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Students in Colorado will be able to graduate with lower SAT math scores for a limited time, but it won’t be any easier

Fewer Colorado high schoolers met the state’s new Digital SAT graduation requirements in 2024. Lowered score requirements aim to compensate for the test’s learning curve.

The College Board of Education transitioned to the Digital SAT in 2024, which saw a dip in math scores throughout the country.
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Students will now be able to graduate with lower SAT math scores following the switch to digital testing.

The Colorado Board of Education unanimously voted to temporarily lower the SAT math score required for high school graduation during their Wednesday meeting

The vote will allow students to test under these new SAT graduation guidelines for the next two years — after which the board will reevaluate student performance and decide if the requirements need further revision.



The College Board of Education nationally transitioned to the Digital SAT in 2024, which is taken by all 11th graders in Colorado. Formerly administered on paper, the new test also updated parts of its content, which influenced the way scores could be realistically compared with past results. 

In response to the 2024 preliminary test results shared in June, which showed a dip in math scores, the Colorado Board of Education voted to adjust the PSAT/SAT accountability targets as appropriate to account for changes in the digital version of the test. Three months later, they voted to change graduation guidelines for required scores. 




The guidelines were first implemented for the 2022 graduating class and were based on requirements selected by local school boards from the State Board of Education’s “Menu of Options,” which outlines different measures of English language arts and mathematics and the necessary cut scores to demonstrate competency. 

Students who fail to demonstrate competency in one or both subjects on the SAT aren’t automatically held back from graduating. Rather, they can choose to demonstrate competency via one of the 10 different menu options or retake the SAT for a higher score. In 2022-23, 82% of districts reported using the SAT as a measure for competency

SAT graduation requirements in Colorado 

Current SAT scores required for graduation are set as 470 out of 800 for reading, writing, and communicating, and 500 out of 800 for mathematics.  

The board’s vote will keep the same score minimum for reading, writing and communicating while bringing down the required math score to 480 — the argument being that it better approximates the percent of students who met the required score in 2023. 

The department’s proposed adjustments are based on determined equivalent scores on the 2024 Digital SAT to the 2023 SAT; in other words, adjustments are based on which cut scores would result in a similar number of students meeting expectations in 2024 compared with 2023. 

The changes approved by the board members are a combination of two strategies, described by Colorado Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Alyssa Pearson as “short-term change and then long-term investigation for alignment.” Rather than updating the required scores indefinitely for all students, only students graduating in 2024-25 and 2025-26 will be measured against the newly updated minimums. In the meantime, this department will work with higher education institutions to investigate a proficiency equivalent for future graduating classes.  

“As we go down that road, we’ll have the ability to have further conversations when that familiarity (with the Digital SAT) is built up,” Chief Assessment Officer Joyce Zurkowski said during the meeting. 

This outcome was selected from four possible options – one of which consisted of leaving SAT score requirements as they have been historically. 

Pearson noted, however, that keeping the same SAT graduation guidelines would mean that approximately 3,451 students would not meet the competency requirements via the Digital SAT in mathematics for 2024. Compared to 45% of students who met the cut-score in 2023, only 39.4% would meet the mathematics score in 2024. 

With the new math minimum, 45.5% of Colorado students who took the SAT in 2024 will meet the graduation requirements — a percentage significantly closer to before the new SAT was implemented. 

Concerns over student performance 

Board Member Angelika Schroeder initially expressed concerns with lowering scores any further, though ultimately said she would be supporting the motion. 

“I’m extremely reluctant to ever lower our math cutoff because I think it’s pretty darn low anyway,” she said. “I hesitate to graduate kids who are not math proficient.” 

Zurkowski explained that lowering the math score requirement with the Digital SAT doesn’t directly equate to lowering expectations but rather better-aligns those testing markers with existing expectations in response to the challenges of the new testing format and content. 

“We started to get those calls early summer (from districts) saying, ‘What are we supposed to be telling our kids as they started to receive scores?'” she said. “I think there were a large number of kiddos who thought they were going to meet that (requirement) through the SAT, and they had information as ninth graders indicating that they might meet that. … And what happened when they took that assessment in spring as 11th graders, those predicted scores that they had as ninth and 10th graders isn’t what they actually saw.” 

“It may be that a 500 on the Digital SAT actually represents an increase in what your expectations are,” she continued. “So as you sit there and make your decisions about what is most fair to this year’s seniors, I think you need to take that into consideration.” 

Board Member Lisa Escárcega compared the shift in math results with the learning curve that several districts experience when implementing new curriculums or tests, and acknowledged that several other states have also seen a difference in scores after implementing the Digital SAT. 

“I want to make sure that we’re not negatively impacting Colorado students who weren’t expecting this, given that we had some unusual results that came as a surprise — not just in Colorado but across the country,” Board Chair Rebecca McClellan said. 

Of the other states that require all juniors to take the SAT, Board Member Steve Durham said that the majority saw scores go down after implementing the Digital SAT. Colorado scores went down 4.1%, while states like Delaware, Indiana, and New Hampshire saw scores go down by 5% or more. 

“I think the data now confirms that the most likely reason for the differential and the outcome is due to a change in the test rather than a change in student performance,” he said. “I think re-norming (cut scores) for this purpose for graduation, at least for a short period of time, is an appropriate action to take.”

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