Across major metropolitan areas in California, from the Bay Area to San Diego, high school students are unable to find seats at SAT test centers in their local areas. As of June 7th, 2023, over two full months before the regular SAT registration deadline for the August 2023 SAT, Bay Area students are reporting zero seats within 100 miles for the August exam, and limited availability for the October test.

 

 

 

 

Students in West Los Angeles have no available test centers within 25 miles.

 

 

From Orange County, the closest test center with availability is 50 driving miles away. 

 

 

 

The closest open seat to San Diego is over 95 driving miles away.

 

 

To manage this issue, students may choose to

1) Select an alternate test date, such as October or November, which may make retaking the exam in case of illness or poor performance impossible before deadlines. If a seat opens at the August test date, these students must pay a $25 cancellation/rescheduling fee to switch test dates, even though they would have gladly signed up for the earlier test straight away.

2) Travel and pay exorbitant costs to have the luxury of taking the SAT. One student in San Diego is traveling to Phoenix to take the SAT in August of 2023 because of test availability issues. Even students in locations such as Orange County or Los Angeles who find a test center may need to travel 1-2 hours by car to reach the center.

3) Continue to call or check the website for cancellations or open seats, an inconvenience to say the least, and in many cases still may not result in a seat on test day. Taking the SAT should be a challenge because of academic rigor, not because of bureaucratic inadequacies that prevent access.

4) Forgo taking the SAT

Even in a world where many public California universities are test blind for the SAT/ACT, demand for the SAT is still high, with the majority of US high school students wanting an opportunity to take the SAT and the vast majority of US colleges accepting the SAT as an important consideration in admissions. But test optional is not truly "optional" if some students can't choose to take the test.  California is projected to graduate 442,000 high school students next year. The "SAT blind" University of California system enrolls less than 50,000 freshman a year. California students need options beyond public California institutions, and having an SAT score can give them an edge to do so. Furthermore, some universities, such as Purdue, Georgetown, and MIT, require the SAT or ACT.  

This issue is one of equity and access, disproportionally affecting low income and under-resourced students. California students in metro areas without access to a car (not to mention plane fare or a hotel room near a distant test center) likely will have no way of taking the August SAT if they have not signed up already. The cost to cancel a later test and then switch to an earlier test also disproportionately burdens less affluent students. Without scores, students are less competitive candidates at the majority of competitive universities that still consider SAT scores in admissions. Furthermore, private schools are often more likely to schedule a "school day" test in California, creating access for their own school, but not for public school students in the area. Wealthy students are more likely to have access to cars or private transportation to travel 1-2 hours to a test site. A lack of test access on National test dates only exacerbates already existing inequalities in college admissions.

With over 2 months before the August exam date, now is the time to act.

We hereby petition the College Board to:

1) Create Pop-Up SAT sites to meet high demand of students wanting to take the exam, whether in hotels, at community colleges or community centers, at libraries or other locations. Any student in a major metropolitan area in California (or any other US state) who signs up before the early SAT registration deadline should be able to find a test seat within a 25 mile radius. We can't leave this up to volunteer school locations alone.

2) Offer a "Waiting List" option for students who cannot find a test center in their desired radius. Allow students to sign up for a later exam (such as October) but be automatically added to an earlier test date (such as August) if space opens within an approved travel radius or at specific test site(s). Don't charge students $25 to cancel a later exam if space opens in an earlier one.

3) Lobby existing sites to offer more seats, and lobby previous SAT test centers to host SAT exams. Speed up approval of any sites that have submitted to be SAT host locations for the August or October 2023 exams from 4-6 weeks to 2 weeks or less.

We furthermore challenge California based high school principals and administrators and community college leadership to:

Contact the College Board (https://collegeboard.tfaforms.net/63) and volunteer to be an additional test site for the August SAT or to add seats to their existing SAT administration in order to bring equity and access to students in their schools and communities. Without access, California students will be at a disadvantage in the college admissions and scholarship selection process.

Not offering the SAT at local schools directly hurts hard working California students, in particular those with fewer resources or limited transportation options.

Don't just sign! Send this petition to your principal and create your own petition for your school! Let's bring more equity to testing now!