{"id":21498,"date":"2019-05-24T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/24\/heres-how-the-new-sat-tool-could-affect-military-students\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:10:59","slug":"heres-how-the-new-sat-tool-could-affect-military-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/pay-benefits\/2019\/05\/24\/heres-how-the-new-sat-tool-could-affect-military-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how the new SAT tool could affect military students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The organization that administers the SAT test will explore ways to address the mobility of military children in the college application process, officials told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The statement comes in the midst of news coverage of what is being called an \u201cadversity score,”a new tool measuring socioeconomic aspects of a student\u2019s current school and current neighborhood designed to give college entrance officials more context about how test scores relate to a student\u2019s environment. The information will be used, according to officials, to help determine the resourcefulness of applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colleges and universities can use this information to help decide whether to accept those applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one of the biggest challenges facing military students – frequent moves – <\/a>is not currently apparent in the new assessments, called the \u201cenvironmental context dashboard,\u201d being tested in a pilot program with 50 colleges and universities, said College Board CEO David Coleman, in an interview with Military Times. He stressed that for military students<\/a> — and other students \u2013 \u201ceach individual student\u2019s story is going to continue to be conveyed through recommendation letters and through their personal essay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coleman said calling the new measuring tool an \u201cadversity score\u201d is inaccurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a context score,\u201d he said. \u201cAll it does is give some general information about a student\u2019s high school and their neighborhood,\u201d he said. For example, all the students at one high school would get the same score for that high school, and all the students living in a particular neighborhood would get the same score for that neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t affect a student\u2019s actual SAT score; it\u2019s an additional tool to add some context to that score, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people have gotten confused and think we\u2019re rating or evaluating each student on their adversity, which would be absurd,\u201d Coleman said, noting that the environmental assessments are general, and each student\u2019s story is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReally, the idea is to offer insight into resourcefulness, to show those students who, despite facing enormous challenges, nonetheless perform exceedingly well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some military students end up attending two, three or more high schools because of parents\u2019 changes in duty stations or other reasons. Asked how this new assessment might take into account a military student\u2019s mobility, Coleman said it doesn\u2019t, and said the College Board will look at ways to annotate their mobility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, colleges send the College Board a code for the current high school, based on the student\u2019s application, to get the assessment. But perhaps the process could be changed so students could list all the high schools they attended, and colleges could get the context for all those high schools, said Connie Betterton, College Board\u2019s vice president of higher education access and strategy who oversees the new socioeconomic assessment tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some in the military community have raised concerns about how this could affect military students. In a comment on the College Board website, Jennifer Loustaunau said, \u201cComparing my military child that is in their third high school in three states to the local population does a disservice to them. It will be impossible to \u2018conceptualize their score\u2019 in relation to their CURRENT school without knowing the previous ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe College Board is entirely devoted to clearing a path to college for military children as well as for veterans. While the general context helps some, we\u2019d like to complement and refine it so it is sensitive to mobility,\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a fabulous idea,\u201d said Mary Keller, president and CEO of the Military Child Education Coalition, in response to the possibility of adding multiple high schools to the application. \u201c[The College Board] is really open to this kind of discernment\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is just the beginning. It\u2019s still in the developmental stages,” Keller said, of the environmental context tool in general. “I think it has merit, and I\u2019m encouraged by how much thought they\u2019ve put into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The address used for the environmental context is the address the student provides to the institution when they submit their application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a college is one of those in the pilot program using the environmental context dashboard, the contextual information is provided to the school for all the domestic, first-year applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\t