Making the Most of PSAT-Related Assessments Score Reports

PSAT-Related Assessments (PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10 and the PSAT/NMSQT) are part of the SAT Suite of Assessments and measure the same skills as the SAT – reading, writing, language and math. Along with the PSAT’s benefits in preparing students to take the SAT, the assessments provide robust data to show current student skill levels and areas where students can improve for both the classroom and taking the SAT.

Dr. Tracy Scholz is the Director of Advanced Academic Studies for the Spring Branch Independent School District, near Houston, Texas. Her presentation at last week’s College Board Virtual National Forum focused on how to make the most of the data for both students and educators. Key to these efforts are the robust tools and resources developed by College Board. “The feedback College Board provides students is very specific.” Dr. Scholz took the time to walk through some of the key reports and resources:

1. Understanding Scores booklet and website:

“I want to students to know how many questions away they are from either the college readiness benchmark or how many questions away they are from their goal scale score.” Dr. Scholz uses the information presented in both College Board’s booklet and website to help students break down their PSAT performance by number of questions they got right or wrong, and how to use that information to achieve their goal. “What this does for students is it makes the test less daunting and makes it more approachable. And we can start providing them targeted interventions.”

2. Student Score Report:

College Board’s online student score reports provide students all the information from traditional paper reports, though dives much deeper. One key piece of the online reports is the question by question break down of their performance on test day. “Now that students have an understanding of what questions they need, we drill into the PSAT data more and we look at where they can pick up extra questions.” Students can filter their test questions by subject area to help focus future practice opportunities. For extra support, students can also use the Skills Insight section of their score report for iterative feedback on areas of strength and areas for intervention to combine with their test questions as tools for future practice.

3. K-12 Score Reporting Portal:

For a seamless educator experience, many have access to the K-12 Score Reporting Portal. This portal provides educators with the opportunity to view individual student score reports like a student would see, but also the ability to view aggregate levels of student data – providing views of their entire test taking population. “As students are analyzing their individual reports, we want our campuses and our PLC teams to also analyze their own data, so they can see if there are trends that can be addressed instructionally in the classroom.”

It’s important to remember that these tests are not meant as moments in time. Rather, they are opportunities for both students and educators to analyze data for meaningful future interventions. Students can learn more by visiting the College Board student scores website, while educators can visit our K-12 Score Reporting Portal help page for more about access and the variety of reports available.