An article shared on the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal explores the changes made in 2024. The piece is titled “The SAT's Trust Fall.”
The article points out that most lawmakers are, first of all, surprised to learn the tests even change at all and are even more shocked about what the recent changes are.
The SAT does not have major updates often. The newest change, fully implemented in 2024, shifted the test to a digital format with the only other noticeable change in 2016, implementing a different scoring system. However, the content of the test’s questions continuously updates according to educational standards and college expectations.
Erika Donalds, Chair of Education Opportunity for America First Policy Institute, speaks about how SAT scores have been falling because students in K12 systems are unprepared for the college entrance exam.
"And instead of being honest about student performance, the SAT has decided to reduce the number of words that students will need to read in order to find the answers to their reading comprehension questions," Donalds reports.
In the new "Reading and Writing" section of the test, reading passages were shortened from 500-750 words down to 25-150 words with one question asked per passage.
"This is going in the wrong direction, and it's why we need more standardized tests such as the CLT, the Classic Learning Test, that are going in the opposite direction and having students read longer passages to show their proficiency," explains Donalds.
The explanation is that this setup "operates more efficiently." The article says the main goals in changing the exam were to make it shorter and give students more time for each question. Other changes mentioned include noticeable changes to the structure of the SAT.
SAT officials got rid of the paper exam and replaced it with one on a computer. The exam is adaptive, which means questions toward the end of each section are easier or more difficult depending on early performance.
Donalds says the goal is to achieve higher test scores by unnaturally boosting them. She, furthermore, says this exposes a real problem in the K to 12 system.
"We've heard, anecdotally, from even elite college professors that their incoming freshmen have not read a book cover-to-cover throughout their entire K12 experience, and, therefore, they are unprepared to do so in higher education. Instead of teaching children to really digest longer text and complex ideas, we are shortcutting them so that they can get the right answers on a standardized test,” Donalds states.
She said it is quite abnormal for them to make this type of significant change on the SAT. It means that tests where students read shorter passages cannot be adequately compared to scores from previous years.
“A longer, uninterrupted text, like is used on the CLT exam, demands more than speed reading and superficial analysis. The short excerpts train students to get quick answers, but they don't foster intellectual stamina, and that is what we need: for students to engage with more complex ideas,” Donalds expresses.
Along with shortening the reading section, the article also reports that the optional essay portion of the SAT was also done away entirely.
