How on earth could this verify a kid’s adversity in life? Does it confirm the child’s parents are drug addicts in a high dollar house where the kid was a parent to their parents because the local school had few ap’s and lots of crime? Does it confirm the kid who suffered from cancer had adversity? Does it confirm that Jane Doe’s life was worse than xyz because her parents were divorced but had parent involvement whereas xyz had parents uninterested? It doesn’t confirm anything.
Household income can range from SSDI to 7 figures in the same zip code or at the same high school. While some zip codes or public high schools will be entirely rich or entirely poor, most will have a wide range of families.
Who else is moving to Compton this summer?
Wealthy won’t be adversely affected. May level the playing field very slightly for the lower middle class…very underrepresented in college. Some colleges have more students in the TOP 1% than the BOTTOM 60% which is a joke!
Wait until USNWR figures out s way to incorporate the school’s “effective” use of these scores in their rankings.
CB ACT and rankings are part of a large collegiate industrial process. They need to keep feeding each other.
Maybe a national parental strike on applications to wealthy, elite and hpysm type schools. It would be one of the world’s loosest and most crossed picket lines in history. Lol.
The story states that some colleges have been secretly given this information for the past two years. If the College Board is going to torpedo the test results of students they have a duty to tell them up front. But those who were screwed over secretly should certainly have a cause of action against the College Board. I certainly hope these scumbags will be successfully sued for a few billion dollars.
I believe a score might be legally and legitimately attached to the students school, and it should be public, after all data like poverty levels, AP accessibility and the like are public information, and isn’t this information guidance counsellors have always provided anyway? It does tell you provable, verifiable and non gameable facts about the school, which do influence the students experience in measurable and equal ways.
I am assuming colleges could just as well access, say, the credit scoring of the neighbourhood around the students home, or crime rates, or house prices…it does tell you verifiable facts about the neighbourhood, which does influence kids experiences, peer groups etc., and again influences all kids living in that neighbourhood equally. Even the small house in the nice low crime lots of green spaces neighbourhood is nicer to grow up in.
What I’d consider unconscionable, illegitimate and possibly illegal (not the jurisdiction I’m trained in, so no idea) is attaching an “adversity score” to the student. And, as so many have pointed out, it isn’t even helpful. Online sellers may not mind having the credit score of a neighbourhood lose them a few potential customers because statistically, it all comes out in the wash and they don’t have a whole application to judge individuals by,
But the colleges do, and hopefully do care about the individual.
Doesn’t this just totally the dash the concept of “need-blind” admissions? The adversity score can also be used (al) as a “likely full pay” score. This signals to college counselors who is full pay—as much as who has adversity.
Interestingly, the local tv reporters discussing this diversity score were unanimously opposed to it. One felt it was essentially putting a bandaid on cancer, and not getting to the root of the problem. And the fact that the students do not have access to their school’s diversity rating also raises one’s suspicion. ANd will it be adjusted with every test administration as students move in/out of the district, course offerings and sizes change, etc?
“There are a number of amazing students who may have scored less (on the SAT) but have accomplished more.” David Coleman, chief executive of the College Board
Liberating poor and minority students will benefit everyone. Children of the privileged will learn to hustle harder. Eventually.
@Skrunch said:
This is what I see happening. Information about the high school is easy to find, but census tract data for the student will tell schools income/wealth. If schools wanted economically disadvantaged students they could easily target HS with high percentage of free or reduced lunch. Does anyone thing Florida State needs an adversity score to tell them where the poor people are in their own state? lol. This is about targeting wealthier students that check the diversity box.
I think AP exam scores are a much better indicator of ability to do college level work than the SAT or ACT (or even the SAT Subject Tests, which are just high-school level material). AP scores may even be more useful than GPA because a lot of high schools aren’t very rigorous, or the courseload taken wasn’t very rigorous.
I wonder what proportion of apps will even have this adversity index----it will only be on the officially sent CollegeBoard score documents, correct? So, for official SATI/II and AP scores, schools will see an applicant’s adversity index.
But, colleges won’t see it for an applicant who:
1-submits only the ACT
2-self-reports SATI, II and/or AP scores on common/school’s own app
3-doesn’t submit any standardized tests to test optional schools
Don’t know how large groups 1, 2 and 3 are, but seemingly a significant proportion of applicants won’t have any adversity score. Groups 2 and 3 are growing quickly too.
Seems AOs with holistic admissions will be left to cherry pick out a few apps with the adversity score that they want to meet defined institutional goals.
This raises what I believe are some serious issues:
- The trend among colleges has been that more and more were adopting self-reporting of test scores for determining admission. A trend I consider good, including because it saved applicant’s the fees paid to CB. Since students will not be provided these new scores, that means the only way a college can get them is to require students to pay the fees to CB to send scores. In essence, this now means all those colleges that have adopted self-reporting of scores are now required to reverse that decision, and CB, in one move, has assured itself more profits by destroying the trend toward self-reporting.
- Students will not get the score or ever be told whether the college used it against you. Thus, no one will be provided information from which one can evaluate whether the score has been properly determined or whether the college even considered it. In other words, CB is creating an important score and, with agreement from colleges, doing everything it can to hide the score and basis of the score from students and prevent challenges. More openness in the college admission process is needed, not a brand new way to conceal important information used in the process.
- CB and a bunch of colleges secretly adopted the beta version of using this score and said nothing to test-takers, high schools or parents. That to me is improper. Where in the SAT test application or application to those colleges did it say the applicant agrees secret information of importance can be provided about an applicant by CB and used in making the decision to admit, and you waive any right to challenge that activity?
@dshruba My first thought was what you stated about self-reporting. That this would cause colleges to discontinue that practice and reinstate the fees from the CB. However, I have read a number of articles that say the CB has been giving schools direct access to this score, maybe even by allowing access to the student’s dashboard on their CB account.
agreatstory: ‘“There are a number of amazing students who may have scored less (on the SAT) but have accomplished more.” David Coleman, chief executive of the College Board’
Liberating poor and minority students will benefit everyone. Children of the privileged will learn to hustle harder. Eventually."
Most current college students do not belong in college. Have you ever taught a college class? At two of the schools in which I taught, a significant minority of the students seemed border line challenged mentally. Not everyone should go to college. We need to find alternative training programs for these students and even many of the ones not borderline ■■■■■■■■. We aren’t liberating anyone by saddling them with college loan debt and giving them a worthless degree when they could very easily learn a trade.
What?!! This would make me absolutely crazy…wouldn’t this unapproved access to one’s private account be illegal? I have not heard this yet, do you remember where you saw it?
Look at how the UCs turn this into a score.
I wonder what the universities are saying. Has anyone heard their thoughts? Has any school spoken publicly yet? This shouldn’t stop at undergrad. What about all the kids taking gap years before medical school to study and get a better resume? Poor inner city kids can’t afford to do that. So if we are going to condemn the process for undergrad shouldn’t these crazy people go after the higher education system too? It is all nuts. What happened to the free Khan academy? Get rid of the SAT!!!
I am wondering if it is even legal to withhold this adversity score from the test taker. After all, this score has been used in admission process without test taker’s knowledge. If I knew my adversity score would be low, i.e., I am privileged, I might opt to take ACT instead of SAT. College Board is asking for lawsuits.