Adam Johnson is the lead instructor for test preparation workshops at UTSA. Adam has over 20 years of experience teaching standardized test preparation classes.
After teaching for several years for a leading test-preparation company, Adam taught English and test-preparation in Valencia, Spain. He has consistently scored in the 99th percentile on standardized tests including perfect scores on the GRE and LSAT.
He's not only an expert on the tests that he teaches, but also a devoted and energetic instructor who can communicate strategies to help others Improve their scores.
Since 1969, we've been selecting the right applicants for Bowdoin, using only the materials that we require of you: your transcripts, your writing, and how your teachers talk about you.
This policy allows applicants to decide for themselves whether or not their SAT or ACT results accurately reflect their academic ability and potential. For candidates electing to submit them, test scores will be reviewed along with other indicators of academic ability.
Forty-six percent of students in the Class of 2026 chose not to submit their scores.
Score Suppression
Applicants indicate on their applications whether they would like Bowdoin to review their standardized test results. Applicants also have the option to select some test types and not others for review (for example, a student might choose to use their SAT scores, but not their ACT). Applicants have until the application deadline to suppress their scores.
- For applicants using the Common Application, these questions are located in the Bowdoin-specific questions section of the application.
- For applicants using the Coalition on Scoir application, these questions are located in the Application Questions section.
- For applicants using the QuestBridge Application, these questions are located on a Bowdoin-specific form available in the applicant portal after submitting the application.
Bowdoin will not review selected sections of an SAT or an ACT score (for example, just the Science portion of the ACT). If an applicant chooses to include scores for a specific test type, Bowdoin will review the complete score for that test type.
Superscoring
Bowdoin will "superscore" the SAT. Meaning, the admissions committee will consider the highest Critical Reading, Math, and Writing Scores submitted by an applicant, irrespective of test date.
Bowdoin will NOT combine results from Redesigned and pre-Redesign SAT exams to create a new total score. We will superscore Redesigned and pre-Redesign results separately, considering the highest section and total scores submitted from either set of results.
Bowdoin also superscores the ACT. The admissions committee will consider the highest submitted Composite score and subsection scores, and will also recalculate a new Composite score from subsection scores earned on different test dates.
Score Reports
For students submitting standardized test scores, we will accept scores that are self-reported on the student’s application, reported by the testing agency, or submitted through the self-report form found in the Bowdoin Application Portal. We accept self-reported scores for all applicants.
Bowdoin will verify scores for all enrolling students. Discrepancies between self-reported and official scores may jeopardize a student’s place at Bowdoin.
Official Score Reports
We will accept scores reported on a school transcript or sent to our office by a school counselor or CBO advisor as official. Official score reports may be sent to our office by email, fax, mail, or directly from the testing agency. Our testing codes are: 3089 (College Board) and 1636 (ACT).
Is standardized testing required for certain applicants?
No. Bowdoin College is test-optional for all applicants. Homeschooled candidates can find further information on additional requirements and recommendations on the Homeschooled Students page.
International applicants can find more information about required English proficiency testing on the International Applicant page.
The damage the pandemic inflicted upon children was deep – and it will take a long time to dig out.
Standardized test scores, known as the Colorado Measures of Academic Success or CMAS, show some improvements over last year but learning deficits continue. Many students still aren’t at the academic levels they were before the pandemic, according to newly released results. Most of the data across grades was a mixed bag.
Though officials said last school year had far fewer disruptions, schools had more unfilled positions, and some students and educators are still experiencing social and personal challenges.
It’s the second year since the pandemic that Colorado students took a normal set of standardized tests. Tests were canceled in 2020 and modified in 2021. Third- through eighth-graders took the tests in English and math, while fifth-, eighth- and 11th-graders took the science tests.
“At the state level, we are beginning to see small increases in performance, which gives me optimism,” said Susana Córdova, Colorado Education Commissioner. “It’s a reflection of how hard people are working as well as how difficult it will be to regain momentum given the impact of the pandemic and the disruptions to learning it created.”
Córdova said educators, parents and students’ dedication in recovering academic skills lost during the pandemic is “nothing short of inspiring.”
“At the same time, we can see where things are working and areas where we need to increase our focus and support. Unfortunately, large gaps remain between student groups, which reaffirms my commitment to continue the hard work of eradicating the long-standing disparities in opportunity and achievement.”
Here are the big takeaways from the test results.
Students are rebounding more in math than in English
Overall, English scores bumped up very slightly over last year, with almost 43 percent of children reading and writing on grade level. But it still hasn’t reached the pre-pandemic level of nearly 46 percent. About half the grades dropped in scores from last year and about half increased.
In math, all grades improved over last year. Officials describe it as a “stair step” improvement since the pandemic ended. There were 32.9 percent meeting or exceeding expectations — a 1.4 percentage point jump over last year. It’s still shy of the pre-pandemic 34.7 percent at or above grade level. Third- through fifth-graders almost matched or performed better than 2019, the last test before the pandemic.
Some of that’s due to the fact that there was a more significant drop in math during the pandemic, so there’s more room to grow, according to Joyce Zurkowski, the Colorado Department of Education’s chief assessment officer.
“Our schools and districts exerted a lot of effort to remediate those lost learning opportunities.”
She said disparate impacts in different grades can be due to the age of a child during the pandemic.
However, girls aren’t recovering as fast academically
Boys gained ground on girls in almost every grade in reading and writing and math. Girls still are scoring higher in reading and writing in every grade level and gaps with boys remain — from 6 points in third grade to 13 points in grade eight. But the gaps tightened in 2023 due to better performance by boys.
In math, a subject in which boys historically perform better, gaps widened because the boys tested better. Girls in third through fifth grades fell in performance this year compared to pre-pandemic while boys in those grades increased.
“It's very good news that we're seeing the rebound for boys, but we need to have a better understanding of what's happening with girls in the state,” said Córdova. She noted national research showing that girls struggled more during the pandemic with anxiety and depression, but said why girls slowed down academically isn’t understood yet.
We finally know how some students are doing with new science standards
The state adopted new science standards in 2020. Only three grades take the test. About one in three students is where they should be in grades five and eight, but science knowledge drops by 11th grade, where one in four is on target. But — and this is a big but — fewer than half of 11th graders took the science tests. That means generalized results for the whole grade are hard to pin down. In science, boys perform more strongly than girls in fifth grade but the gap almost disappears by eighth grade.
Pervasive achievement gaps between races and income levels remain
For decades, the state has seen significant achievement gaps between students based on race and ethnicity, disability, family income levels and English-speaking ability. Gaps range from 20 to 46 points.
Asian students outperformed white students on 11 of the 12 tests. The white/Black achievement gap ran between 24 and 31 points depending on the subject. The white/Hispanic gap was nearly identical. The gap between students who qualify for federal free and reduced-price lunch and their wealthier peers is higher – between 27 and 35 points.
“It's clear that we need to double down on addressing the historic gaps between different groups of students,” Córdova said.
More high school students are ready for college English, but not in math.
On the college-entrance exams known as SAT, students have surpassed where they were before the pandemic in reading and writing. Nearly 60 percent of students are on target. But math scores are still 3.8-points below where they were before the pandemic. Just 35 percent are college ready in math. Schools will switch to computer-based SAT tests next year.
Fewer students took the SAT
State officials don’t know for sure why fewer students took the SAT college entrance test but the number has dropped from 92.6 percent in 2019 to 86.6 percent this year. It could be because Colorado’s public colleges are no longer required to have students submit SAT scores for admission.
Participation in the regular CMAS tests was similar to 2022, but still lower than 2019. Grade eight participation dipped below 80 percent.
Multilingual learners are struggling
Another way the state measures students is their academic “growth.” That’s different from a one-time test score. Growth shows how much progress individual students have made over a year compared to their "academic peers." It's good news that all historically disadvantaged groups of students are growing at pre-pandemic levels now, though they still need higher growth levels to close gaps. One exception is multilingual learners.
“That's probably a group of interest that we'll be keeping an eye on,” said Lisa Medler, the department’s executive director of accountability and continued improvement.
For example, students who took the reading and writing test in English saw a 9 percent drop in scores this year compared to 2019, students who took the Spanish version of the test saw a 26 percent drop.
District performances vary widely without a strong trend
There are outliers but test scores, as they have for decades, strongly correlate to the socioeconomic background of students.
Along the Front Range, reading and writing scores ran the gamut — from 14 percent of students on grade level in Adams 14 in Commerce City to a high of 62 percent in Douglas County. Other scores for reading and writing on grade level: Denver — 40 percent; Jefferson County – 51 percent; Cherry Creek — 50 percent; Aurora — 23 percent.
Math scores also ran the gamut among Front Range districts – from 9 percent of students on grade level in Adams 14 in Commerce City to a high of 51 percent in Littleton. Both those districts however, saw among the highest increases in math scores in the Denver metro area. Other scores for math on grade level: Denver – 30 percent; Jefferson County — 39 percent; Cherry Creek — 40 percent; Aurora — 15 percent.
What does this all mean?
State officials say scores provide a roadmap for schools and districts on where to focus. The state will continue supporting all of Colorado teachers who were required to take training in evidence-based reading instruction. This year all K-3 administrators and principals must take the training. The legislature provided a big investment for a grant program for free academic enrichment in math, especially for students who are below grade level. Educators in core content areas who must have their license renewed by 2025 or later must take 45 hours of training for English language learners.
The state will keep distributing the $6.7 million allotted in federal money for high impact tutoring, after-school programming and high-quality math curriculum, Córdova said.
It provides a road map for schools to design a roadmap for improvement, how the department directs resources to different schools, and it gives direction at the state level.
School districts will send families their students individual reports soon.
More education coverage
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This story was updated at 5:30 p.m. to indicate a change in state law regarding tutoring requirements for students who do not pass the STAAR.
On August 16, parents will be able to access their child’s State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores. It’s taken a little longer to tally those scores because students took a redesigned test last year for the first time, and the Texas Education Agency said it would be working with educators over the summer to make sure that the way it determined passing scores jibed with the new test.
Part of the redesign included more open-ended questions, and the test (with few exceptions) was administered online.
Preliminary scores for high schoolers were released on June 30. For kids in grades 3 through 8, scores go out today. Grades 3 through 8 took math and reading tests, with writing embedded in the reading tests. Grades 5 and 8 were tested on their knowledge of science, and eighth graders also took a social studies test. High schoolers took tests for English I, English II, Algebra I, Biology, and U.S. History.
In June, the TEA said high school students passed their STAAR tests in most subjects at a better rate than 2019, which is frequently used as a benchmark because it was prior to COVID-19 disrupting the school year.
Math continues to lag after the pandemic; 84 percent of students approached grade level in 2019 compared to 78 percent in 2023. Biology, English 1, English II, and U.S. History outpaced 2019 figures for students approaching grade level at 89 percent, 71 percent, 74 percent, and 95 percent in 2023. More students mastered English I in 2023 than in 2019, by 2 percent.
If your child is getting their scores Wednesday, here’s what you should know:
- You’ll need to go to the TEA family portal to access results, and you’ll need an access code provided by your child’s school to view their scores.
- Once you are logged in, you’ll see raw and scale scores—raw scores show how many questions the test-taker answered correctly, and the scale scores show how well they did according to state standards. The best scale score is “masters,” followed by “meets grade level” and then “approaches grade level.” “Did not meet grade level” is the lowest score.
- “Approaches grade level” means that with tutoring and other support, a student is on pace to reach grade level in the next year. Students that did not meet grade level may need more assistance to stay on pace with his or her peers. At its simplest explanation, anything from “approaches grade level” and above is considered passing.
- If a student doesn’t meet grade level requirements on a STAAR test, their school will be required to offer 15 to 30 hours of tutoring. Students in grades 3 through 8 won’t be held back a grade for not meeting grade level requirements, although parents can always decide to have a child repeat a grade or a specific course, or even take it in summer school. Passing the end-of-course assessments is a requirement for graduation, but students who don’t pass can ask for an individual graduation committee to review the body of their work to determine if they should graduate.
Throughout the spring, a lot was made of the TEA’s “zone of uncertainty,” how the agency would determine which scores would be considered approaching grade level and which would be considered failing. Districts have had access to preliminary raw scores since May, the TEA says, so that they can determine which students needed summer school or other tutoring options.
It’s likely in most districts that students at the lower end of that zone of uncertainty were also encouraged to take advantage of the support their school offered over the summer.
It’s also going to make comparing the data gleaned from all those scores more difficult to interpret. It won’t be an apples-to-apples comparison to last year, because the test is different, and the benchmarks are different.
“What we don’t know is, did they need to get the same number of items correct or did they adjust that downward, and they didn’t have to get the same number of items correct to get that score?,” University of Houston education policy professor Duncan Kllussman told Houston Public Radio in June. “So, we really don’t know right now how to really compare it to 2022.”
But scores aren’t the only zone of uncertainty for school districts this year. The state’s A-F accountability scores also were refreshed, despite 233 school districts and advocacy groups asking the TEA to pause it.
Last year, the agency announced its plan to recalibrate the program, which was adopted a little more than five years ago. The program gives a letter grade to each district and all of its schools. The refresh would update the “cut” scores for College, Career, and Military Readiness (or CCMR), and many educators worry that change will drop districts’ scores a letter grade or more even if performance has improved.
“Cut” scores distinguish between performance levels. They are used to classify students into categories that assess how close they are to mastering the benchmark, and how close districts are overall at helping students make progress on those benchmarks.
When the A-F grades were adopted, many public school students were not ready for college, a job, or the military at graduation as judged by the TEA.
Those results have improved in the five years since implementation, and the state’s refresh proposes increasing requirements by as much as 47 percent.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath told state lawmakers this spring that it is all but certain that many districts will see their accountability scores drop, but that the updates were needed to make sure schools are always working to Improve outcomes.
A letter from school districts in March said the sudden change would also countermand what the A-F system was designed to do: Provide easy-to-understand information for the public to know about how their schools are performing. The change, they say, will create “will create the misconception that high performing schools are drastically declining,” even if performance actually improved.
“No public relations campaign from the TEA will be adequate to combat the misperception that our schools are suddenly worse than they were last year,” the letter says.
Last year, Dallas ISD earned a B, and almost 75 percent of Texas schools earned an A or B. In data provided to the Dallas Morning News, Dallas ISD says that if the new rules were applied to last year’s scores, the district would have dropped to a C, and the district would have four times the number of middle and high schools that scored a D or F.
Morath told reporters the TEA will publish “what if” scores for 2022 alongside the 2023 grades.
“We want to make sure that we provide an accurate year-over-year performance picture so that parents can have that information to help inform them in terms of how they support their kiddos,” he said.
The 2023 A-F ratings will be released to the public on September 28.
Author
Bethany Erickson
View ProfileBethany Erickson is the senior digital editor for D Magazine. She's written about real estate, education policy, the stock market, and crime throughout her career, and sometimes all at the same time. She hates lima beans and 5 a.m. and takes SAT practice exams for fun.
Nationally, girls outperformed boys in writing, with better average scores in every year group. But boys continued to outperform girls in numeracy, including in year 5, where 6 per cent fewer girls achieved the exceeding category.
An average of 9.8 per cent nationwide, across all year levels and assessments, needed additional support, 23 per cent were developing, 50.4 per cent were strong and 15.1 per cent were exceeding.
In Victoria, an average of 7.1 per cent of students were in the lowest category, 21.8 per cent were in the developing category or “working towards expectations”, 52.6 per cent were strong and 16.4 per cent exceeding expectations.
Grattan Institute education program director Jordana Hunter said the new benchmarks painted a clearer picture of standards and gave Australia the wake-up call it needed, particularly for First Nations students, where almost two-thirds fell below proficiency.
Hunter said the results reinforced the need for the Victorian government to follow NSW and introduce year 1 phonics screening checks – with one in four year 3 students marked as below proficiency in reading.
“Governments need to do much more to encourage teachers to adopt explicit approaches to teaching key aspects of literacy and numeracy in primary school in particular because we know it gets harder and harder to catch students up over time,” she said.
Victoria’s best results were in year 5 reading, where 24.4 per cent of students were exceeding expectations, and year 7 spelling, where it was 21.8 per cent. There were also considerable numbers exceeding in year 5 spelling, 21.7 per cent and year 3 reading, 21.2 per cent.
Grammar and punctuation were problematic at all Victorian year levels, with around one third of each group falling into the bottom two categories. In year 3, 10.4 per cent of students were in the lowest category for grammar, while 29.7 per cent were marked developing and only 9.7 per cent exceeding.
More than a third, 39.5 per cent, of grade 9 students also performed below proficiency in writing.
More than 65 per cent of Victorian students were marked in the strong or exceeding categories in most assessments, except grade 3 grammar, 57.5 per cent; grade 9 writing, 63.8 per cent; and grade 9 grammar, 58.4 per cent.
State Education Minister Natalie Hutchins said the “phenomenal results” were “a tribute to the extraordinary work and efforts of Victorian kids, teachers, principals, parents and carers”.
Students sat this year’s NAPLAN tests in March instead of May, allowing teachers to access data earlier as part of the testing overhaul. A record 4.4 million online tests were submitted by more than 1.3 million students at 9390 campuses and schools across Australia.
David de Carvalho, chief executive of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, said the results continued to highlight disparities of students from non-urban areas, of Indigenous heritage and those with low socio-economic backgrounds.
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Only 30 per cent of students in very remote schools were rated as strong or exceeding in any assessment or year level, while at least 60 per cent of students in major city schools were strong or exceeding.
The Centre for Independent Studies’ director of education, Glenn Fahey, said previously low national minimum standards had masked “a long tail of underperforming students”.
“The new benchmarks for NAPLAN are better aligned with international tests and show us that we have struggled to serve struggling learners,” he said.
“The challenge now for education systems is to systematically define and provide the additional support that the new NAPLAN reporting tells us that many students need.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the next step was assisting students who needed more support.
“The evidence shows if you have fall behind at school it’s really hard to catch up,” he said.
Changes to the NAPLAN testing were recommended by an independent review in 2020.
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