New York City high school juniors will no longer have to trek it to another school’s campus on an early Saturday morning to take the SAT exam.
As part of the College Access for All Initiative, a program designed to make the path to college easier for students of all backgrounds, the school calendar will now include an SAT school day. Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced the program at a College Application Week kickoff event at the High School of Fashion Industries. The new SAT School Day will allow high school students to take the SAT exam for free during the designated school day in the spring of of their junior year.
“The new SAT School Day and the expansion of College Application Week demonstrate our commitment to providing every student with the support and resources they need to pursue college,” said Farina in a statement.
The school calendar year already includes a PSAT school day aimed at sophomores as they prepare to take the exam the following year and has resulted in a threefold increase of students who actually take the exam. Officials hope that the SAT School Day will have similar results by removing hurdles such as individually having to register for for the test, traveling to another location on a Saturday morning, and in particular, broadening opportunities for African-American and Hispanic students.
Statistics taken in 2015 by the New York City Department of Education show average SAT scores fare better than the rest of the country, with the critical reading, writing, and math portions of the exam scoring three points higher when compared to the United States. In the last five years, the number of students taking the SAT has climbed steadily.
In spring 2016, 90 schools will serve as pilots for the SAT School Day program, with the citywide implementation of the initiative happening in spring 2017.