The SAT and ACT have both long been considered necessary for high school students to enter into college. Nearly every university or higher education program makes these test a requirement to test knowledge and aptitude. However, there is a huge difference between the number of students taking the ACT vs. the SAT across the United States which means that there are huge opportunities for the College Board that administers the SAT to increase high school student participation rate.
Below we have the distribution graphs for both the ACT and SAT by participation rate. These show a clear favorite for students to take the ACT vs. the SAT. The SAT lags greatly behind.
Here we show the map of the United States showing the regional differences between states. There’s a clear opportunity in the Midwestern States as well as some Southern states to boost participation rate of the SAT.
The College Board does offer an SAT School Day which helps schools offer the test on a school day rather than administering the test during a weekend day as it is normally administered. This ensures that students (especially working students) have the chance to take the SAT which could then lead them to apply to colleges and further their education to ensure long careers in their chose profession.
It is my recommendation that the College Board work on offering more SAT School Days. I would also recommend that they offer more incentives for students to take the test especially for students that typically come from low-income areas/families. The idea being to eliminate the barriers that they inherently have to be sure that they can take the test and give them a higher chance of being accepted into a college or university program.
The College Board should also direct their efforts to help increase participation across the middle of the country as well as the South. There is considerable opportunity for improvement in these areas. Currently the ACT is mandatory for students in 17 states across the country. Each of these states achieved 100% participation!! If the SAT can also be made mandatory across more states than the SAT would make great strides in improving participation and gain ground in 2018 and beyond.