Starting today and through the beginning of April, many schools across the country give the SATs and PSATs to their students.  Before the administration of these exams, the College Board asks students many personal questions, without making clear that answering these questions is voluntary, and later sells the information they collect to other organizations and companies at 45 cents per name.  An article about this practice was published in the NY Times last summer.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Education has also advised states and districts that allowing the College Board to ask students certain sensitive questions in school which is then shared with other organizations without parental consent may be illegal, according to three federal laws: FERPA, IDEA and PPRA.

Please ask your children what questions they were asked before taking the SATs or PSATs,  and whether they were informed that answering these questions was optional.  If they provided any personal information you don’t want shared or sold, you can opt out of the Student Search Service on the College Board website, and/or  demand that College Board delete the data.

Also please let us know if you find out that your children were asked certain questions in these pre-test surveys that you consider overly personal or sensitive by emailing us at [email protected]

thanks!