Should schools "hold" PSAT scores?

Parents Forum
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<p>We happened to have a meeting with GC yesterday and asked about the score. Were send over to the secretary. She explained to us nicely that the results will be distributed in a near future, when she has time to place a booklet with each. But then she said, if we just wanted to have a quick look at the scores, without any explanation. And we did. I guess having both parents there has helped my son push the issue :slight_smile:
I was curious about the score due to a summer program application. Now I know that he did not make the required cut, althought he would have been a NMSF if he was a junior.</p>

<p>I do not understand why the scores are not posted online.
And I also would like to know why Xigi thinks scores should be never send to school???</p>

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<p>This is off topic but wanted to respond, since it is very fresh in my mind.
Our school must be very similar, especially in the clueless part.
We had a meeting with GC yesterday, a routine one that school does with every freshman - about their college plans and the path that will take them there. The GC was clueless about my son’s situation. She had no clue what classes he was taking - other than regular classes that every freshman takes in the pre IB program. Was not aware that his math studies at the school will be done this year, therefore could not inform us about the path for the future (da, university courses, but I have no idea how you are aranging for one ), did not know if the AP Euro takes care of required credit in World Civ, did not even know if the school drama department has produced any plays this season!!!
As a result, I am going to have another meeting with a “better” informed GC in a couple of days, but what a waste of time both for GC and us yesterday’s meeting turned out to be. Had she spent a couple of minutes looking at his transcript, she would have known that the questions from us will be out of her league and she herself should have asked another GC to step in. She was nice, but that’s it. Sadly</p>

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<p>Sure, a but just a million stamps for mailing to home; the back office work is the same. Of course, they could eliminate that expense by putting the scores online, just like the SAT. For parents that wanted a hardcopy report by snail mail, they could be asked to donate $0.44 for a stamp.</p>

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<p>My daughter did not send her SAT scores to her HS. This was advised at a College Prep mass meeting by a College Consultant who mentioned it in her public lecture, and when I heard it, I did a double take. DD was taking her first SAT the next week. I followed up privately with the consultant, just to make sure I heard correctly her advise: yes, don’t send SAT scores to your HS. So I changed her SAT registration by updating it that same day.</p>

<p>Here is my take on the main reasons which one might consider not sending these scores:</p>

<p>For my Senior daughter, a straight A, varsity sport, high SAT student who’s personal guidance counselor is in to her (great grades get the wheel), knowledge of her SAT’s wouldn’t hurt unless they were low or mid range given the schools she’s applying to. But still, why dilute a great letter to a good letter, by allowing the GC to point out any discrepancy between high school standing and CB SAT’s? </p>

<p>My son’s guidance counselor has never and still doesn’t appear to show any interest in him as a person/student as a new 10th grader. Receipt of his SAT scores may cement her preformed, non-interest-based opinion either way: thumb up (he’s worth it) or thumb down (he isn’t). Based on her attitude, I can only guess which way she’ll go if the scores are mid to mid upper range but not high range. This is a guidance counselor who is always harried, rude, non-caring and puts mom and son off just with meeting with her. I am going to approach the school about a new GC, as we have 2.5 years to go and this will not do, and my son does not deserve such dismissal.</p>

<p>My point is this: Guidance Counselors, being human, may use the SAT score to further solidify their attitude towards your child and reflect this attitude in that ever important college recommendation letter. This letter is oxymoronic in that the Counselors frequently don’t care or take time to get to know your kid in a proper way to write the letter ethically.</p>

<p>By placing 000 in your school code when you register for the SAT (or 0000, you’d better check as it’s been a while) the scores are strictly between you and the CB.</p>

<p>Hopefully Xiggi will chime in here soon. But that’s my take on this. </p>

<p>We should do a thread on Guidance Counselors and why Colleges still rely on that letter of often (mis)information!</p>

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<p>I could write a lengthy set of reasons but here is the quick and dirty version:</p>

<ol>
<li>The scores belong to the student.</li>
<li>The scores are reported online by TCB</li>
<li>SAT scores should never appear on transcripts.</li>
<li>Scores that are not sent directly by TCB are not official</li>
<li>High schools are known to make administrative errors and mainly use manual processing</li>
<li>High schools will not be held responsible for misreporting scores </li>
<li>High schools should be restricted to ONLY sharing high school grades AND a school profile.
8, The scores ONLY belong to the student and should remain confidential,</li>
<li>The student should be the sole judge of whom receives the scores</li>
<li>The student should not lose his or her rights to Score Choice.</li>
</ol>

<p>As far as the PSAT goes, it is rather murky if it should be used in admissions at all. While a number of scholarship and selective programs might inquire about PSAT (when students do not have SAT scores available,) it remains that the PSAT score should not be disclosed to ANYONE without the INFORMED consent of the student and the parents. </p>

<p>Simply stated, keeping the high school out of the loop as much as possible is ALWAYS better. By not mentioning the HS on the SAT registration, you are de facto taking care of a potential problem. If the school still obtains the scores by correlating the SSN and the PSAT information, contact TCB and mentions that you deliberately opted NOT to have the scores sent to the school, and that it is not your obligation to be part of statistical analyses.</p>

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<p>Xiggi, you are giving blanket advice to withhold scores from the HS. But if your scores are likely to be very high, do you still advise not to have them sent? Furthermore, some academic opportunities for which GC are the gatekeepers require PSAT and/or SAT scores. That advice should be ammended–it should depend on how high scoring you are or anticipate being (you can always leave the HS code as 000, then after the test, if it went well, replace it with your HS code online when you update score report recipients). If scores are strong, then hopefully the GC LORs improve. (Though, our GC had no idea how rare a perfect SAT was until we told him…) </p>

<p>Let me reiterate–check your/your kid’s transcript for accuracy BEFORE it is mailed out anywhere. We did and we found errors and ommissions on several occasions.</p>