Our Plans to Provide Students with Opportunities to Take the SAT in 2020

Earlier today, the College Board publicly shared how we will make the SAT available in school and out of school as soon as the public health situation allows.

Our top priorities are the health and safety of students and educators. Public health officials have made clear it currently is not safe to gather students in one place, and many states have closed school for the rest of the academic year. As such, we will not be able to administer the SAT as planned on June 6, 2020.

The College Board will ensure students have opportunities to take the SAT to make up for the lost administrations this spring, giving them opportunities to show their strengths and continue on the path to college.

“We know students and educators are worried about how the coronavirus may disrupt the college admissions process, and we want to do all we can to help alleviate that anxiety during this very demanding time,” said College Board CEO, David Coleman. “Our first principle with the SAT and all our work must be to keep families and students safe. The second principle is to make the SAT as widely available as possible for students who wish to test, regardless of the economic or public health circumstances.”

Three commitments we’re making to ensure the SAT is available to all students this fall: 

• If it’s safe from a public health standpoint, there will be weekend SAT administrations every month through the end of the calendar year, beginning in August. This includes a new administration in September and the previously scheduled tests on August 29, October 3, November 7, and December 5.
   
• To replace canceled SAT School Day administrations this spring, the College Board will offer the SAT in schools this fall. Almost all of College Board state partners and many of its district partners have expressed interest in providing SAT administrations during the school day later this fall. Some states, like Michigan, have already made announcements regarding fall testing. This is an important opportunity for the many students who take the SAT for free as part of state- and large district-sponsored programs. Specific information about state and district testing will be shared with our partners in the coming weeks so they may create their testing plans for students.
   
• In the unlikely event that schools do not reopen this fall, the College Board will provide a digital SAT for home use, much as the organization is delivering digital exams for three million Advanced Placement (AP) students this spring. As with at-home AP Exams, the College Board would ensure that at-home SAT testing is simple; secure and fair; accessible to all; and valid for use in college admissions. Like the pencil-and-paper test, a digital, remote version of the SAT would measure what students are learning in school and what they need to know to be successful in college. The digital, at-home SAT would build on the organization’s experience over the past year of delivering the SAT digitally in schools in several states and districts. While the idea of at-home SAT testing is new, digital delivery of the test is not.

For national administrations, students will be able to register beginning in May. Students who registered for June and those in the high school class of 2021 who do not have SAT scores will have early access to register for the August, September, and October administrations. The College Board will communicate directly with students when the exact date is available. Eligible students will be able to take the test with a fee waiver. For each administration, the organization is preparing to significantly expand its capacity for students to take the SAT as soon as schools reopen. The College Board is calling on member schools and colleges, as well as local communities, to open their doors and provide additional test center capacity so every student who wants to can take the SAT.

To help students keep their college readiness skills sharp when many schools are closed, the College Board and Khan Academy^® continue to provide free resources online, including full-length practice tests and personalized learning tools at khanacademy.org/sat.

The College Board is working closely with partners in higher education to navigate this evolving situation, and will continue to rely on their expertise to ensure students have what they need as they apply to college during the 2020–2021 high school year. We support colleges that are rightfully emphasizing flexibility for the admissions process for next year; each institution will decide what flexibility means for them.

It has never been more important than at this unprecedented time to consider the context in which students live and learn. While all students will have the opportunity to take the SAT, the impact of the coronavirus on students varies vastly based on their circumstances. The families hit hardest are most often those with the fewest resources.

The College Board fully supports admissions officers at member colleges who have said the circumstances of the public health crisis will be taken into account when considering test scores, grades, and extracurricular activities in the coming year.

“Our commitment to students is to give them as many opportunities as we can to show their strengths to admissions officers, while relying on the guidance of public health officials,” Coleman added. “Throughout, we’ll continue to place a special focus on students benefitting from fee waivers and those requiring accommodations.”

Over the coming weeks, the College Board will provide students, families, and K–12 and higher ed members with new information about testing plans, including via pages.collegeboard.org/sat-covid-19-updates.