The College Board reversed its controversial decision to give students an adversity score, a number meant to put SAT results in the context of students’ life challenges. The score will be replaced with Landscape, a new tool that includes multiple metrics as opposed to a single value.
The adversity score – also called Environmental Context Dashboard – would rate students on a scale of 1 to 100, based on information about students’ neighborhoods and their socioeconomic backgrounds. It was piloted at 50 colleges and universities with plans to expand it to 150 additional schools by the end of the year.
But after it was widely condemned for several reasons, including that it could be perceived as reducing students’ life obstacles to a number, a new version called Landscape was unveiled.
Landscape would collect data about students’ high schools, such as their locations, class sizes, number of Advanced Placement courses and percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. It would also take into account details about students’ neighborhoods, such as the area’s median family income, education levels, crime rates and more.
Now, whether Landscape is actually a better alternative is a source of debate.
For College Possible CEO Jim McCorkell, Landscape is a step in the right direction. His organization coaches low-income high school students to prepare them for college.
“Anything that adds context to these test scores has the potential to help low-income students,” he said.
