Education Week - September 4, 2019 - 3

BRIEFLY STATED

College Board Admits
Mistake in Creation
Of 'Adversity' Score

Lukas Hartley, who
plays football for
Paradise High School,
runs up the stairs at
the football stadium

Mea culpa. That's the message coming from the
College Board, which, despite good intentions,
acknowledges it really flubbed up.
The company that administers the SAT collegeadmissions test is ditching its so-called "adversity"
score and replacing it with a tool that will no longer
reduce an applicant's background to a single number.
"The idea of a single score was wrong," David
Coleman, the College Board's chief executive, said last
week. "It was confusing and created the misperception
that the indicators are specific to an individual student."
Amid growing scrutiny of the role wealth plays in
college admissions, the College Board introduced its
Environmental Context Dashboard about two years
ago to provide context for a student's performance
on the SAT and help schools identify those who have
done more with less. One formula used in a pilot
program combined school and neighborhood factors
like advanced-course offerings and the crime rate to
produce a single number.
Critics called it an overreach.
Its new tool, dubbed "Landscape," will provide a
series of data points from government sources and the
College Board that are seen as affecting education.
Among them: whether the student's school is in a
rural, suburban, or urban location; size of the school's
senior class; percentage of students eligible for free and
reduced-price lunch; and participation and performance
in Advanced Placement courses.
Admissions officers also will see a range of test scores
at the school to show where the applicant falls, as well
as information like median family income, education
levels, and crime rates in the student's neighborhood.
The adversity tool's creation was an acknowledgment
of persistent criticism of the use of admissions tests
in an era of growing concern about unequal access to
advanced coursework and high-priced tutors. This year's
"Varsity Blues" scandal, which exposed allegations of
affluent parents cheating the admissions system, has
brought further scrutiny.
Colleges have for several years been acting on
the concerns, with an increasing number no longer
demanding SAT or ACT scores from applicants.

after practice in
Paradise, Calif., last
month. Students'
involvement in sports
across the country
Rich Pedroncelli/AP

has dropped, with
the biggest decline
coming in football.

High School Students' Participation
In Sports Takes First Hit in 30 Years
High school sports received a dose of bad news last
week when the annual participation survey by the National
Federation of State High School Associations showed a
decline for the first time in 30 years for the 2018-19 season.
Overall participation was 7.94 million, down 43,395 from
2017-18.
Leading the decline was football participation, with
11-man football falling by 30,829 to 1.01 million, the lowest
mark since 1999-2000, when there were about 600,000
more high schoolers all told. It's the fifth consecutive year
of declining football participation.
Although there are lots of other physical activities
that students can be involved in, the decrease in sports
participation is still worrisome news when it comes to the
obesity epidemic in this country. Health experts-and
parents-fret that children spend too much time in front of
screens and not enough moving around.
Many point to concerns about concussions as one of the
reasons for the drop in football play. The younger the kid,
the more likely concussions can lead to long-term ill effects.
"We continue to work with our member state associations,
the nation's high schools, and other groups to make the sport

as safe as possible," said Karissa Niehoff, the federation's
executive director. "Every state has enacted rules that
limit the amount of contact before the season and during
practices, and every state has concussion protocols and laws
in place, so we continue to believe that the sport is as safe as it
has ever been."
Those on the front lines-literally-see other reasons for
the lack of interest as well.
Ed Croson, the veteran football coach at Chaminade
College Prep in Los Angeles, cited the "privatization of
youth sports" as one culprit. Plus, many students these
days play a single sport.
"With the rise of social media and all the contraptions
kids have ... kids are sedentary," he said. "When we were
young, our parents threw us out of the house to play. The
world was more physical."
Not all the news is bad. While some traditional sports
such as football and basketball have remained steady or
experienced declines in the past seven years, other sports
have registered significant gains. Girls and boys lacrosse
has increased 19 percent during that time, and girls and
boys soccer rose 9 percent.

BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Sean Cavanagh, Christina A. Samuels, Sarah D. Sparks, and Tribune News Service. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.

Vol. 39 * Issue 3 * September 4, 2019

1 Quality Counts: Grading the States
See special section, pages 1, 8-15

1 Are Schools Required to Be

Trauma-Sensitive?

7 What Are Threat Assessments

And How Do Schools Use Them?

OPINION

1 Google Tool Fuels Debate

23 The Challenges Ahead For

1 Open-Source Science Curriculum

24 School Leaders: Avoid This Move

About Teaching Writing
Makes Debut

5 In Battle Against Bullies,

Schools Target Parents

Advanced Placement

28 'You Skipped a Step'

DEPARTMENTS
3 Briefly Stated
6 What the Research Says
25 Letters to the Editor
27 EdWeek Top School Jobs

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Foundation, and the William E. Simon
Foundation. Education Week retains
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underwritten by foundations.

6 Teacher-Drivers Keep Wheels

On the Bus Going Round

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Education Week - September 4, 2019

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