another article from Reuters on the Redesigned SAT and Coleman's leadership at CB

[wapiti]

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/college-sat-coleman/  (I saw this posted over at cc)

 

College Board faces rocky path after CEO pushes new vision for SAT

By Renee Dudley

 

Filed Dec. 12, 2016, 1:07 p.m. GMT

David Coleman spearheaded a sweeping redesign of America's oldest college entrance exam. His plan to act fast – and tie the test to the controversial Common Core - stirred up internal resistance and created new problems.

“It was a bad year, and I’m sorry,†Coleman said in September, at a conference of university admissions officers and high school counselors. “It is no good to have vision if you don’t deliver.â€

 

As Reuters reported in March, the College Board has struggled to stop cheating rings in Asia that exploit security weaknesses in the SAT and enable some students to gain unfair advantages on the exam. A massive security breach earlier this year exposed about 400 questions for upcoming SATs. And College Board officials went forward with the redesigned test even though they knew it was overloaded with wordy math questions, a problem that handicaps non-native English speakers and reinforces race and income disparities that Coleman has vowed to diminish.

 

Coleman has subsequently pledged to streamline the SAT’s wordiest math questions and cut back on the reuse of tests, a practice that fuels cheating.

To Coleman, the SAT needed to be more than a tool for universities to “do a good job of sorting people out,†said Jeff Dolven, a friend and college classmate who’s now a professor of poetry at Princeton University.

 

“I think that Dave wants, in a sense, to change the world,†Dolven said. He sees the SAT as a means “to change the fortunes of students who deserve an education.â€

In his memo, Higginbotham voiced support for Coleman’s overarching mission: creating an SAT that both predicts how well students will do in college (the test’s traditional role) and assesses their mastery of the Common Core. But he also schooled his new boss on the realities of building a standardized test.

 

In the past, the College Board has needed about two years - and the help of outside contractors - just to develop new questions for an existing generation of the SAT. Coleman wanted the College Board to “create a new test from scratch†and handle most of the work itself, all in the same two-year time frame, Higginbotham wrote.

 

“There is no reason (aside from eternal hope) to believe that a March 2015 date is achievable,†Higginbotham wrote, “and indeed there is every reason to conclude it is beyond the organization’s grasp.†Higginbotham proposed a 2017 launch for the new exam - two years later than Coleman wanted.

 

Citing a non-disclosure agreement, Higginbotham declined to comment. He no longer works at the College Board

 

Interesting but not really surprising.  More at the link...

 

 

[MarkT]

one silver lining -  digital version is delayed so hopefully DS will be done with all this testing before they go "digital"

 

His AzMerit Common Core tests were digital which are quite awkward for the Math input.

 

 

[For essays I think keyboard input would be a big improvement such as for AP exams.]

[wapiti]

I'm the opposite - my kids do much better with digital.  Looks like it won't be happening in time for my dd in 10th.  She will take an SAT class this summer and take the real one next fall.  Digital probably won't happen in time for my boys (8th) but I can dream...