College Board CEO explains decision to ditch con
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to ditch controversial SAT 'adversity score'
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College Board CEO David Coleman appeared on "America's Newsroom" Wednesday to explain the decision to do away with the "adversity score," which would take into account a student's socio-economic background and the neighborhood they grew up in when scoring their SAT college admissions test.
Co-host Jon Scott asked Coleman if the "adversity score" sought to equalize the playing field between rich and poor students, and Coleman said no test score could ever fix the natural inequity of society.
"No test can equalize what is unequal in our society. Those forces are strong," he replied. "Here’s what we can do... if you come from a rural school or a small neighborhood that's unknown to the admissions office, they'll equally have information about it as if you came from somewhere they knew."
"We're trying to respond to these forces but... the forces of inequality a very strong and they'll be reflected in students' achievements," Coleman added. "And we all have to be careful to be thoughtful about that."
He also said the board responded to the will of the public and agreed with the consensus that they shouldn't be in the business of scoring adversity, only merit and achievement.
"We felt that people were right when they said you should not be scoring this," Coleman said earlier in the interview. "I believe that the most important thing a public institution... can do is, listen to the public, listen to our members, and make change