Over a month ago, I released two blog posts about how standardized testing - the ACT and SAT specifically -- are changing given COVID. Test dates were being cancelled or postponed for much of the spring. As of today, the summer dates of June ACT and SAT have also been canceled and both agencies are looking into summer and fall alternatives.
Uncertainty and fear rule our world right now, and to imagine a mass of teenagers crowding into a building to sit next to each other for three or more hours. To me, that sounds, well, dangerous. We have no idea who’s infected and who’s not, and even when we do climb out of quarantined social distancing, most of us will happily want to be around our friends and family, not a bunch strangers.
So, what do I think? I think both tests will be given remotely throughout the late summer and into the early fall. Virtual proctoring companies like TopHat that can watch students online with web-cameras will play a major role in how tests are administered over the next half of this year. And once they are a success, standardized testing with a pencil, answer sheet and filling in bubble letters will be forever changed.
