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College Readiness Product Development and Office of Academic Initiatives

Free SAT Publication Available

  • Get free copies of 20 Outstanding SAT Essays; call Customer Service at (212) 713-8165
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Responsibilities and activities

The College Readiness Product Development and Office of Academic Initiatives Department maintains close relations with the product development groups within the College Board and with the nation's academic community, and consults regularly with academic representatives and faculty of College Board member institutions. These relationships help the staff successfully fulfill the responsibilities and activities described below.

College Readiness System

The department supports the development of a College Readiness System by:

  • Developing the College Board Standards for College Success™ in three subject areas: English language arts, mathematics and statistics, and science
  • Developing formative assessments for the SpringBoard® program
  • Assisting the AP® Program in its redesign of specific courses and assessments
  • Working with ETS to develop a college readiness test for eighth-grade students

Academic Advisory Committees

The department manages the work of the seven Academic Advisory Committees—Mathematical Sciences, English, Science, World Languages, Arts, History, and Social Sciences—so that each committee can provide guidance to the College Board on academic policies, programs, and services in its respective area.

SAT® Program

The department works with the SAT® Program by:

  • Reviewing all reading passages, test items, and essay prompts prior to pretesting
  • Coordinating the work of the three SAT Development Committees (Critical Reading, Mathematics, and Writing), a task that includes the development of test specifications and the review of all test forms prior to administration
  • Coordinating the work of the SAT Essay Rangefinding Committees as they select appropriate anchors for each writing prompt used during an administration

CLEP®, ACCUPLACER®, and SAT Subject Tests™

The department supports the activities of the CLEP, ACCUPLACER, and SAT Subject Tests programs by:

  • Attending test development meetings
  • Reviewing and editing related materials
  • Writing content for test preparation publications

State Outreach, Relationship Development, and EXCELerator™

The department supports the goals of the State Outreach Department, the Relationship Development Department, and the EXCELerator program by developing alignment documentation between the academic standards for each of the states and the College Board Standards for College Success.

Staff and publications

The department is staffed by experts in the areas of English language arts, mathematics, science, and world languages. Most also have extensive experience in test development and academic instruction at the secondary and postsecondary levels. The department also maintains a catalog of scholarly reports and books. See the next sections for a complete listing of the department's personnel and these publications.

Now available: 20 Outstanding SAT Essays

Free copies of 20 Outstanding SAT Essays are available by contacting Customer Service at (212) 713-8165. This publication is designed to showcase the terrific writing students are doing on the SAT Reasoning Test. It is a collection of actual student essays that received top scores on the June 2005 SAT. Each of these essays addresses the same essay prompt, and each is an outstanding piece of writing, but the similarities end there. The 20 essays reflect the wide range of points of view, types of evidence, organizational strategies, and writing styles used by high-scoring students. Teachers are invited to use this free publication, which features reproductions of original handwritten essays along with commentary and an index, to assist them in teaching their students to write effectively for the SAT and beyond.

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