income students to provide them with customized, targeted
support in the college application process. Coleman announced that every
income-eligible student who takes the SAT will directly receive four fee
waivers to apply to college, removing a cost barrier faced especially by low-
and middle-income students. This news builds on the College Board's substantial
opportunity efforts to improve the academic preparation of students by ensuring
that those with demonstrated potential to succeed in the Advanced Placement
Program® have access to those classes.
"We can
cut through so much red tape and hesitation by giving students the admission
fee waivers they need, information they understand and the encouragement they
need to apply more broadly," said Coleman. "This is only possible
through the support and generosity of our member colleges."
The College
Board's second announcement directly confronts one of the greatest inequities
around college entrance exams, namely the culture and practice of high-priced
test preparation. Coleman revealed that the College Board is partnering with
Khan Academy to provide the world with free test preparation materials for the
redesigned SAT. College Board and Khan Academy will build this
material together for launch in spring 2015. This means for the first time
ever, all students who want to take the SAT will be able to prepare for the
exam with sophisticated, interactive software that gives students deep practice
and helps them diagnose their gaps at absolutely no cost. In the meantime,
students who will take the current SAT can now go to Khan Academy to work
through hundreds of previously unreleased practice problems from actual SAT
exams, accompanied by more than 200 videos that show how to solve the problems
step-by-step.
"For too
long, there's been a well-known imbalance between students who could afford
test-prep courses and those who couldn't," said Sal Khan, founder and
executive director of Khan Academy. "We're thrilled to collaborate closely
with the College Board to level the playing field by making truly world-class
test-prep materials freely available to all students."
As a critical
component of the organization's robust initiatives to deliver equal
opportunity, the College Board is redesigning the SAT to focus on the few
things that evidence show matter most for college and career readiness.
Of the
redesigned exam Coleman said, "We will honor the qualities which have made
the SAT excellent. We will build on the remarkable care and expertise which
statisticians have used to make the exam valid and predictive. While we build
on the best of the past, we commit today that the redesigned SAT will be more
focused and useful, more clear and open than ever before."
Each change in
the redesigned SAT draws upon evidence of the knowledge and skills that are
most essential for readiness and success, and the exam is also modeled on the work
that students do in challenging high school courses.
The redesigned
exam will:
- have three
sections: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, Math, and the Essay.
- return to
the 1600 scale. The essay will provide a separate score.
- be
approximately three hours in length, with an additional 50 minutes for the
essay. The precise time of the exam will be affirmed through research.
- be
administered both in print and by computer in 2016.
The first
administration of the redesigned exam will take place in spring 2016. The
College Board will release the full specifications of the exam along with
extensive sample items for each section on April 16 of this year.
Major changes
to the exam include:
- Relevant
words in context: "SAT words" will no longer be vocabulary
students may not have heard before and are likely not to hear again.
Instead, the SAT will focus on words that students will use consistently
in college and beyond.
- Evidence-based
reading and writing. Students will be asked to support answers with
evidence, including questions that require them to cite a specific part of
a passage to support their answer choice.
- Essay
analyzing a source: The essay will measure students' ability to analyze
evidence and explain how an author builds an argument to persuade an
audience. Responses will be evaluated based on the strength of the
analysis as well as the coherence of the writing. The essay portion of the
writing section will no longer be required. Two major factors led to this
decision. First, while the writing work that students do in the reading
and writing section of the exam is deeply predictive of college readiness
and success, one essay alone historically has not contributed
significantly to the overall predictive power of the exam. Second,
feedback from College Board member admission officers was split; some
found the essay useful, many did not. The College Board will promote
analytical writing throughout their assessments and instructional
resources. The organization will also sponsor an awards program modeled
after the Pulitzer Prize for the best student analytical writing. The
Atlantic magazine has agreed to publish the winners.
- Math
focused on three key areas: The math section will draw from fewer topics that
evidence shows most contribute to student readiness for college and career
training. The exam will focus on three essential areas: problem solving
and data analysis; the heart of algebra; and passport to advanced math.
Students can study these core math areas in depth and have confidence that
they will be assessed.
- Source
documents originate from a wide range of academic disciplines, including
science and social studies: The reading section will enable students to analyze
a wide range of sources, including literature and literary non-fiction,
science, history and social studies.
- Analyzing
data and texts in real world context: Students will be asked to
analyze both text and data in real world contexts, including identifying
and correcting inconsistencies between the two. Students will show the
work they do throughout their classes by reading science articles and
historical and social studies sources.
- Founding
Documents and Great Global Conversation: Each exam will include a passage
drawn from the Founding Documents of America or the Great Global
Conversation they inspire — texts like the Declaration of Independence,
the Federalist Papers and "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Scoring
does not deduct points for incorrect answers (rights-only scoring): The
College Board will remove the penalty for wrong answers — and go to the
simpler, more transparent model of giving students points for the
questions they answer correctly. Students are encouraged to select the
best answer to every question.
Moving forward,
the College Board will also support the practice of excellent work in
classrooms by working with teachers and college faculty to design course
frameworks and modules for use in grades 6–12.
Of this work
Coleman said, "Research will guide our efforts to enhance the work
students already do in their classes in grades 6–12. And that research shows
that mastery of fewer, more important things matters more than superficial
coverage of many."
On April 16,
the College Board will share for the first time the complete specifications of
the exam, as well as sample items, two years before any student will take the
exam. The College Board will continue to present updated information over the
course of the two years leading up to the first administration of the
redesigned exam. Updates will also be available on the organization's new
microsite, http://deliveringopportunity.org.
To read this
press release in Spanish, please click here.
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About the College Board
The College
Board is a mission-driven not-for-profit organization that connects students to
college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board was created
to expand access to higher education. Today, the membership association is made
up of over 6,000 of the world's leading educational institutions and is
dedicated to promoting excellence and equity in education. Each year, the
College Board helps more than seven million students prepare for a successful
transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and
college success — including the SAT® and the Advanced Placement Program®. The
organization also serves the education community through research and advocacy
on behalf of students, educators, and schools. For further information, visit
www.collegeboard.org.
The College
Board
212-713-8052
communications@collegeboard.org
About Khan Academy
Khan Academy is
a 501(c)3 non-profit with a mission of providing a free world-class education
for anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy provides free online educational materials
(e.g., practice exercises, instructional videos, dashboard analytics, teacher
tools) that support personalized education for users of all ages in a scalable
way. In the last two years, the organization has delivered over 360 million
lessons and 1.6 billion exercise problems. Currently it has 10 million users
per month and over 4 million exercise problems completed each day. Khan Academy
covers subjects from basic Math to college level Biology and Art History. For
more information visit www.khanacademy.org.
When students open their SAT test books in spring 2016, they’ll encounter an SAT that is more focused and useful than ever before. The full specifications of the exam along with extensive sample items for each section will be available on April 16, 2014. Major changes are described below.
https://www.collegeboard.org/delivering-opportunity/sat/redesign