The College Board, styled as CollegeBoard, is an American not-for-profit organization. It was formed in December 1899 as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) to expand access to higher education. While the College Board is not an association of colleges, it runs a membership association of institutions, including over 6,000 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations.
The College Board develops and administers standardized tests and curricula used by K–12 and post-secondary education institutions to promote college-readiness and as part of the college admissions process. The College Board is headquartered in New York City. David Coleman has been the CEO since October 2012. He replaced Gaston Caperton, former governor of West Virginia, who had held this position since 1999. The current president of the College Board is Jeremy Singer.
In addition to managing assessments for which it charges fees, the College Board provides resources, tools, and services to students, parents, colleges, and universities in college planning, recruitment and admissions, financial aid, and retention.
The College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB) was founded at Columbia University in the City of New York on December 22, 1899, by representatives of 12 universities and three high school preparatory academies in the states of New York and New Jersey. These were:
Women's College of Baltimore (now Goucher College)
Collegiate Institute, New York
The organization's intent was to "adopt and publish a statement of the ground which should be covered and of the aims which should be sought by secondary school teaching in each of the following subjects (and in such others as may be desirable), and a plan of examination suitable as a test for admission to college: Botany, Chemistry, English, French, German, Greek, History, Latin, Mathematics, Physics, Zoology".
The College Board maintains a numbered registry of countries, college majors, colleges, scholarship programs, test centers, and high schools. In the United States, this registry is borrowed by other institutions as a means of unambiguous identification; thus, a student might give their guidance department a college's name and address and its CEEB code to ensure that their transcript is sent correctly. There exists a similar set of ACT codes for colleges and scholarships, centers, and high schools; however, these codes are less widely used outside ACT, Inc.
The SAT is a fee-based digital standardized test for college admissions in the United States, first administered in 1926. The College Board decides how the SAT is constructed, administered, and used in the United States. Educational Testing Service (ETS) develops, administers, publishes, and scores the SAT. The SAT covers writing, reading, and mathematics. SAT scores range from 400 to 1600, with each of the two sections—Reading and Writing and Math—both worth up to 800 points. The digital SAT is an adaptive test, made up of two reading and writing modules and two math modules. If the test taker does well on the first module of a section, then the second module of the section will be harder, and if the test taker does poorly on the first module, the second module will be easier. Most students take the test during their junior or senior year of high school. The SAT competes with the ACT, another standardized college admissions test.
Currently, the base test is $68. Various fees can accumulate—registering beyond the registration deadline results in a $30 late fee and changing a test date, center, or test type results in a $25 fee. The waitlist testing fee is $53; the first four score reports are free, and each additional score report is $14. Students sitting for the test in regions outside the United States pay an additional 'Non-U.S. Regional Fee' between $43 and $53. As a result, student testing fees may run up to $200 or more for a single test. However, fee waivers and reductions are available for some low-income students.
On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced that a redesigned version of the SAT would be administered for the first time in 2016. The exam reverted to the 1600-point scale, and the essay became optional (previously, the test had been scored out of 2400 points). The testing process was changed to give students three hours to take the exam plus 50 additional minutes to complete the essay. In the same announcement, the College Board also said they would be partnering with Khan Academy to make available, from spring 2015, free test preparation materials for the redesigned SAT. This included a preparation application to help students practice and identify areas of improvement. Practice problems and videos demonstrating step-by-step solutions were also made available.
The SAT Subject Tests were standardized tests intended to measure student performance in specific areas, such as mathematics, science, and history. On January 19, 2021, the College Board discontinued Subject Tests. This was effective immediately in the United States. The following summer, the tests were to be phased out for international students. CollegeBoard has discontinued the optional essay section of the SAT after June 2021.
On May 13, 2015, the College Board announced the release of a new credential initiative to get students more interested in careers focused in STEM with a Project Lead the Way partnership.
In March 2020, College Board announced the cancellation of several test dates during the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result many colleges temporarily or permanently changed to a test-optional or test-blind admissions policy (that is, they either did not require the submission of SAT scores, or they refused to accept SAT scores).
On January 25, 2022, College Board announced that the SAT would be delivered digitally, in an attempt to change the format of the test itself. Vice President of the College Readiness Assessment at College Board, Priscilla Rodriguez, said, "The digital SAT will be easier to take, easier to give and more relevant". Some new features of this digital version of the SAT include a two-hour testing period instead of the three-hour period that had been used for the current SAT, more relevant topics that cover material given in college courses, and calculators allowed for the entirety of the Math portion of the exam. A digital version of the exam allows College Board to address inequities associated with student accessibility to technology. This change was brought forth by College Board following disruptions in testing that were COVID-related. The 2021 SAT Suite of Assessment Program results showed that 1.5 million high school students took the test, compared to 2.2 million students in 2020.
As of spring of 2024, all SATs have been transitioned to be taken on the Bluebook exam application.
The PSAT/NMSQT is a fee-based standardized test that provides firsthand practice for the SAT for a cost of $18. However, the cost may vary based on state, district, or school. The test also functions as a qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship Corporation's scholarship programs. There are also other forms of the PSAT, including the PSAT 10 and the PSAT 8/9. However, the PSAT 10 and the PSAT 8/9 do not qualify a student for the National Merit Scholarship.
As of spring of 2024, all PSATs have been transitioned to be taken on the Bluebook exam application.