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Education Dive
Counselors, parents decry College Board's
adversity score
By Shawna De La Rosa
May 24, 2019
Dive Brief:
School counselors recently blasted the College Board’s plan to weigh
SAT scores by neighborhoods and high schools. Last week, 150 colleges
announced they would be using the pilot “Environmental Context
Dashboard,” Education Week reports.
Though some school counselors support the College Board’s decision,
most were critical of the plan to scale schools and neighborhoods from
1-100 on a type of “disadvantage score.”
Most counselors acknowledge that students of color and those of
low-income are underrepresented at the nation’s top colleges, but
believe this will just become another hurdle for the richest parents to
overcome. The announcement was especially jarring for parents who
already feel like college admission systems are unfair, as details of
the Varsity Blues scandal continue to unfold.
Dive Insight:
While providing information about a student's school or neighborhood
alongside an SAT score provides additional context, a student’s success
is based on many intangibles that are not taken into account when
weighing scores based on ZIP codes. While students in poverty, those
experiencing food insecurity and students of color are underrepresented
at colleges, students with adverse childhood experiences struggle as
well.
Counselors say that assessing a student’s grit based on the address of
their high school does not tell the whole story. Students whose schools
sit in higher income neighborhoods may still face a variety of
challenges, including learning disabilities or being in foster care.
While students from middle- and high-income areas can often participate
in more extracurricular activities, because they tend to have the time
and more financial resources, those in lower-income households may not
have the same opportunities, or may need to work or care for a sibling
after school — which might not help on a college application. One idea
is to give applicants who worked eight or more hours a week in high
school a "bump" that equals the extracurricular activity credit.
Some colleges are also putting less emphasis on admission tests and
considering other factors, such as a student's GPA and leadership
skills. A college that wants to attract community-building student
leaders, for example, could ask applicants to answer thought-provoking
essay questions about the meaning of community. According to FairTest,
over 1,000 colleges and universities are now "test optional," meaning
they don't require students to submit ACT or SAT scores.
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