Score Choice is Contentious!

There is a contentious discussion going on about Score Choice, the new decision by the College Board that allows students to report only select scores to colleges (you can view each school's policy on the College Board website, at the bottom of this page).

Score Choice is optional. If students do nothing else, the College Board sends all SAT scores to their colleges of choice, and students get four free score reports. Score Choice became available in March 2009, and interestingly enough, the College Board reports that the same volume of scores sent to schools from March to May. There is a distinction in Score Choice: Reporting all scores - V1 schools look at all scores, V2 schools look at best scores. Reporting only certain sittings - again, V1 schools look at all scores, V2 schools look at best scores. This distinction was created by a special task force of representatives from CSU, ElkGrove, UCSB, Seattle University, and USC.

Some interesting notes about the University of California policy: UC schools still require all scores - same with NCAA - and sticklers like Stanford & Pomona still require all scores (it's not a big list in the west). College board does not send scores without student consent, but the UC system shares scores in central database. The room becomes a bit restless, and college counselors are getting angry. They are justified: Score Choice only helps if you (have the time and resources to) take the SAT more than once.

Alice Kleeman from Menlo-Atherton calms the audience by saying that if we inform students and give the best possible information, it's doable. She noted something interesting that everyone else neglected to mention, and that is the integrity of the college application - what a signature means. At the end of the day, it's just one more policy each school has, and the more transparent and honest we can be about it, the better for our students.