A new Colorado law requires that students get a 470 on the English portion and 500 on the math portion of the SAT for every student graduating in the class of 2021. 

  The score requirements are state mandated to try and create a benchmark statewide. The CollegeBoard benchmark is not compliant with Colorado as they have to be nationwide compliance.

  There is a small part of the HR population that will be affected by this new law. “Most of our student body does fairly well and at least meets the graduation competencies on their SAT, at least based on our current projected numbers,” Keri Stuebinger, assistant principal said. 

  There will be other options for students who do not meet the competencies of the required SAT scores. These options would affect a student’s senior year schedule.

  “The way students will meet competency is through a couple of options. 1 – industry certification through our career tech ed programs. Some of our programs offer an industry certification. The other option is through a capstone program that we will be running through our ACE classes. It is a project-based class where you get to do something kind of similar to what ThunderRidge does,” said Stuebinger.

  There are other options that would go through Arapahoe Community College such as their Accuplacer Test or their work study program. As of right now, there is no option to retake the SAT to have graduation compliance, but there is always more information coming out and getting updated. 

  On the flip side, there are colleges who are not requiring SAT or ACT scores to be sent. Colleges who do not require the scores are called test optional. Melissa Muniz, Post Grad, said,“This is a good option for students with a high GPA, but have test anxiety, so they have a low score. This is also beneficial to show intelligence even though a student has a low GPA.”

Alexandria Tornato Sotelo, Photography Editor