Goodbye No. 2 pencils: What the SAT going digital means for college admissions

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• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Starting today, the SAT, the Standardized College Admissions Test is going fully digital. The test once known for its number two pencils and fill in the bubble answer sheets will no longer be offered on paper. It's part of a larger redesign meant to make the test more accessible and fair, even as colleges and universities around the country have increasingly made the test optional for applicants.

  The change is renewing debate over the role that tests should play and admissions. Nadra Nittle, Education reporter for the 19th News joins me to discuss. Nadra, thanks so much for talking to us. What exactly is changing for students who are taking the test today?

  Nadra Nittle, The 19TH News: So as you mentioned, the SAT is going digital in the United States for the first time, it actually went digital internationally last year, but for U.S. students, this will be a new experience. The test will also be about an hour shorter than the pencil and paper version. And it will be adaptive meaning that the question students get answered, depend on how well they do at the outset.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Why did the College Board the nonprofit that runs sa t programs make this change?

• Nadra Nittle:

  Well, I think one of the reasons is just, you know, young people today, teenagers, they're digital natives. So this will be very familiar to a lot of them changing this format, and the paper version was considered outdated. Some of my sources told me that they also think this is a way to make the test more attractive as colleges and universities increasingly make it an optional admissions requirement.

  So by making it shorter, making it digital, even making it adaptive, or always to make it more attractive to students.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Do these changes do anything to address some of the long standing complaints about the SAT that it plays into inequities, especially for girls, students of color and low income students?

• Nadra Nittle:

  So I've heard some mixed responses from my sources about this topic, there really is nothing necessarily in the test in terms of the questions you would get asked that would make it, I guess, easier or narrow the gaps for some students in terms of their performance, but some people think even just by making it shorter, that might help students with learning differences.

  Even by making it adaptive, you know, some of my sources think that can make students less anxious, and that can improve their scores. In terms of gender, race, and you know, some of the other gaps, we just don't know, my expert sources are waiting to get data, which they probably won't have enough of until next year to really look at the subgroups and how subgroups performed on the test.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So overall, are your sources telling you that this digital tests may give some students a leg up or may be a disadvantage to others?

• Nadra Nittle:

  So some are saying, you know, especially with students for learning differences, just by making it shorter, just by having adaptive, you know, questions, instead of giving everyone the same questions that that could be helpful. But some of my other sources who have been long term critics of the SAT don't think this test is really going to do anything different. They think it's the same test, it's just a little shorter, and now it's digital instead of on paper.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Disadvantage, low income students may not be able to afford extracurriculars, or coaching on college essays, things that could help them overall boost their college admission applications.

  And so is there a concern that with making the SAT optional, which some universities have done that that could hurt those low income students?

• Nadra Nittle:

  Some of the SAT supporters are arguing that, hey, if a student from an, you know, socio economically disadvantaged background happens to take the SATs, and does really well on it, that student might qualify for scholarships. They also might qualify for admission at an elite institution that maybe just by grades alone, they wouldn't have been admitted to.

  So there's an attitude of, you know, why not just take the test, see if you do well on it, and if you do submit the scores. The other thing is during the pandemic, when the test optional movement really started to gain ground. A lot of students who were applying to Ivy League institutions and other elite institutions were still turning in their test scores anyway.

  So by making it now a requirement again, some of my sources believe they actually are leveling the playing field.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  The SAT as you know, used to be mandatory for first year applications. That number dropped during the pandemic and now schools are returning to that requirement. And but others aren't. So, is the SATs still an important part of college admissions?

• Nadra Nittle:

  I definitely think it's still an important part especially for those, you know, the top tier students who are really trying to get into the best schools in the country at the same time. According to one advocacy group called fair test, only 20 percent of colleges are requiring the SAT, so more than 80 percent of colleges and universities still do not have it as a requirement. It's test optional and they think that the test optional movement is here to stay.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Nadra Nittle of the 19th News. Thank you for joining.

• Nadra Nittle:

  Thanks for having me.