SAT test to include additional score: Adversity
An “adversity score” will be added to SAT college entrance test results, rating applicants on environmental factors meant to offer admissions officers a glimpse into a student’s socioeconomic background, the College Board has announced.
Only admissions offices at colleges and universities will be able to view the score, which will range from 1 to 100, with 50 representing the national or state average of recent high school graduates, the testing organization said.
A series of factors will be considered based on neighborhood background, including crime rates, housing stability and the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch at the applicant’s high school.
The idea is to give admissions officers a deeper framework for considering SAT scores than the information high schools typically provide. A score of 1400, out of a maximum 1600, might look more impressive coming from a student with a higher adversity score compared with a peer who comes from relative privilege.
David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, said the tool, dubbed the Environmental Context Dashboard, “shines a light on students who have demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness to overcome challenges and achieve more with less.”
Over the years, data has shown that students from wealthier socioeconomic backgrounds tend to score higher on the SAT.
The new score, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, has already been piloted at 50 colleges and universities and will be expanded to 150 more this fall.
Anurima Bhargava, who led civil rights enforcement in universities for the Justice Department during the Obama administration, said the score will help illuminate factors for college admissions officials to consider when reviewing applications.
The college admissions scandal, in which a group of wealthy parents have been charged with hiring people to rig their children’s test scores to gain admittance into top universities, revealed structural problems in the admissions process, Bhargava said.
“Trying to actually create structures which account for the kinds of things that have been barriers to people being able to have a fair and inclusive admissions process is important,” she said.
The College Board says it developed the tool as a data-driven model to identify applicants who face hardships by focusing on their high school, neighborhood and family environment.
Charles Deacon, the veteran dean of undergraduate admission at Georgetown University, said he was skeptical about the value of the score.
“We have so much personal data on all of our applicants that we don’t feel the need for a tool like this,”
Deacon said. “In this era of ‘data analytics,’ I guess this is one that could be helpful, but to be honest I still see college admissions as ‘an art, not a science’ so I’m prone to resist quantifying things too much.”
Florida State University in Tallahassee is among the schools that have tested the tool. John Barnhill, associate vice president for enrollment management, said it was used in reviewing nearly 60,000 applications each year for its last two incoming undergraduate freshman classes.
“Many of us have tried to use different types of ways to assess that, whether it’s our knowledge of a state or neighborhood,” Barnhill said.
The tool allowed the school to look at how a student’s test score compared with his or her school’s average, or housing stability in their ZIP Code, he said, providing a more substantial picture of factors that shaped an applicant’s life. As a result, the school admitted more students whose backgrounds fell into the 50 to 100 range, Barnhill said.
“To say it has played a big role is overstating it,” he said, “but it has played what I consider a significant role.”
Bhargava said the new score will offer an additional look at the background environment that helped shape the life of an applicant.
“There are ways in which (the score) is trying to ac- count for something that I think is incredibly important, which is: What are the ways in which there may be community-level trauma that a student is experiencing,” she said, “and how do we account for that?”
Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions at Duke University, said he likes the idea of the dashboard and plans soon to use it. Duke is one of the most competitive schools in the country, and it requires applicants to submit an SAT or ACT score.
“Everyone familiar with the college admissions process understands that it’s not a level playing field,”
Guttentag wrote in an email. “We’re always trying to understand each applicant’s context a little better, and I think this tool will be a positive step in that direction.”
The Washington Post contributed.
Only admissions offices at colleges and universities will be able to view the score, which will range from 1 to 100, with 50 representing the national or state average of recent high school graduates, the testing organization said.
A series of factors will be considered based on neighborhood background, including crime rates, housing stability and the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch at the applicant’s high school.
The idea is to give admissions officers a deeper framework for considering SAT scores than the information high schools typically provide. A score of 1400, out of a maximum 1600, might look more impressive coming from a student with a higher adversity score compared with a peer who comes from relative privilege.
David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, said the tool, dubbed the Environmental Context Dashboard, “shines a light on students who have demonstrated remarkable resourcefulness to overcome challenges and achieve more with less.”
Over the years, data has shown that students from wealthier socioeconomic backgrounds tend to score higher on the SAT.
The new score, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, has already been piloted at 50 colleges and universities and will be expanded to 150 more this fall.
Anurima Bhargava, who led civil rights enforcement in universities for the Justice Department during the Obama administration, said the score will help illuminate factors for college admissions officials to consider when reviewing applications.
The college admissions scandal, in which a group of wealthy parents have been charged with hiring people to rig their children’s test scores to gain admittance into top universities, revealed structural problems in the admissions process, Bhargava said.
“Trying to actually create structures which account for the kinds of things that have been barriers to people being able to have a fair and inclusive admissions process is important,” she said.
The College Board says it developed the tool as a data-driven model to identify applicants who face hardships by focusing on their high school, neighborhood and family environment.
Charles Deacon, the veteran dean of undergraduate admission at Georgetown University, said he was skeptical about the value of the score.
“We have so much personal data on all of our applicants that we don’t feel the need for a tool like this,”
Deacon said. “In this era of ‘data analytics,’ I guess this is one that could be helpful, but to be honest I still see college admissions as ‘an art, not a science’ so I’m prone to resist quantifying things too much.”
Florida State University in Tallahassee is among the schools that have tested the tool. John Barnhill, associate vice president for enrollment management, said it was used in reviewing nearly 60,000 applications each year for its last two incoming undergraduate freshman classes.
“Many of us have tried to use different types of ways to assess that, whether it’s our knowledge of a state or neighborhood,” Barnhill said.
The tool allowed the school to look at how a student’s test score compared with his or her school’s average, or housing stability in their ZIP Code, he said, providing a more substantial picture of factors that shaped an applicant’s life. As a result, the school admitted more students whose backgrounds fell into the 50 to 100 range, Barnhill said.
“To say it has played a big role is overstating it,” he said, “but it has played what I consider a significant role.”
Bhargava said the new score will offer an additional look at the background environment that helped shape the life of an applicant.
“There are ways in which (the score) is trying to ac- count for something that I think is incredibly important, which is: What are the ways in which there may be community-level trauma that a student is experiencing,” she said, “and how do we account for that?”
Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions at Duke University, said he likes the idea of the dashboard and plans soon to use it. Duke is one of the most competitive schools in the country, and it requires applicants to submit an SAT or ACT score.
“Everyone familiar with the college admissions process understands that it’s not a level playing field,”
Guttentag wrote in an email. “We’re always trying to understand each applicant’s context a little better, and I think this tool will be a positive step in that direction.”
The Washington Post contributed.
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