College Board's Lorraine Hastings on preparing for the SAT during school closure | Homeroom with Sal

Hello! Welcome to our daily homeroom live stream. For those of y'all who are new to this, this is a live stream that we're doing every day, as the name implies, to keep us connected and answer questions and figure out ways to support each other during these times of school closures. It's also a forum for you to ask me and our guests questions, and we're going to have a really interesting guest today.

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I want to give a special thanks to several corporations that have stepped up in the last few weeks as we've seen our costs go higher due to the COVID crisis. We've seen our traffic be almost 3x of what it typically is. A special thanks to Bank of America, Google.org, Fastly, Novartis, and AT&T.

So with that, I want to get right into the conversation. I have a really great guest today who's going to be able to address a lot of concerns that I think are out there. Lorraine Hastings is a Vice President with the College Board. For those of you all who are not familiar with the College Board, the College Board is a not-for-profit. We are partnered with the College Board, but the College Board also offers the SAT. Lorraine specializes in relations with college counselors and is an expert on all things that are going on in the SAT right now. I know there's a lot of questions, and so first of all, Lorraine, welcome! Thank you for being here. I hope everything is good with your family in these times of social distancing.

Uh, maybe a good place to start is, you know, what's the lay of the land for those of us who haven't been fully keeping track of what's going on with the SAT with regards to COVID?

Well, hi Sal, thanks again for the invitation to join today. I hope you and your family are well, as well as your colleagues. The work you do at Khan Academy could not be more important than it is today as we all learn to navigate this difficult time. As the College Board responds to the impact of coronavirus, our top priorities are the health and safety of students and educators in the face of school closures. We're adapting to give students opportunities to still show their strengths and continue on the path to college. We're working hard to make the SAT available in school and out of school as soon as the public health situation allows.

Right now, public health officials have made it clear that it is not safe to gather students in one place. Many states have closed schools for the rest of the school year, and globally there are widespread school closures across 192 countries. Last week we announced that we will not be able to administer the SAT as planned on June 6. If it's safe from a public health standpoint, we will provide weekend SAT administrations every month beginning in August through the end of the calendar year. This includes a new administration in September and the previously scheduled test on August 29th, October 3rd, November 7th, and December 5th.

In the unlikely event that schools do not reopen this fall, we will provide a digital SAT for home use. We, of course, would ensure that at-home SAT testing is simple, secure, fair, and accessible to all, and most importantly, valid for use in college admissions. I know that I've shared a few changes, but Sal, even though it seems as if everything is changing, there is one thing that's not changing, and that's the official student practice available for free anytime through our partnership with you all at Khan Academy.

No, and this is super useful. And so, just to make sure that I understand what the College Board's position on this is, is as soon as we're through this stay-at-home order, y'all are going to essentially offer the SAT on the regular schedule thereafter and offer a few more. Hopefully, you can kind of view these as maybe makeup testing administrations. So is your view that this will be sufficient for guidance counselors out there advising students or for students, parents, teachers? How do you think this is going to affect the admissions process? Do you think students will have an opportunity to get in there and show that they're college-ready on the SAT?

Yes, so we, as you mentioned, Sal, you're absolutely correct. Once we get back hopefully to the new normal in August, we're going to add a new testing date in September, which we have not had a September administration before. By providing monthly testing beginning in August, we are confident that all students who want an opportunity to take the SAT exam will have the opportunity to do so throughout the fall and take it more than once if they so desire. So this, once again, as counselors continue to work with students, they will be able to advise them on which administrations they feel students should be able to take.

I want to encourage everyone listening to feel free to put your questions on YouTube and Facebook. We have team members who are looking at the questions, and we're going to be able to surface them for Lorraine or for myself if they're appropriate. So there's a lot of questions, and I definitely want to underline something you said: you said in the unlikely event that we are still in this crisis in the fall, then you have a… you all are going to try to do a digital version of the SAT similar to what you're doing for the AP in a few weeks. So I want to underline that's in the unlikely event because we are getting a lot of questions around what is that going to look like, how are you going to prevent cheating, etc., etc., but I would guess you're still figuring out if you have to go there.

Yes, and you know, in the very unlikely event that we have to do an at-home test, test security is, of course, one of our highest priorities, and we're going to design a solution that meets our regular standards. We will have a comprehensive, strict set of protocols in place to prevent and detect cheating, and of course, Sal, we can't share everything we're going to do because we need to maximize the effectiveness of the things that we will be employing to make sure that the test is secure.

I have a question from Facebook. Chris Lee asked, "What about the SAT subject tests?"

So we had to cancel the subject tests that were supposed to be administered in June; those are some of the foreign language ones, and those will be administered later on in the year. The normal schedule of subject tests in the fall will continue, and those will be optional for students in the fall.

And a question from Facebook: Julian Michael says, "Do you foresee a move to digital testing regardless of when schools open?"

I guess a related note: in certain standardized tests, not that the College Board offers, you know, I remember when I took the GMAT many years ago, it was digital back then. Is this something that y'all are thinking about generally or maybe catalyzed by COVID?

So, of course, we're going to—once again I want to continue to stress what you said earlier: in the unlikely event we'll do this if—depending on what happens in the fall, we're aware that some places in the country and the world may open and others may not. So we are trying to prepare to address multiple different scenarios, whether it's a blended option. We plan on paper and pencil continuing in the future; the at-home is only in the unlikely event that we are not able to administer paper and pencil.

Yeah, and I'll just triply underline what you said because we're getting a lot of questions, but this is—the questions are a good indicator of how people kind of latch on to. They're like, "Digital SAT? We're changing all that?" You know, what you're saying, this is in the very—you know, that's a reality where COVID—hopefully, you know, knock on wood—we have a handle on it now, or it's at least hopefully peaked. But this is in the unlikely scenario that we're still in this full social distancing scenario in August, September, October, which hopefully is unlikely, so people should not index on it too much.

That is correct. We’re going to continue to monitor the situation around the coronavirus, and we're going to use whatever we learn to inform whatever our approach will be in the future.

Yeah, and I have this question from Facebook. Makai Kiefer asks, "This is a question that I guess is relevant even before this. You hear things about schools being testing optional. Many colleges and universities have stated that they will not require SAT exams for students applying next year. Do you know how they will handle the situation and how students without SAT scores compare to those with scores? How would you advise students whether to take the SAT or not if and when it becomes available? I'd love your thoughts, Lorraine. I have some thoughts there too; I'm happy to share."

Sure, so once again, many colleges are making decisions whether or not they're going to be test optional in the fall. Colleges are members of the College Board, and we work with them and encourage them to be flexible in different situations. As always, flexibility in the admissions process is very important for students, and colleges have committed to take that into account. They are aware of the circumstances and the public health crisis, and they will use that when they're considering test scores, grades, extracurricular activities. They are truly emphasizing flexibility, and that's what we keep hearing from them.

The best advice for students is always to reach out to the colleges that they're interested in and have a conversation with them. Some colleges may not require the SAT, but we're still encouraging students to take the SAT if possible to help show their skills because, once again, it's a part of many pieces that go into the college admissions process. The stronger your portfolio can be for college admissions, the better your chance and likelihood of being accepted at the college that you want to go to.

Yeah, and I'll just—I'm spending a lot of time underlining some very important things you're saying because what I've been telling friends and family members, and even some questions on this live stream when I've had high school juniors ask me what to do, I said exactly that. You know, it's not that the SAT is just this thing that you have to do because it's some ritual that goes on in society. Those colleges are getting so many applications; they're trying to determine who's college-ready, who's not, and who's going to be able to contribute to the community in enriching ways.

There's a lot of things they're going to look at to make those decisions, and, of course, your grades matter, your extracurricular activities matter, your essays matter. But the SAT and things like it are valuable because it gives a read, a signal, that in conjunction with all these other things do correlate based on, you know, the admissions officers I've talked to with success in college. So I would say, if you are able to—and it's great that you are offering these extra testing dates—to take it because that's going to give you one more signal, one more data point to colleges.

At the same time, I would not stress— you know, in theory, you should never stress about it; you should just do your best and then see what choices you have. But I think if you have the opportunity to do it, this shouldn't be something that causes stress because this year, more than any year, people are definitely very understanding about being flexible about things.

But yeah, those are my two cents, and I always like to remind students that colleges need students to survive. You know, that's what they're there for, so they are going to be flexible. They're going to work with students, and they're going to do what's in the best interest of students.

Yeah, and from YouTube, this is a good question: Enact Your Future asks, "Will juniors who miss the SAT in April have the test administered for free at their school during a weekday, or will they have to take it on one of those weekend days?"

I think this is hitting a point that a lot of school districts or systems will administer the test for free during the weekday, and then the weekends are normally something that the families have to pay for. So how are y'all navigating that?

So we will also, in addition to this typical school day schedule that we have in the fall, which is around October, we are giving schools the opportunity for an additional date for testing in the fall. So schools will have also an additional opportunity to test students in the states and districts that do it for free for students. They will have that opportunity this fall, so they will be hearing more from their schools and districts and even states about what that testing schedule will look like.

And from YouTube, this Nikhil Governor asks, "What about the SAT for foreigners? Are they also going to have access to everything you're talking about in the U.S.?"

So once again, should it be safe to do so from a public health standpoint, we're going to provide multiple SAT administrations also for international students. This includes the new administration in September as well as the previously scheduled test for August, October, and December this fall. We actually already announced that we were going to add an additional opportunity for international students in August; that was pre-coronavirus, and since then, we have also added in September. So once again, that's there, and then we are seriously also exploring the possibility of even providing an additional international administration day in the fall in addition to the two that we have already announced. So absolutely, our international students are very important to us.

Yeah, and from Facebook, we have two questions, one from Tracy McVetta and one from Katie Buddinger. These are essentially the same question: how fast will the scores be from the fall testing administrations?

And I guess the obvious question, you know, a lot of students would have taken it this spring and then seen their scores and said, "Oh, do I, you know, is this a good score for me to use for my applications?" So how are y'all thinking about that?

So we absolutely want to make sure that students have their scores in time to make decisions to register for an additional testing if that's what they need. So we will be working quickly to make sure students have their scores.

And one question, let's see from Facebook: Zomi Zma says, "Why can't the SAT be administered in July?" I think I know the answer, but I'd love your thoughts, sorry.

Well, once again, we continue to look at what the health situation is. Many of our test centers are actually schools, high schools, and college campuses, and you know, we still are not confident—we don't know if things are going to be available in July, and we thought, you know, August gives us a good safe distance. Hopefully, we will be past this crisis, and the last thing we want to do is to have students register for another test that we end up having to reschedule or cancel. So we're trying to just go with the safe option, and once again, we continue to follow what's going on. We monitor activities in the states and across the world because we want to make sure it is absolutely safe and secure for students to test.

And from Facebook, Gabriella Zlaghi asks, "Is one date in August and September going to be enough given all the backlog of people wanting to take the test?" So that kind of goes to a capacity issue, you know, sometimes you can't find your date because maybe it fills up at your local testing centers. Are you all going to be addressing that as well?

Yes, so two things with that, Sal: for each administration, we're preparing to significantly expand our capacity for students to take the test as soon as schools reopen. We are calling on our member schools and colleges as well as local communities to open their doors and provide additional test center capacity so every student who wants to test will also be able to test. In addition to that, students who registered for June and also those in the class of 2021 who do not have SAT scores will also have early access to registration, and we're going to get back to students about what this actually means and what they need to do. But our top priority will be to make sure that students in the class of 2021, which are the rising seniors who don't have SAT scores, get the seat that they need so that they won't have to worry about not being able to find some place to test.

Yeah, and I think that's once again worth emphasizing because there's other questions we're getting, like from Facebook. Ilana Miller, suggesting multiple testing dates, and I know multiple testing even more than what you're already offering is hard because you have to create new tests and test securities. But to your point, people shouldn't be concerned about capacity issues because that's in place.

So we have a question, let's see, it actually just disappeared, but I thought it was an interesting question around fee waivers. You know, there's a lot of families going through economic hardship right now who might have had—you know, who might not have qualified for free waivers a month ago, but now things have changed. How are you all looking at that process?

So fee waivers, we have fee waivers for students who need fee waivers. Students should contact their school, their counselor. We actually, since we know schools are closed right now, so there's not the paper waiver that students can get. Counselors will have access to digital fee waiver codes that students will be able to use to register and get their test fees waived as long as they meet the requirements for fee waivers.

Yeah, and from YouTube, Ashley Pascal asks, "If a test is rescheduled, will students be able to apply the payment to a new date?"

Yeah, so the June test that was canceled, students will be able to reapply that to a fall registration when registration opens up in May. If a student—there's a lot of—go ahead and relate to that. I know this gets into a little bit of logistics of it, and people asking questions about "Oh, my March date got canceled," and they're thinking about things like refunds. And, you know, I will go to your defense where I think everyone is trying to process everything right now.

But how, you know, what assurances can you give families that no, you're going to be able to get to it and everything will work out fairly?

Yeah, you know, we just ask to be a little patient with us. We too have been affected by coronavirus. Our customer service agents have had to find new ways to work from home, so things may not be happening as quickly as we would like, but we are working on it, and just work with us; we're not going to disappoint you.

Yeah, and let's see if I'm looking at the other questions. So we've covered a lot of this. Still more questions about the subject tests—what specific dates they will be offered?

Any—I guess, I mean, you already answered that to some degree, and your extra color on your channel should just go online; the schedule is on the website. But if the subject test in the fall will have the normal schedule that will resume in the fall, the ones that we had to reschedule from June— as soon as we get those rescheduled, students will know, but we're trying to get those rescheduled by the end of this year.

Yeah, and from Instagram, we got this question, actually—this is a very relevant one because we at Khan Academy have gotten certain questions around this from even school districts. This Instagram user says, "I'm a junior. Should I keep studying for the next SAT?"

I guess there's two things in there, which is, you know, you got four or five months until the August test date, and then there might be people who are like, "Well, I can do official SAT practice. I can take practice tests, but will the SAT, you know, if we could do that, will it look different?" What would you say to folks like that?

We should absolutely keep studying. I think, Sal, from your results at Khan, we see that the more hours that a student spends studying, the better their performance on the test. So absolutely keep studying, whether or not you know we have the paper and pencil. Once again, in the worst-case scenario, we have to do an at-home SAT. If you keep studying, you will be prepared for whatever form of SAT gets administered this fall.

And I'll just double down on that. You know, what I've been telling a lot of parents and teachers and students, especially students who are high school-aged right now, is one of the best things—you know, people say, "How should I use Khan Academy?" And we have a lot of subjects, you know, going all the way to fairly advanced math and science and all that. But I've told high school students if there's one—and as early as ninth graders—if there's one thing that you know, if you just even have 30 minutes a day, 40 minutes a day, try the official SAT practice.

And it’s not just so that you eventually, when you take the SAT, you do well; it’s because it's actually making you ready for college. It's aligned to the standards, it's aligned with the skills that actually matter for college. It's math, it's reading and writing; you can get feedback on writing. And so if over the next five or six months you're able to put in 30 minutes, 40 minutes a day, every couple of weeks take a full-length practice test, I guarantee you—I guess it's a money-back guarantee. It's all free, so I guess I can afford to do that, but I will guarantee you with our reputation that if you're able to put that time in, you focus on that practice, that feedback, try to level yourself up on the various skills. We have plenty of efficacy studies Lorraine was just referring to that show that that time put in really pays off.

And we've seen efficacy studies that six hours from the PSAT to the SAT is associated with 50 percent greater than expected growth. So you have what you can do way more than six hours given the amount of time that you might have on your hands between now and back to school. So I think the official SAT practice is the way— not just to do well in the SAT, which I think it will help you there, but it'll help you really thrive when you go back to school, whether you're a senior, whether you're going to be a junior, a junior, senior, sophomore, or freshman.

See, let's see, from Nazi Guy on Instagram says, "What changes will be added to the SAT course on Khan Academy?" I'll take that, you know, the SAT is still the SAT. What we're talking about, this digital version that Lorraine's talking about, is only in this very particular circumstance, as Lorraine just mentioned. It's still going to be very much aligned with what you would need to prepare for, so keep preparing, keep practicing, keep practicing. And I think about the practice; it's just like an athlete who doesn't know when their next basketball game is, but they're probably in their yard or in their neighborhood, still practicing free throws. You keep practicing because the more you practice, the better you're going to perform.

Exactly, exactly! And I'll this one question from Instagram, which we've already answered, but I want to re-answer it because I think it's worth, you know, doubling down on: are SAT scores going to count for anything for next year’s college applications?

Um, Lorraine, you want to take a stab at it, and I'm happy to answer it again?

Yeah, yeah, so once again, you know, colleges are being flexible because they, too, understand that there are some students who are applying this fall who won't have the opportunity to take a test. So they're taking into account these situations, but students should always reach out to the college. If you can take the SAT, you should absolutely take the SAT because, once again, with the portfolio that you have in addition to your high school grade point average, your extracurricular activities, and whatever volunteer activities that you're submitting, SAT scores will help colleges show the skills.

Some students, and unfortunately, Sal, when students sometimes hear that a school is test-optional or SAT optional, they feel, "Oh, I don’t have to take the test." And sometimes it's the more privileged students who still take it, still submit those scores, and it's more of the underserved students who don't have a counselor coaching them to say, "Go ahead, take the SAT regardless." Even if it's test optional, take it and submit it!

So we really encourage you, if you can take it, please take it because it will do nothing but help your portfolio and show a better presentation of yourself to that college admissions officer.

And I'll just add to that. It's absolutely true that everyone is more understanding and flexible right now, especially as we go into next year's college admissions.

But I know a lot of school districts have had to do things like go to pass-fail on their letter grades in this current semester because of the school closures. And so that gives even less information for colleges to make their admissions decisions. And so you can imagine it might—if you can, if you're in a position to do so, it might be even more valuable to provide those signals of your college readiness and testing.

You know, I've talked to college admissions officers of some fairly selective schools who that went testing optional, but what, you know, they'll tell you is that still a disproportionate number of the kids who get in did take the SAT because they still need to look at that. They need some form of a signal. If you don't have something like an SAT score, you're still going to have to have some other kind of signal to the college around your college readiness and how it actually might compare relative to other folks.

So I highly, highly recommend that if you're in a position to do so, and I'm highly recommending to keep preparing. So we're pretty much out of time, Lorraine. Thank you so much for answering those questions and stay safe and healthy. I'm glad to hear that the College Board folks are, you know, trying to do what they can to support folks through this process.

Thanks, Sal. Thanks for having me here.

So thank you, everyone, for joining today's live stream. We're always great to have a guest from some of our partners to answer some of these questions. I know a lot of folks are feeling a lot of stress now. The whole point of this live stream is to try to de-stress some of that, and hopefully, what— you know, the takeaway to get from Lorraine or from all of the guests that we're having is we're at a moment in the world where everyone realizes what's important or starting to realize what's important.

And so I would just emphasize for folks to, you know, do what you can, put the next foot forward, don’t stress about it, and you know, things are going to sort out. So with that, I will let you go, and I look forward to seeing all of y'all on the live stream tomorrow!