March 3, 2017 Chris Steinhauser Superintendent Long Beach Unified School District 1515 Hughes Way Long Beach, CA 90810 Dear Superintendent Steinhauser: It’s been a privilege to be a long-standing partner with you and the amazing educators in the Long Beach Unified School District. At the center of our partnership is a common vision to create opportunities and remove barriers for all students. You and your team bring a relentless focus to serving every student. By administering the SAT during the school day at no cost to each of your juniors, you are fostering a college-going culture and connecting them to numerous distinct benefits tied to the test. We are proud we serve a key role in supporting your work: • • • • • The SAT Suite of Assessments – including the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, and PSAT 10 – makes it easier for students to show their best work. These assessments are aligned to state standards, and measure what students are learning in high school and what they need to know to succeed in college and career. Our partnership with Khan Academy provides free, personalized practice to all of your students, leveling the playing field. The SAT and PSAT-related assessments open the door to higher education opportunities across the country, connecting students to college application fee waivers, more than $180 million in scholarships, and access to rigorous Advanced Placement coursework. Our dynamic score reporting portal brings instructional tools for teachers and students and information for counselors and parents to guide their students. Our partnership continues to produce real results for students. More than ever, students need leaders who put their interests first. Consequently, we are disappointed following the California State Board of Education’s denial of your request to use the SAT for accountability. We are also disappointed that the state’s February 23rd letter to you included a number of inaccuracies about the SAT. We are writing to correct them. There are five fundamental points the state got wrong in its letter. Here’s the reality: 1. The SAT is aligned with the California state standards and provides rich information about student performance. The College Board conducted an alignment study that found strong to very strong alignment between the California state standards and the SAT. The College Board provided this alignment study to the California State Board of Education and the California Department of Education numerous times, beginning in summer 2016. State officials have cited the study and alignment numerous times in public forums. The College Board is confident that the SAT is a direct measure of California’s state standards, and Long Beach can be confident that the SAT supports students, teachers, and classroom instruction. We stand ready to work with states, including California, to provide extensive information demonstrating how the SAT meets all requirements under ESSA. We fully support states that are conducting their own independent alignment studies with the materials they need. 2. Evidence shows the SAT is a valid and reliable test, which objectively measures academic achievement for all students. The SAT has been designed to provide valid and reliable measurement across the entire spectrum of performance of the students who will be tested. Our research shows a reasonable spread of student scores across the entire SAT score scale with the extreme tails of the score distributions containing relatively few students. The results reflect a test that well matches an all-student test-taking population. In addition, our research shows that the Evidence-based Reading and Writing section score and the Math section score are reasonably precise across the entire score scale and that there are no limitations in the range of measurement provided by the test. As Long Beach is a model district in bringing opportunity to all students, the College Board recognizes that it is essential that the SAT be accessible for all students. The easy-to-use online reporting portal enables students to understand and act on their results, teachers to connect data to instructional planning, and administrators to break down results by state, district, school, and student demographics. Detailed sub-score reporting allows teachers and education leaders to sort and filter responses to identify areas of strength and target areas for development. This reporting is designed to inform both high-achieving students and students who may need additional support, and allows educators to provide personalized instruction in those areas in which a student can improve. 3. Eligible students will receive the support and accommodations they need on all College Board assessments. The vast majority of students who are approved for and use testing accommodations at their school through a current Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan will have those same accommodations automatically approved for taking the SAT. In addition, starting in spring 2017, English Language Learner (ELL) students taking a state-funded SAT during the school day have access to additional supports, including testing instructions in several native languages and approved wordto-word bilingual glossaries. All tests administered with accommodations approved by the College Board will generate college reportable scores. 4. The College Board already works with states on standard setting. The College Board provides the student performance data and item-level data needed to compare SAT results with other measures of achievement. We are, of course, already aware of the strong research that Long Beach conducted regarding the efficacy of scores between the SAT and the Smarter Balanced 11th-grade assessment. We stand with Long Beach in supporting those findings. Additionally, the College Board has previously worked with four states to set performance levels on the SAT that are consistent with their state’s academic achievement standards, and will report results against those standards. Performance level descriptors were developed as part of the standard setting study. As a final research note, the scores on two tests that are aligned to the California state standards can be linked in a way that connects the score scales together and easily can be used by students, parents, and educators. We have already discussed conducting such a study collaboratively with SBAC. 5. The College Board does not, under any circumstances, sell student data. Through Student Search Service, students may participate in a voluntary program that connects students with information about educational and financial aid opportunities from nearly 1,700 colleges, universities, scholarship programs and educational organizations. When students take the SAT, PSAT/NMSQT, and PSAT 10, they are asked if they want to participate. By opting in, they give the College Board permission to share their name and limited information with college and scholarship programs looking for students like them. The College Board never shares social security numbers, actual test scores, self-reported parental income, disabilities, and phone numbers as part of Student Search Service. Participation is completely voluntary and students can opt out at any time. Eligible institutions sign a license agreement with the College Board, and the College Board consistently monitors their use of student information for compliance. After a five-year term, the institutions must permanently destroy the data. We are also a signatory, with more than 200 K-12 school service providers and education leaders, of the Pledge to Safeguard Student Privacy, a public commitment for the responsible collection and use of student data. As you know from our longstanding relationship, the College Board has a deep respect for student privacy, and we are committed to protecting it. Policymakers share your concerns about over-testing of students and recommend using the SAT to help alleviate this issue, save valuable classroom time for learning, and provide actionable data about students’ college and career readiness. States increasingly are using the SAT as their federal accountability assessment, as it meets or exceeds every criteria required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). While we can provide extensive information about the technical validity of the new SAT, the biggest difference between California’s current high school assessment and the new SAT is one state officials failed to mention in their letter: The new SAT is delivering more opportunities to students than any other assessment. Thanks for all that you do on behalf of students, families and educators. We appreciate the opportunity to continue in this outstanding partnership. Best, Scott Hill Vice President Western Region The College Board