The SAT and the ACT, and the Battle for Common Core Standards

There has been a lot of news recently about upcoming changes to the ACT and SAT tests, but very little information about what these changes will look like. Still, a quick glance at recent press reports provides a good hint as to the reason for the changes, at least – the Common Core State Standards. But what are the Common Core State Standards, and what do they have to do with the ACT and SAT? Good question; get comfortable...

Until recently, each state had its own set of education standards that spelled out what students in each grade level were expected to learn in the various subjects – language arts, mathematics, sciences, etc. But in 2010 a group formed by the governors and chief education officers of all 50 states produced the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), a new set of standards for language arts and mathematics designed to provide a uniform, nation-wide system of goals and expectations for K-12 education in these two subject areas. So far 45 states, four territories, and the District of Columbia have adopted the CCSS, requiring significant changes to the previous standards of virtually every state involved. Needless to say, this is having a tremendous impact on the education system at many levels; not only on what students will be taught in the classroom, but also on how teachers will be trained and, most importantly for our purposes, on how students will be tested.

Beginning in the 2014-15 school year, tests developed to accord with the CCSS will be available to students around the country. Rather than having students in different states take different tests geared to the particular standards of their states, the same tests will be administered to students from many states, allowing for clearer state-to-state comparisons.

And this is where the ACT and SAT come in. Insofar as the CCSS and its associated tests are taken to reflect the knowledge and abilities that universities are seeking in high school graduates, the two college admissions exams will have to adapt to reflect these expectations as well.

Few details concerning the upcoming changes to these exams have been revealed, but what we do know indicates the extent to which the new changes are related to the CCSS. First, the ACT's decision to offer its exam on computer will bring its delivery platform into alignment with the CCSS-associated tests, which also will be offered on computer. While paper-and-pencil versions of the ACT will be available for the foreseeable future, it seems likely that the days of paper-and-pencil tests are numbered and that it is only a matter of time before the SAT follows suit and shifts to computer-based administration of its exam.

Second, although the computer-based and paper-and-pencil based versions of the ACT will contain questions of the same types and be scored on the same scale, the computerized version will offer an additional optional section, with constructed-response questions that "require students to enter their own answer, rather than selecting the best answer from several given choices," according to the ACT's press release. Why add a new section? "The optional constructed-response questions will allow schools to better align their reporting with the Common Core State Standards."

Perhaps no development to date better signifies the importance of the CCSS to the college entrance exams than the selection of David Coleman, one of the chief co-authors of the CCSS, as president of the College Board, the organization responsible for the SAT. While the College Board has been more circumspect about upcoming changes, the selection of Collins to head the organization sends a clear message that the College Board is committed to the alignment of the SAT with the CCSS. Collins himself has mused about the kinds of changes he personally favors, such as an essay based on a reading selection rather than a personal response to an open-ended prompt as is currently the case. But any proposed changes to the SAT are likely to be studied for months, and so formal decisions on these changes may not be announced for a year or more.