SAT Essentials: Participation, Performance, and Pandemic

During the “SAT Essentials: Participation, Performance, and Pandemic” session at the 2021 College Board Forum, Dr. Nicole Gibbs, Senior Director, External Engagement, College Board emphasized College Board’s top priorities are the health and saftey of students and educators. Nicole walked through the impact of the pandemic on SAT participation and performance for the class of 2021. Nearly one million students in the class of 2021 took the SAT at no cost to them through SAT School Day, and the class of 2021 outperformed the class of 2020 with average SAT scores. Gibbs also shared how the College Board ensured the delivery of the SAT Suite Assessments included expanded opportunities through additional test dates and flexibilities for administering. The organization also positively “over-communicated” with students and parents during this time.

Additionally, Nicole shared the test-taking trends for the class of 2022 with the encouraging fact that more than 1.4 million students from class of 2022 have already taken the SAT, along with the reminder of upcoming testing dates for students to have the opportunity to test.

The session also highlighted the updates to educator and student resources, including updates to College Board’s Test Ordering Site (TOS), the enhancement of the Higher Ed Reporting Portal, and the exciting news that Test Day Toolkit will support educators around the world for upcoming test dates.