College Board

The SAT is a fee-based standardized test for college admissions in the United States first administered in 1926.[12] The SAT is administered by the College Board in the United States and is developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). The SAT covers writing, reading, and mathematics. SAT scores range from 400 to 1600, with each of the two sections—Evidence-based Reading and Writing and Mathematics—worth up to 800 points. Most students take the test during their junior or senior year of high school. In the marketplace, the SAT competes with the ACT, another standardized college admissions test.

The basic test is $49.50, and the optional essay section costs another $15. Also, there are various fees that can accumulate. Registering later results in a $30 fee, registering by phone results in a $15 fee and changing a test date, center, or test type results in a $30 fee. The waitlist testing fee is $53 and each score report costs $12. Additionally, students sitting the test in regions outside the United States pay an additional 'Non-U.S. Regional Fee' of between $43 and $53.[13] As a result, student testing fees may run up to $200 or more for a single test. However, fee waivers and reductions are available for some low-income students.[14]

On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced that a redesigned version of the SAT would be administered for the first time in 2016. The exam reverted to the 1600-point scale, and the essay became optional. The testing process was changed to give students three hours to take the exam plus 50 additional minutes to complete the essay.[15] In the same announcement, the College Board also said they would be partnering with Khan Academy to make available, from spring 2015, free test preparation materials for the redesigned SAT. This included a preparation application to help students practice and identify areas of improvement. Practice problems and videos demonstrating step-by-step solutions were also made available.[16]

The SAT Subject Tests are intended to measure student performance in specific areas, such as mathematics, science, and history. A student may take up to three SAT Subject Tests on any given date at a flat rate. There is a per-administration registration fee of $26, plus a flat fee of $22 ($26 in the case of language tests with listening) for each test the student plans to take.[17]

On May 13, 2015, the College Board announced the release of a new credential initiative to get students more interested in careers focused in STEM with a Project Lead the Way partnership.[18]

In March 2020, College Board announced the cancellation of several test dates during the spring of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[19]

On January 19, 2021, the College Board discontinued Subject Tests. This was effective immediately in the United States, and the tests were to be phased out by the following summer for international students.[20]

The PSAT/NMSQT is a fee-based standardized test that provides firsthand practice for the SAT for a cost of $17. It also functions as a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's scholarship programs. There are also other forms of the PSAT, including the PSAT 10 and the PSAT 8/9.[21][22] However, it is important to note that the PSAT 10 and the PSAT 8/9 do not qualify a student for the National Merit Scholarship.[23][24]

The College Board's Advanced Placement Program is an extensive program that offers high school students the chance to participate in what the College Board describes as college-level classes, reportedly broadening students' intellectual horizons and preparing them for college work. It also plays a large part in the college admissions process, showing students' intellectual capacity and genuine interest in learning. The program allows many students to gain college credit for high performance on the AP exams, which cost $94 each, much in the same manner as the CLEP. Granting credit, however, is at the discretion of the college. There are 2,900 colleges that grant credit and/or advanced standing. Critics of the Advanced Placement Program charge that courses and exams emphasize breadth of content coverage instead of depth.

In May 2020, glitches prevented some students from submitting their AP exams, forcing those students to re-take them in June.[25]

The College Level Examination Program (CLEP) provides students of any age including high schoolers, college students, homeschooled students, adults, senior citizens, children, and exceptional toddlers with the opportunity to demonstrate college-level achievement through a program of exams in undergraduate college courses. There are 2,900 colleges that grant credit for passing CLEP exams.

The College Board's Accuplacer test is a computer-based placement test that assesses reading, writing, and math skills.[26] The Accuplacer test includes reading comprehension, sentence skills, arithmetic, elementary algebra, college-level mathematics and the writing test, Writeplacer. The Accuplacer test is used primarily by more than 1,000 high schools and colleges[27] to determine a student's needed placement. Often community colleges have specific guidelines for students requiring the Accuplacer test. The Accuplacer Companion paper-and-pencil tests allows for students with disabilities (Specifically students with an Individualized Education Program or 504 Plan) to take the test through its braille, large print and audio tests. The biggest benefit of the Accuplacer and Accuplacer Companion tests are their ability to be scored immediately through an online scoring system and taken in remote locations. While there are normally no fees for taking the test, some institutions may charge a fee to retake the test. Note that if a testing institution is not local, an examinee may be required to arrange a proctor for the test. If so, a local library may be willing to serve as proctor as there are not many other options for individuals in this case. Most schools will only test their own admissions candidates.

SpringBoard is a pre-Advanced Placement program created by the College Board to prepare students who intend to take AP courses or college-level courses in their scholastic career. Based on Wiggins and McTighe's "Understanding by Design" model, the SpringBoard program attempts to map knowledge into scholastic skill sets in preparation for Advanced Placement testing and college success. Units of instruction are titrated to students within and across all school grades, providing a vertically articulated curriculum framework that scaffolds learning skills and subject test knowledge. Implicit in the course curriculum, the program embeds pre-AP and AP teaching and learning strategies across grade school levels and classwork.

The curriculum applies to grades 6 through 12. Teachers are provided with formative assessments, professional training, and a variety of teaching tools to track student progress. The instructional framework is integrated in the curriculum content and subject materials. SpringBoard also provides other Web 2.0 resources aimed at making the program more community oriented.

The SAT Reasoning Test with essay costs $64.50[32] ($93.50 if late) as of 2019, the AP exams cost US$94 as of 2019, and taking AP exams is often a requirement for students taking AP classes.[33] The SAT Subject Tests cost a baseline of $26 with a $22 fee for each test.[34] Furthermore, numerous other services can be added to the basic costs, including late registration, score verification services, and various answering available services. SAT score reports cost $12 per college for 1–2-week electronic delivery, or 2–4-week paper or disk delivery, depending on what method the school requires ($31 extra for two-day processing). The College Board allows high school administrators to authorize fee waivers for some services to students from low-income families, generally those meeting National School Lunch Act criteria.[35] In addition, due to the competitive nature of the test, many students find it necessary to take preparatory courses or to have SAT tutoring, which can cost hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.

Even the College Board's College Scholarship Service Profile (CSS), a college financial aid application meant to help students pay for college, requires a fee. For the 2018–19 school year, the price is $25 for the first report sent and an additional $16 for each additional college to receive the information.

In 2017, the College Board had $1.068 billion of revenue but spent only $927.8 million, leaving a $140 million surplus.[1] Budget surpluses persist despite market-leading compensation packages for the College Board's executives – in 2009, the College Board paid out a $1.3 million/year package for CEO Caperton, more than the head of the American Red Cross or Harvard University. It paid nineteen executives more than $300,000 each per year.[36]

In 2005, MIT Writing Director Les Perelman plotted essay length versus essay score on the new SAT from released essays and found a high correlation between them. After studying 23 graded essays he found that the longer the essay was, the higher the score it was given. Perelman found that he could accurately determine the score of an essay without even reading the essay. In his study, he discovered that several of these essays were full of factual inaccuracies. The College Board does not claim to grade for factual accuracy.

Perelman, along with the National Council of Teachers of English also criticized the 25-minute writing section of the test for damaging standards of writing taught in the classroom. They say that writing teachers training their students for the SAT will not instill revision, depth and accuracy, but will instead guide them to produce long, formulaic, and wordy pieces.[37] "You're getting teachers to train students to be bad writers", concluded Perelman.[38]

Some teachers have criticized AP classes as restrictive in the nature of their curriculum and yet indispensable due to the importance of AP classes in the college admissions process. The College Board is effectively able to control every aspect of AP classes directly or indirectly. The $94 fee,[39] which is noted critically above, results only in a score report with the test name and grade. No details are given on how this scoring was reached nor are individuals given access to this information from College Board.[40]

Additionally, starting with a pilot program in 2018 and officially rolling out to all schools in 2019, the College Board will require students to sign up for AP tests during the fall before early-round college decisions are out.[41] While the College Board has stated that this is to ensure students commit to learning the material at the beginning of the year, many students have complained about it, stating that because they will not know whether or not the college they end up attending will grant credit for the test, the new, early registration deadline forces students to pay for tests that they will receive no benefit from. The College Board also charges $40 if a student does not sit for a test that they signed up for,[42] meaning that many students who signed up for tests that would not grant them any credit still have to sit for those tests or pay the $40 fee.

Traditionally, AP exams are given in a school setting and last from three to four hours. However, during the COVID-19 outbreak of 2020, the College Board released a new form of AP testing in which students were to take exams at home, in a shortened 45-minute, open-book format. During the exams, there were reports of disruptions in the test.[43]

In March 2006, it was discovered that the College Board had mis-scored several thousand tests taken in October 2005. Although the Board was aware of the error as early as December, it waited months to respond, and in late March, schools still did not have correct details. Within days of the first announcement, the Board corrected upward the number of affected students.[44]

Many colleges use the SAT score to decide acceptance and scholarships. The late reporting of errors upset many high-profile colleges. The dean of admissions at Pomona College commented, "Everybody appears to be telling half-truths, and that erodes confidence in the College Board...It looks like they hired the people who used to do the books for Enron".[44]

As of 2019, the College Board charges $0.47 per name for access to student information.[45] An investigation by the New York Civil Liberties Union revealed that one of the College Board's customers was JAMRS, a military recruitment program run by the United States Department of Defense.[46] The College Board and ACT have been sued over the use of this information.[47] In addition, there is criticism that students are not sufficiently made aware that their data is being sold, or that disclosure of certain data is optional. The College Board has received substantial backlash for these practices.[48]

On August 25, 2018, the SAT test given in America was discovered to be a recycled October 2017 international SAT test given in China. The leaked PDF file was on the internet before the August 25, 2018 exam.[49]

In October 2020, the College Board announced is intention to terminate financial ties with Hanban, in place since 2006, following a letter from U.S. senators critical of the relationship and a report from the National Association of Scholars alleging a Chinese government influence campaign against the College Board.[50][51]