The College Board has nullified a number of Niles West SAT scores from the school-administered SAT exam taken on April 12, 2023. These scores may not be used for college admissions, scholarships or other organizations. It is not yet clear how many students have been affected. 

School leaders claim that the root of the problem involves College Board accommodations, specifically state accommodations that were not openly stated along with the nation-wide SAT tests.

“There must have been a mix-up at the actual College Board site where the students who took the test here were registered as students with accommodations even if they did not [have any accommodations]. Because that mix-up happened at the College Board, they registered many tests as non-sendable because they were supposed to be taken with accommodations, even though they weren’t,” College and Career Assistant Ryan Tucker said.

According to Assistant Principal for Student Services Dr. Antwan Babakhani, there are numerous students experiencing this issue, and it has not been confirmed yet if every student who took the exam is being affected or not. The conflict seems to only be affecting students at Niles West, not at Niles North.

“From our understanding, this is a College Board issue, a systems issue, and we are trying to figure out what’s going on. So, between yesterday, us discovering the problem and today, kind of going into problem-solving mode, we are trying to see what’s up. Our goal is for our students not to take this exam again. Our goal is for the College Board to fix their error,” Babakhani said.

The issue was initially discovered by students who were trying to send their scores to colleges as part of the application process. Students saw an alert on their College Board accounts reading, “These scores are not college reportable and are only used by states and districts for educational purposes. They shall not be sent to colleges, scholarship programs, or other organizations.”

“Last weekend I was trying to send my SAT scores to colleges. I noticed that I wasn’t able to send them so I looked a little into it and I saw my scores were non college-reportable. It’s pretty bad for me because I studied really hard for the first SAT so I would only have to take it once and, I mean I did pretty well, so that would be a big boost to my college admissions. I think it’s really unfair that I won’t be able to submit my score,” senior Jonathan Lou said.

Lou and College and Career Counselor Daniel Gin were on the phone with the College Board in the College and Career Resource Center for around two hours on Thursday. Lou said that the issue was not resolved at the end of the phone call.

Although some seniors do not plan on submitting their test scores, students still sympathize with those who are depending on scores.

“It’s not only affected me but also everyone in my grade, and without our scores we’re less likely to get accepted into some schools. Personally, I’m not that mad about it because I wasn’t planning on sending my scores to most schools anyway but I did want to submit it to state colleges like UIUC [University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]. But for people who got really good scores that were close to 1600, I understand why they were so frustrated,” senior Sabrina Nur said. 

During fourth period Friday, Babakhani sent out an email to seniors and their guardians addressing the situation.

“Rest assured that we are actively working on resolving these issues to the best of our abilities. While the ultimate responsibility for the SAT test administration lies with the College Board, we are dedicated to doing everything within our power to support our students and advocate for their best interests,” Babakhani said in his email.

Per the communication from Babakhani, students who are seeing the alert from College Board should fill out this form: Non-College Reportable Form.

Superintendent Thomas Moore, also the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the College Board, addressed student concerns and expressed uncertainty around causes and possible outcomes.

“Don’t freak out. I am very confident this is all going to be figured out because it’s such an odd, unique issue since it doesn’t seem like it’s an issue at North, and it doesn’t seem like an issue in the state. It’s something we are trying to get to the root of… I don’t believe this should have a lingering impact,” Moore said.

Moore strongly advises against students registering for another SAT test or paying any additional fees to the College Board in hopes of this issue being resolved soon. 

Senior Asma Patel ended the school day with concerns about her college applications.

“Everyone’s saying ‘don’t panic,’ but it’s hard not to panic when this could severely impact my admission to certain colleges. All of the people I’ve spoken to are experiencing the same issue. It’s really unfortunate,” Patel said.