There are a lot of factors that go into a student’s success. Now the College Board wants universities to consider the socioeconomic background of a prospective student by implementing an SAT adversity score.
As the Wall Street Journal is repotting, the College Board is launching the “Environmental Context Dashboard,” which would measure factors like the crime rate and poverty levels of a student’s neighborhood, to provide a more well-rounded picture of their “resourcefulness to overcome challenges and achieve more with less.”
The College Board says it's been testing a tool that will give students who take the SATs a score that measures their economic hardships and other disadvantages. https://t.co/2CtrYAUDjD
— NPR (@NPR) May 17, 2019
The score will not take into account a student’s race, but it will look at things like average class size and the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch. Colleges will be able to see this new score in addition to the standard SAT score, but students will only be given the standard number.
The change comes in light of the recent scandal over wealthy families allegedly paying bribes to have the SAT taken by others in order to get their kids into high-profile universities.
“There is talent and potential waiting to be discovered in every community — the children of poor rural families, kids navigating the challenges of life in the inner city, and military dependents who face the daily difficulties of low income and frequent deployments as part of their family’s service to our country,” David Coleman, chief executive officer of the College Board said in a statement sent to CNN, adding, “No single test score should ever be examined without paying attention to this critical context.”
—Shahrzad Warkentin
Featured photo: F1Digitals via Pixabay
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