By Thomas Wong & Michelle Lim, Staff Writers
College Board announced on Jan. 19 that it will discontinue SAT Subject Tests for students in the U.S. and the optional SAT Essay for all students internationally. It will automatically refund Subject Tests but not the Essay. Students planning to take the Essay can still take it through the June 2021 administration or cancel it for free. The change comes with uncertainty over how College Board will administer its tests and growing concern over the value of the SAT.
“I don’t know how to feel about this because colleges used to place a strong emphasis on these tests, but now they don’t matter,” junior Elijah Qin said. “Getting that 800 on the subject test used to be really important to me, but now there’s nothing to worry about. A little part of me is upset about the change, although I’m mostly glad that I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
College Board states that the discontinuation aims to remove barriers for underrepresented and minority students.
A 2015 report found that white and Asian students scored an average of over 100 points higher than all other ethnic groups on the SAT due to the fact that the quality of K-12 education directly impacts test preparation. According to the U.S. Department of Education, Black students are four times more likely and Latino students twice as likely to attend schools with unqualified teachers compared to white students.
“I’m glad that there’s a lot of change happening, even if that change might seem messy at first,” senior Phoebe Chan said. “However, I don’t know if the issue is standardized testing so much as the disparity between resources available to different individuals in society. That issue is going to take a lot more than the removal of an essay to fix.”
College Board also administers AP Exams, which are an alternative to the SAT Subject Tests and the SAT Essay. The organization aims to encourage greater participation in AP testing by removing the Subject Tests and Essay.
Many colleges and universities also no longer consider the SAT Essay essential to admissions criteria. Ivy League schools and California State Universities will not require or recommend students to take the Essay. The University of California system also removed the SAT from admissions requirements until 2024.
“I don’t think taking out the Subject Tests and Essay is going to be harmful,” English teacher Jessica Shunkey said. “There is some inherent bias in the SAT as a whole, since certain students have access to tutoring. However, I think there is value in having a nationally normed test that measures students’ critical thinking skills.”