K-12 Educator Brief: SAT Concordance | SAT Suite of ...

K?12 Educator Brief: Concordance

K?12 Educator Brief: Concordance

What Is Concordance?

Concordance is a proven way to compare scores from different assessments. As students and educators transition to the new SAT?, the College Board is providing concordance tables that can be used to compare scores between the new SAT and old SAT. Concordance tables are also being provided for the old PSAT/NMSQT? and the new PSAT/NMSQT, as well as a derived concordance allowing for comparison of scores between the new SAT and the ACT.

Because the new SAT is a different test than the old SAT, it is not possible to perfectly compare the two test scores to each other. A score of 520 on the Critical Reading section of the old SAT may not be equivalent to a score of 520 on the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section of the new SAT because each assessment tests a different domain of knowledge and skills. Concordance tables offer estimates of score correspondence from one test to another.

How K?12 Educators Will Use Concordance

Schools and districts will use concordance tables to determine comparable scores on the old and new SAT to:

? Support students through the college application process.

? Analyze longitudinal data for strategic school improvement goals.

? Determine policy scores and whether students meet the policy requirements for scholarships and special programs.

Support students through the college application process. School counselors often compare scores across assessments in order to identify a student's highest scores; understand a student's score in relation to those of other students; or understand a student's score in relation to other information, such as high school grade point average (GPA).

School counselors are often engaged in:

? Determining a student's highest scores for college admission.

? Tracking score patterns for a student who took the SAT multiple times (e.g., old SAT and new SAT, or SAT and ACT).

? Predicting the likelihood that a student will be accepted to certain colleges or universities.

Students who have scores from both the old SAT and new SAT can use concordance tables to figure out their best scores. Students can use Score ChoiceTM to select which SAT administration scores they want to send to colleges. School counselors can advise students to visit individual colleges' websites to confirm score send policies.

Example: School counselors try to determine whether their current students will get into a particular competitive college based on a predictive model using previous graduating seniors' GPA and SAT scores. They might look back 5?10 years to compute the average GPA and SAT score for students that were accepted to the university. In this case, counselors would use concordance tables to compare scores from the new SAT and the old SAT.

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K?12 Educator Brief: Concordance

Analyze longitudinal data. SAT scores are an important consideration for goal-setting and measurement -- both integral components of strategic school improvement plans. Institutions will need to make decisions about how score data from both the old SAT and the new SAT are recorded.

Reports that track student progress are critical to developing strategies for and measuring progress toward meeting goals. School counselors, administrators, and teachers can work collaboratively to determine how best to include SAT scores in strategic plans and school improvement reports using concordance tables.

Schools and districts can begin preparing now by:

? Determining which score (old SAT or new SAT) will be used for monitoring strategic or school improvement goals for the 2016-17 school year.

? Devising a plan for using new SAT Suite scores (and/or benchmarks) for goal measurement in the 2017-18 school year and beyond.

? Developing a process for converting scores for reporting purposes so that the required score is readily available.

Determine scores for educational policies. Many schools and districts have policies requiring a specific combination of student GPA and SAT score within a certain range to qualify for scholarships or to qualify for a particular program. Educators will use concordance tables to determine how scores from the new SAT compare to scores from the old SAT to determine new policy scores.

Specific tasks may include:

? Determining if a student meets a policy requirement for consideration for a scholarship.

? Determining if a student meets a requirement on a sliding scale using a combination of SAT scores and GPA.

? Determining if a student's score meets the minimum for placement into some academic program.

It is important to be consistent in applying concordance. When determining comparable scores for multiple students to be used in the same situation, concord all student scores the same way so as not to unfairly advantage or penalize any particular student.

Example: A school administrator is identifying the top 10 applicants for a local scholarship for class of 2016 graduates using students' scores from both the old SAT and the new SAT. The scholarship guidelines require the use of Critical Reading and Math scores in evaluations. The administrator must use concordance tables to compare new SAT scores to old SAT scores to develop an accurate list of students.

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K?12 Educator Brief: Concordance

Concordance Tables

Concordance tables show an estimated score on the old SAT based on your score from the new SAT, or vice-versa. In order to meet the various needs of different schools and institutions, the College Board has released tables for three levels of SAT concordance, plus two ACT to new SAT concordance tables:

1. Total-to-Total Concordance

2. Section-to-Section Concordance

3. Section-to-Test (or Test-to-Section) Concordance

4. ACT Concordance

Each of the tables has been provided in two directions: one from the old SAT to the new SAT, and one from the new SAT to the old SAT. A total of 16 tables have been released.

When evaluating scores on the old SAT, some colleges considered all three section scores Critical Reading (CR) + Writing (W) + Math (M), and some considered only two (CR + M). To accommodate either calculation of a total score, we are providing both a 2400 total concordance table and a 1600 total concordance table.

How Higher Education Will Use Concordance

Higher education institutions will continue to use SAT scores as they have in the past -- as part of a holistic admission process. The College Board is working closely with higher education institutions to ensure a smooth transition from the old SAT to the new SAT. We are also working closely with the NCAA, the Common Data Set Initiative, and the U.S. Department of Education on their use of concordance tables.

It is important for higher education institutions to be consistent in the way they use concordance tables to ensure equity in their admission process.

Concording scores for the high school class of 2016. Given that most applicants from the class of 2016 will submit old SAT scores only, most colleges will convert any new SAT scores to old SAT scores for this cohort.

Concording scores for the high school class of 2017. Given that most applicants for the class of 2017 will submit new SAT scores only, most colleges will convert old SAT scores to new SAT scores for this cohort.

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K?12 Educator Brief: Concordance

Colleges have identified the following essential functions for which they will use concordance tables:

1. Compare scores on the new SAT to the old SAT or ACT

scores.

2. Determine a policy score on the new SAT that is comparable to an old SAT policy score.

3. Convert a new SAT score to an old SAT score for use in a predictive model or index.

4. Compute comparable scores to use in internal and

external reports.

Concordance Tools and Resources

To support students and K?12 educators in using concordance tables, the College Board developed tools that are available in several formats and can be accessed online.

SAT Score Converter: An app designed for both iPhone and Android allows students and counselors to easily compare students' old and new SAT scores.

Web-Based Tool: The College Board provides a web-based concordance tool that provides the same functionality as the app at score-converter.

Superscoring

"Superscoring" refers to the practice of considering a student's highest section score across all SAT test dates that they submit. Many institutions have built effective predictive models and comparative processes using "superscoring." During the transition from the old SAT to the new SAT, colleges have developed policies on use of scores from students who have taken both SATs. Because the old and new SAT vary in design and content tested, the College Board has asked that colleges consider the implications of comparing and combining scores from two different tests as they design their score-use policies. We will continue to work with institutions to communicate their defined policies to students.

Visit concordance for tables, tools, and information.

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