College Board releases more detail on ideas behind the new version of the SAT  — and some sample questions.

Let’s hope they’re better than those we have reported for Common Core!

Inside Higher Ed’s Scott Jaschik files this report:

Today, the College Board is releasing much more detail about the thinking behind new sections of the test, and some samples of questions. The College Board cautioned that it continues to test the validity of various approaches and specific questions, so these approaches could change before the new test is used in 2016. But there is more detail than there was in March — and that is likely to cause much discussion about the changes.

Consider the change in the essay question. Under the current version of the test, students respond to an essay prompt about some broad philosophical question, and the students are judged based on their form — with no penalty for inaccurate assertions. The new approach, according to the backgrounder released by the College Board, focuses on “students’ ability to analyze source texts and, more broadly, to understand and make effective use of evidence in reading and writing.”

…The College Board makes a case in the materials that even multiple-choice questions — such as “evidence-based reading” passages — require more of students than the past versions of the test. For example, students could be asked to read (in the example from this portion of the test) the remarks from Representative Barbara Jordan in 1974 as the House Judiciary Committee considered whether to impeach President Nixon.

A question students would be asked might be:

The stance Jordan takes in the passage is best described as that of:

A. an idealist setting forth principles.
B. an advocate seeking a compromise position.
C. an observer striving for neutrality.
D. a scholar researching a historical controversy.

To get to the correct answer of A, the College Board says, “students need to have a sense of the whole passage and to look for clues to Jordan’s point of view within it.”

Similar examples and explanations are available on the various other sections of the SAT at the College Board website found in the link in the second paragraph of this article.

The College Board provided advance access to these examples and explanations to reporters only on the condition that they not be shared with any potential source before today, so Inside Higher Ed is unable to include here comments of outside experts who might review the materials (but encourages your reactions in the comments section).