What's Trending?

Don’t have time to keep up with the ever-changing world of college admissions? The Current Trends and Future Issues committee is here to help! Visit our committee’s page on pcacac.org to stay up-to-date with all the news from the profession. We update our library of articles and resources several times a year. Here are a few recent articles:

• 10 Admissions Trends for 2015: Nothing in admissions moves at the speed of revolution. But we still expect to see the process evolving, with long-term trends intensifying. Here are the ten trends that the writers at Story2 expect to dominate the coming year. 

• A Harder SAT: CollegeBoard release foreshadows the most challenging test to date:
  In late December, the College Board writers released the most comprehensive problem set to date drawn from the new SAT and PSAT, providing some “flesh and bones” to the test specifications released last April. The level of difficulty and sophistication of numerous test items was surprising. If this practice set is an accurate reflection of the new test in development, it will be hardest SAT we've ever seen, and significantly harder than the ACT.

• Millennials' WeakSkills Threaten America's Competitiveness:
  “While it is true that, on average, the more years of schooling one completes, the more skills one acquires, this report suggests that far too many are graduating high school and completing post secondary educational programs without receiving adequate skills,” writes Irwin Kirsch, Director of ETS’s Center for Global Assessment, in the report’s preface. “If we expect to have a better educated population and a more competitive workforce, policymakers and other stakeholders will need to shift the conversation from one of educational attainment to one that acknowledges the growing importance of skills."

The authors report that average scores for U.S. millennials were lower than in many other countries and ranked at the bottom in numeracy and PS-TRE. More worrisome is the fact that the youngest segment of the U.S. millennial cohort (16- to 24-year-olds), who could be the labor force for the next 50 years, also ranked last in numeracy and among the bottom countries in PS-TRE.

If you have something you’d like to contribute, please send it to David Hamilton, CTFI chair, at dhamilton@smrhs.org.