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In a move that surprised exactly nobody...the College Board has officially announced that it has ended SAT Subject Tests. It’s also killed off the optional Essay portion of the regular SAT test, which had become irrelevant to most college admissions offices. There is a bunch of analysis out in the world on this discontinuation, but really the move is all about product curation. Most selective colleges, which is really who the College Board is serving with its testing products, had long stopped requiring the SAT II Subject Tests (except maybe Georgetown, which probably shed a tear upon hearing the news). Same for the optional essay, which most colleges didn’t consider even if a student bothered to sit for it. Prior to the pandemic, Duke was perhaps the only admissions-elite college that suggested students submit the writing portion of the SAT.
This move by the College Board allows them to put their energy toward keeping the SAT relevant and expanding AP testing, which it also oversees. Product and delivery improvements are going to be necessary to keep up with new testing demands. COVID rendered the College Board helpless to administer its tests remotely and it certainly doesn’t want to face that prospect again. So expect that the company will work to restore its testing capabilities, if only so that it can collect student names to sell to colleges for the purpose of recruitment. The lack of testing this year made it difficult for the College Board to fulfill its lead-delivery contracts with many colleges. It doesn’t want that to happen again, either.
COVID rendered the College Board helpless to administer its tests remotely and it certainly doesn’t want to face that prospect again.
On another note, there are few organizations that have a worse public reputation than the College Board. It’s natural for people to dislike test-administering gatekeepers, but even among its peer set (like the ACT), the College Board is particularly unpopular. Looking at its statements with regards to the discontinuation of the Subject Tests, it’s not hard to see why. Rather than provide a straightforward business answer that explained the lack of continuing interest in the market for the product (which happens all the time in business, btw), the College Board made it all about student well-being. The title of the announcement was “Reducing and Simplifying Demands on Students.” This is the kind of disingenuous position that makes people skeptical about the motives of the College Board and its non-profit benevolence. Everyone knows it's really about market needs and I think a little more transparency would go a long way for that organization. Good riddance!
