Michigan high school juniors will begin taking the SAT instead of ACT as the state proctored college entrance exam in spring 2016, a change that surprised and concerned many state educators.
In January, the Michigan Department of Education announced that College Board, the parent company of SAT and Advanced Placement, signed a three-year contract with the state of Michigan to proctor a redesigned SAT aligned with Michigan testing standards to high school students next spring. The decision resulted from a bidding process in which SAT offered to do the job for $15.4 million less than the next lowest bid. While students will still be able to pay to take the ACT, only the SAT will be offered for free to all high school students during official spring testing periods.
“This happened and blindsided the entire state, saying we’re going to move to the SAT,” said Bob Drake, Jonesville High School guidance counselor.
Some educators say they worry it will be difficult to implement on such short notice, thus scores may decrease initially since students are not used to being assessed by the SAT, Hillsdale County General Education Director Pat Dillon said.
“I do expect scores to go down. There’s always an implementation dip, and I think that we’ll do everything we can, but we’ve seen this happen with other testing pieces,” Dillon said.
Michigan schools have required students to take the ACT since 2008, but last year the Michigan Department of Technology Management and Budget accepted a bid of $17.1 million that changed this requirement.
Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals Wendy Zdeb-Roper agreed with Drake’s sentiment in an MLive interview, saying the timing of the changeover is poor and presents difficulties for both educators and students.
“The thing that’s really, really difficult right now is high schools are trying to adapt to Common Core curriculum and the M-STEP (Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress) and online testing,” Zdeb-Roper said. “And the one thing that’s been consistent is the ACT. Now we’re going to switch to a test that we’re completely unfamiliar with.”
In addition to switching from SAT to ACT, juniors next spring will be taking a new version of the SAT made to match Michigan testing standards.
“The redesigned SAT is focused on the few durable things that evidence shows matter most for college and career success, and reflects what Michigan students are already learning in their classrooms,” College Board Chief of Assessment Cyndie Schmeiser said.
Before making the switch, a committee of state superintendents, principals, educators, and administrators ranked the two assessment tests and found the SAT to be both less expensive and better at evaluating students, according to Michigan Department of Education spokesperson Bill DiSessa.
“Committee members go through and look at all the technical aspects of each test, like how the tests perform on the requirements we’ve laid out, which results in a score which must be higher than 80 in order to even move on to the second round, where they would see the financial pricing of the test,” said Caleb Buhs, DTMB Communications Director. “The review team has not seen the financial cost of the test when grading it to make sure it’s not completely based on prices, but we always try to choose the best value for the state.”
After the committee announced it would opt for the SAT, ACT’s Assistant Vice President Catherine Dunn appealed its decision, which the Board of Education denied.
“Upon a careful and independent review of the relevant materials and the ACT protest letter, I have determined that the recommendation is appropriate,” states the letter in reply to the protest. “The ACT protest is respectfully denied.”
Buhs said DTMB had extended ACT’s contract in previous years instead of accepting new bids, so most state educators assumed this pattern would continue. Despite the money saved by the state, Drake said he believes those costs will simply be incurred by the school districts and schools in the changeover.
“They claim cost savings of about $15 million; however, that cost savings gets eaten up right away in the amount of time the secondary schools will be basically preparing to switch over to this test,” Drake said. “I think it was a money-savings decision. But it was money saving for the state of Michigan. Unfortunately, that’s not money savings for your local school districts or your colleges and universities. It’s shortsighted to believe that the state’s savings of $15 million is $15 million because it isn’t — all of the high schools have to then prepare for a total change of what their testing is.”
Another potential problem arising from the SAT switch is that many local scholarships are based on ACT scores and don’t include SAT equivalents.
“Our teachers just aren’t familiar with it. I’ve been a counselor for 20 years or so and in that time we’ve only had a handful of SAT takers,” Reading High School Guidance Counselor Mitch Hubbard said.
Drake said he hoped educators’ concerns would dissuade the state from solidifying the change.
“The hope was that there would be enough people outraged about this that it wouldn’t actually happen, but at this point we’re heading to the SAT,” Drake said. “I don’t foresee it changing at this point.”
To placate these concerns, the College Board and Khan Academy — an online school that publishes free video lessons for every subject — are offering free practice tests to prepare Michigan students for the new test structure.
“Michigan students and their families will also benefit from the scholarship opportunities connected to College Board assessments, as well as the college application fee waivers we provide,” Schmeiser said. “While the SAT, which is accepted at all Michigan universities, is a familiar exam to many in the state, we will make resources and support services focused on the key features of the redesigned assessment available to districts. This information will help districts understand how they can interpret and use the results to propel more students to college and career readiness.”
In response, Michigan school administrators are reevaluating programs to prepare students for the SAT.
“It will be a matter of creating awareness — encouraging students and teachers and families to practice, to take a look at the new test,” Dillon said.
College Board plans to help schools make the change, too.
“The College Board is committed to supporting the MDE to ensure a seamless transition that will allow students, parents, and educators across the state to take advantage of the opportunities our redesigned assessment has to offer,” Schmeiser said.
Although many are worried about what the upcoming year will bring, Hillsdale High School teacher Nick Tucker, who has taught ACT preparation courses for the school for three years, does not anticipate the school having to make many changes in its standardized testing preparations.
“I do not mind what test is used so long as the test is valid and reliable,” Tucker said. “Both the ACT and the SAT are reliable tests and I hope that the state does not make it a habit of changing tests every couple of years.”
Although students will be sending colleges their scores from the SAT instead of the ACT, all Michigan universities accept the SAT and it is a globally-recognized test, according to Marty Ackley, director of governmental and public affairs for the Michigan Department of Education. Although Ackley conceded the SAT is used more often on the East and West coasts than the Midwest, it’s unlikely students will have difficulties with colleges accepting their new test scores.
“We accept both the SAT and the ACT without preference, so it won’t affect anything with that,” Senior Director of Field Recruitment Zachary Miller said. “The only difference it will make is we are in Michigan and a good chunk of our applications come from Michigan. So, we’re used to talking in ACT lingo. The difference will be that now we’ll talk more in the language of the SAT.”
Additional information about the new testing process, including complete test specifications, is available at deliveringopportunity.org.
