State College Area cancels SATs scheduled over next 2 weeks. Here’s why — and what comes next
A week before students were set to take the SATs, the State College Area School District announced it was canceling two testing days due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.
According to the district, which made the announcement Monday on Facebook and sent letters home Friday, the SATs set to be held both this Saturday and next Saturday — Sept. 26 and Oct. 3 — at the high school have been canceled. The district intimated it tried to hold the tests with only State College students but the College Board, which oversees registration and testing procedures, would not allow that.
“Due to the volume of students from outside of our area who registered to take the SAT at State High, we are not comfortable administering the exam in our school while our district remains in full-remote status due to COVID-19,” a statement from the district read on Facebook.
It was not immediately clear how many students, both State College and non-State College, were impacted by the decision. A district spokesperson did not immediately return a phone message and email from the Centre Daily Times seeking comment.
According to SCASD’s open letter, State High remains a designated testing site Dec. 5 — and it’s currently attempting to earn approval to be a testing location again Nov. 7.
Those who were initially scheduled to take the test this Saturday or next Saturday will receive a message from the College Board with further details. SCASD’s counseling office will also provide further information in the coming weeks on the Nov. 7 and Dec. 5 dates.
State College has eschewed face-to-face instruction as Centre County has fast become a hot spot for the coronavirus. According to the state’s early warning monitoring system, as of Friday, the county holds the state’s worst COVID-19 incidence rate — cases per 100,000 residents over seven days — with 322.5, a much higher rate than second-worst York County at 85.2. Centre County also has the state’s highest positivity rate (12.1%) and has experienced more than 1,000 positive cases this month, most of which came as a result of Penn State’s reopening.
From March to mid-August, before the official Penn State student move-in, the county had 392 total cases of the coronavirus. Since then, it’s added another 1,444 — with most coming in the State College area.
