NCAA Initial Eligibility Criteria In Focus As The SAT Goes Digital
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NCAA Initial Eligibility Criteria In Focus as the SAT Goes Digital
Executive Summary
NCAA freshmen initial eligibility rules includes requirement to earn an SAT or ACT score corresponding with specified high school core-course GPA
80% of students found the digital SAT less stressful and 100% of the educators reported having a positive experience.
SAT will still be scored on a 1600 scale
SAT will be two hours instead of three hours and reading passages will be shortened.
Test results from digital SATs will be returned in days instead of weeks.
The College Board is working to address inequities in access to technology
Students will still have access to free practice resources on Khan Academy.
Format changes come in wake of COIVD-19 pandemic and pressures to keep test relevant
High school grade inflation across the U.S. has fortified level of utility of standardized tests in the admissions process.
The College Board dropped the subject tests and essay section last year.
Students will still be required to take the exam in a school or in a test center, not at home, and the exam will be graded on a 1600 scale.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) formally recommended in July 2020 the elimination of standardized test scores from NCAA initial eligibility requirements.
NCAA Standardized Test Task Force has recommended to Division I and Division II governance bodies to eliminate standardized tests from freshmen initial eligibility requirements.
According to a January 25, 2022, press release from the College Board, 83% of students say they want option to submit scores in college applications the SAT® Suite of Assessments will be delivered digitally. The option to submit scores reflects change of college admissions landscape that included an uptick in test-optional admissions.
While the transition to digital will bring a number of student- and educator-friendly changes, many important features of the SAT Suite (SAT, PSAT/NMSQT®, PSAT™ 10, PSAT™ 8/9) will stay the same.
The SAT Suite will continue to measure the knowledge and skills that students are learning in high school and that matter most for college and career readiness. The SAT will still be scored on a 1600 scale, and educators and students can continue to track growth across the SAT Suite of Assessments over time. The assessments will continue to be administered in a school or in a test center with a proctor present—not at home. Students will still have access to free practice resources on Khan Academy. And students taking the SAT Suite will continue to connect to scholarships and the College Board National Recognition Programs.
The NCAA’s initial eligibility correspondence table that includes SAT scores is below:
“The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give, and more relevant,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments at College Board. “We’re not simply putting the current SAT on a digital platform—we’re taking full advantage of what delivering an assessment digitally makes possible. With input from educators and students, we are adapting to ensure we continue to meet their evolving needs.”
Among the changes: the digital SAT will be shorter—about two hours instead of three for the current SAT, with more time per question. The digital test will feature shorter reading passages with one question tied to each, and passages will reflect a wider range of topics that represent the works students read in college. Calculators will be allowed on the entire Math section. Students and educators will get scores back in days, instead of weeks. And, to reflect the range of paths that students take after high school, digital SAT Suite score reports will also connect students to information and resources about local two-year college, workforce training programs, and career options.
With the transition to digital tests, the College Board is working to address inequities in access to technology. Students will be able to use their own device (laptop or tablet) or a school issued device. If students don’t have a device to use, College Board will provide one for use on test day. If a student loses connectivity or power, the digital SAT has been designed to ensure they won’t lose their work or time while they reconnect.
The changes will also make the SAT more secure. With the current paper and pencil SAT, if one test form is compromised it can mean canceling administrations or canceling scores for a whole group of students. Going digital allows every student to receive a unique test form, so it will be practically impossible to share answers.
The SAT will be delivered digitally internationally beginning in 2023 and in the U.S. in 2024. The PSAT/NMSQT and PSAT 8/9 will be delivered digitally in 2023 with the PSAT 10 following in 2024. More information about the changes can be found at SAT.org/digital.
Students who participated in the November global pilot of the digital SAT said the test experience was less stressful than the current paper and pencil test.
“It felt a lot less stressful, and whole lot quicker than I thought it'd be,” said Natalia Cossio, an 11th grade student from Fairfax County, VA who participated in the digital pilot. “The shorter passages helped me concentrate more on what the question wanted me to do. Plus, you don’t have to remember to bring a calculator or a pencil."
In the same pilot, every test proctor who participated responded that the experience administering the digital SAT was the same or better than administering the current paper-and-pencil test. Educators will no longer have to deal with packing, sorting, or shipping test materials. And with changes that make the SAT shorter and easier to administer, states, districts, and schools will have more options for when, where, and how often they administer the SAT— rather than adhering to a fixed schedule. These improvements are especially important because students from all backgrounds increasingly are taking the SAT during the school day. In the class of 2021, 62% of students who took the SAT took it for free in their school on a weekday. Independent research shows that universal school day testing leads to higher college-going rates for low-income students.
“It’s encouraging to see the positive feedback from students and educators who participated in the pilots for the digital SAT. The changes to the test are timely and clearly centered around improving the student experience," said Ronné Turner, Vice Provost for Admissions & Financial Aid at Washington University in St. Louis. “I’m pleased that the greater flexibility in administering the test will expand access to SAT School Day, which research shows increases college-going rates for low-income students.”
According to the College Board, the SAT continues to play a vital role in a holistic admissions process and continues to connect students to postsecondary and scholarship opportunities.
When nearly every college went test optional during the pandemic, millions of students still took the SAT. That trend has continued with the high school class of 2022. Most students want to take the SAT, find out how they did, and then decide if they want to submit their scores to colleges. When surveyed, 83% of students said they want the option to submit test scores to colleges. This finding remains consistent whether or not students have taken the SAT and across race/ethnicity and parents’ level of education.
“In a largely test-optional world, the SAT is a lower-stakes test in college admissions. Submitting a score is optional for every type of college, and we want the SAT to be the best possible option for students. The SAT allows every student—regardless of where they go to high school—to be seen and to access opportunities that will shape their lives and careers,” Rodriguez said. “I am one of those students. I’m a first-generation American, the child of immigrants who came to the U.S. with limited financial resources, and I know how the SAT Suite of Assessments opened doors to colleges, scholarships, and educational opportunities that I otherwise never would have known about or had access to. We want to keep those same doors of opportunity open for all students.”
When viewed within the context of where a student lives and learns, test scores can confirm a student’s grades or demonstrate their strengths beyond what their high school grades may show. In the class of 2020, nearly 1.7 million U.S. students had SAT scores that confirmed or exceeded their high school GPA. That means that their SAT scores were a point of strength on their college applications. Among those students, more than 300,000 were from small towns and rural communities; 600,000 were first-generation college goers; and 700,000 were Black or Latino.
The SAT is an objective measure that is available to students at a time when:
There are more than 25,000 high schools in the U.S. No college can know and see all of those high schools and each student in them.
While high school grades are an important reflection of students’ work, the share of students graduating high school with an A average has grown from 39% in 1998 to 55% in 2021.
Other parts of college applications, including clubs, sports, and academic activities, often are costly and inaccessible for many families.
Schools have increasingly made such tests optional over the past few years. More than 1800 colleges and universities have dropped requirements that applicants take the SAT or ACT, according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing.
The number of colleges requiring standardized exams has also dropped in favor of test-optional policies. The percentage of schools that do not require standardized tests rose from about 45% before the pandemic to nearly 80% now, according to the anti-testing group FairTest.
Experts also point to the fact that the costs of standardized tests and the challenges people of color and lower-income students face in the college admissions process, Axios reported.
According to the New York Times, some college administrators said the upcoming move to a digital platform was overdue. A year ago, the College Board announced it would do away with SAT subject tests and the essay question.
“It’s about time that they’ve moved away from paper and pencil,” said Kent R. Hopkins, vice president for academic enterprise enrollment at Arizona State University. Mr. Hopkins, who serves on a College Board advisory panel, said he was hopeful that the new format would enhance security and make the test less “clunky.”
In July 2020, the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) on formally proposed that SAT and ACT requirements be permanently eliminated from NCAA initial-eligibility standards, effective immediately. The proposal originated from the NABC Committee on Racial Reconciliation, which was formed last month to address issues related to racism and injustice in college athletics and beyond. The committee is co-chaired by Harvard coach Tommy Amaker and South Carolina coach Frank Martin.
“The NABC Committee on Racial Reconciliation believes that the SAT and ACT are longstanding forces of institutional racism and no longer have a place in intercollegiate athletics or higher education at large,” said Amaker and Martin in a joint statement. “This is an important step towards combating educational inequality in our country.”
“I am proud of the continued efforts of the Committee on Racial Reconciliation, and look forward to engaging further with the NCAA on this crucial topic,” added NABC Executive Director Craig Robinson. “We feel it is prudent for college athletics to address a standardized test structure that has long had disproportionately-negative impacts on low-income and minority students.”
The NCAA recently has constituted an NCAA Standardized Test Score Task Force. The Task Force’s recommended to the NCAA Division I Committee on Academics and NCAA Division II Academic Requirements Committee that initial-eligibility standards for high school students preparing to play Division I or II sports no longer include a standardized test score requirement.
The standardized test score remains part of the NCAA initial eligibility requirements.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
