The Atlantic

An Imperfect SAT Adversity Score Is Better Than Just Ignoring Adversity

The College Board’s simple, straightforward indicator will make schools pay attention to the tough odds some applicants face.
Source: Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty

Last week, the College Board announced a long-overdue innovation: It will try to put students’ SAT scores in context by providing colleges with an adversity measure that summarizes—on a scale of one to 100—the disadvantages that students suffer when they grow up in troubled neighborhoods and attend high-poverty schools.

But many in the chattering classes immediately pounced on the idea—some because of an applicant’s race and the particular challenges that may come with it, and others because they see it as . The adversity score’s wonkier critics it for trying to reduce the complexities of a student’s circumstances—which could include a parent’s alcoholism or the premature death of a sibling—to a single number. A

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic3 min readAmerican Government
The Strongest Case Against Donald Trump
If Donald Trump beats Nikki Haley on Saturday in her home state of South Carolina, where he leads in the polls, he’s a cinch to win the GOP nomination. And if he wins the GOP nomination, he has a very good shot at winning the presidency. So it’s wort
The Atlantic4 min read
Your Phone Has Nothing on AM Radio
This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. There is little love lost between Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Rashida Tlaib. She has called him a “dumbass” for his opposition to the Paris Climate Agre
The Atlantic8 min readAmerican Government
The GOP Has Crossed an Ominous Threshold on Foreign Policy
The long decline of the Republican Party’s internationalist wing may have reached a tipping point. Since Donald Trump emerged as the GOP’s dominant figure in 2016, he has championed an isolationist and nationalist agenda that is dubious of internatio

Related Books & Audiobooks