Colorado high school juniors will be required to take the SAT college-entrance exam instead of the ACT starting this spring, a significant change that grew out of a competitive bidding process required by hard-fought testing-reform legislation.
The Department of Education on Wednesday announced that a selection committee chose The College Board, makers of the SAT, over the ACT testing company, which has been testing juniors in Colorado since 2001.
High school sophomores, meanwhile, will begin taking the PSAT. Under the testing legislation, sophomores and juniors no longer will take PARCC English and math tests, which debuted last spring.
“We realize this is a big shift for students and that this decision is coming later in the school year than any of us would like,” Interim Education Commissioner Elliott Asp said in a statement. “We are committed to exploring options for flexibility that make sense for this year’s juniors who need to use this spring’s exam for their college applications.”
Asp did not offer any specifics about what that flexibility might look like.
State officials said the committee praised College Board resources available to students and liked the PSAT in part because it aligns with state academic standards in English and math.
The SAT and PSAT will be given each spring for the next five years.
The decision to switch to the College Board tests will become official at the end of the procurement process, which includes a waiting period of seven business days. The contract will be negotiated after the official award, state officials say.
The SAT tests differ from PARCC and will take less time. PARCC tests include only language arts and math. The PSAT and SAT tests cover reading, writing, math, science and social studies.
About 55,000 students took the ACT last spring in the state’s public schools.
Bruce Messinger, superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District, said he was surprised by the selection. A number of superintendents pressed for sticking with the ACT, which students have traditionally valued and provide districts a common measurement over time, he said.
“With all the change that’s gone on with the PARCC assessments, and new literacy assessments, … the ACT was really the only longitudinal data we have had to go and look at over time,” Messinger said. “I guess it’s a fresh start on all fronts now.”
Jason Glass, superintendent of the Eagle County school district, has concerns about preparing students for the new test on short notice, among other things.
“If they are equivalent tests, then why would you make this seismic shift that is going to have all these ripple effects?” Glass said. “It’s going to be a lot of work to make this transition, and the outcomes are not going to be that radically different.”
