As an aspiring student hoping to become greater things in life, reach goals most wouldn’t dream of and continue education for an important degree, knowing an organization is out there, who’s main purpose is to encourage college readiness and develop standardized tests to rank each student’s academic skill level is a comfort and privilege in today’s day and age. One such organization is The College Board. The College Board is an American non-profit organization established in December 1899 to enhance access to higher education as the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). Even though the College Board may not be a college association, it operates an organizational membership system, comprising of over 6,000 schools, colleges, universities, and other academic organizations.
The organization’s goal was to ‘ implement and publish a declaration of the field to be covered and the goals to be followed by secondary school educating in these subjects and an evaluation suitable as a test for college admission: Chemistry, English, Physics, History, Mathematics, etc. In addition to administering evaluations to which fees are billed, the College Board offers resources, information, and services for students, families, schools, and universities in the fields of college preparation, recruiting and enrollment and financial assistance. It is partially funded by grants from numerous foundations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation leading to 2009.
The history of the SAT is so fundamental that it began as early as 1926. The army started using experimental ‘psychological’ and ‘intelligence’ assessments during the First World War, conducting more than two million soldiers and sailors tests. After the war, officials of university admissions started exploring how to use intelligence screening in the admission process. In 1924, a psychologist who had been involved in developing the military evaluations, Carl Campbell Brigham was appointed to lead a psychological research committee on the College Board, resulting in the implementation of the first psychological examination of the College Board, called the Scholastic Aptitude Test in 1926. The exam consisted of two sections: the first, oral and linguistic aptitude measured, and the second, mathematical and scientific aptitude was measured. Before 1941, when travel restrictions curtailed the movement of exam students, essays were part of the tests. Essays were re-established in 2005 and ‘ Achievement ‘ assessments (later referred to as SAT II: Subject Tests and eventually SAT Subject Tests) aimed at assessing the knowledge of applicants that were often conducted at test sites after the SAT exam.
The College Board also developed and oversaw U.S. military assessments during World War II to test the ability and potential of seniors to serve as soldiers, technicians, and other professional technical positions for high school seniors. In 1944, the SAT was used as an admission method by only 15 percent of American schools, but the 1950s and 1960s would be generations of tremendous growth for the College Board as the SAT became the default college admission test.
