October 15, 2025 • 18 mins
Welcome back to The Inside Scoop! This podcast episode elucidates the pivotal role of standardized assessments, specifically the PSAT and SAT, in facilitating students' college and career readiness. We engage with Kevin Maloney from the College Board, who elucidates the myriad benefits these assessments provide, including access to substantial scholarship opportunities and crucial insights into academic preparedness. Our dialogue underscores the significance of early testing, which not only gauges student readiness but also empowers families with essential tools for navigating the complexities of college applications. Furthermore, we explore the invaluable resources available through the College Board's Big Future program, which offers comprehensive college and career planning assistance. Through this discussion, we aim to demystify the assessment process and equip parents and students with the knowledge necessary to leverage these tools effectively.
Guest:
Kevin Maloney, Senior Director of K-12 State and District Partnerships, College Board
Useful links from the podcast:
Chapters:
- 00:09 - Introduction to the Inside Scoop
- 01:07 - Understanding the College Board and Assessments
- 05:26 - Unlocking Opportunities: The Role of Assessments in College Preparation
- 08:59 - Scholarship Opportunities and Assessments
- 11:12 - Exploring Big Future: A Resource for Students and Parents
- 14:57 - Preparing for the SAT: Resources and Strategies
Podcast Home:
https://the-inside-scoop.captivate.fm/
Cobb Schools on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/@TheRealCobbSchools
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Cobb Sports Podcast:
https://cobb-sports.captivate.fm/episodes
The Cobb County School District:
https://www.cobbk12.org
Takeaways:
- Standardized tests such as the PSAT and SAT are essential for college readiness and career preparation.
- The College Board offers numerous free resources to assist students in achieving their academic goals.
- Students can access over $300 million in scholarship opportunities through participating in assessments.
- Early exposure to assessments provides students with valuable insights into their academic readiness and future paths.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Psats and sats.
What's new in that world?
Coming up next on the Inside Scoop.
Welcome back to the Inside Scoop.
I'm your host, David Owen.
Today we're talking about animportant milestone in every student's
journey.
Preparing for college and career.
Standardized tests like thePSAT or the SAT suite of assessments
(00:24):
equip students and familieswith some powerful tools, whether
your child is in middle schoolor in high school.
Thinking ahead to collegeapps, today's conversation is going
to help you gain some valuable insights.
I'm excited to be joined todayby Kevin Maloney with the College
Board, State and DistrictPartnership Team.
Welcome to the podcast, Kevin.
(00:45):
Thank you, David.
That's a great long title.
Do you have an abbreviationfor that?
We go by stp.
Stp, sdp, db.
That's.
That makes more sense.
It does.
That's usually how.
So College Board has a lot ofentities inside organization and
I work directly with statesand districts to support college
readiness for career readinessfor students.
(01:07):
So the College Board is justkind of a term that everybody has
heard of, but few people trulyunderstand what the College Board
is all about.
We know it has something to dowith the sats.
Can you kind of do?
I guess a primer would be agood description of the College Board,
the SAT suite of assessmentsfor the new parents out there in
(01:30):
particular.
Sure.
College Board has been aroundfor over 100 years supporting educators
and students for the SAT, theAP exams for a very long time.
We're a non profitorganization that is dedicated to
providing access for all students.
Okay.
And those assessments are forwhat specific purpose?
(01:53):
Ultimately?
Sure.
To provide students with thevery best option to be prepared for
college and career readiness.
Whether it's taking anassessment to learn about reading
and writing skills or whetherit's to learn more about specific
content by taking something inAdvanced Placement, really to kind
of help prepare them forwhat's next.
Okay, now I've got a leftfield question for you, so don't
(02:15):
let this freak you out, butyou worked in career readiness.
I know that.
You know, some students willgo to a program like what we have
here in Cobb, ceta, the career.
Don't ask me to figure outwhat those letters are on the moment,
but it's basically helping totrain students to be ready to go
(02:36):
down both paths.
But they think they're goingto go into a career, so they immediately
go into that arena.
But sometimes they do a quickstop by, so to speak, in a.
What a trade school?
It could be.
Yeah, that's really the wrong.
That's an old term, I guess atechnical school.
Technical school, Technical education.
Okay.
And that also requires SAT score.
(02:59):
Absolutely.
Typically, since most of thosetype career programs require certification
exams or, you know, areadiness or a piece, they typically
can use our assessment becauseit's in reading and math, to identify
their skills that are showingreadiness for career.
Okay.
All right.
Well, can you walk us throughsome of the free opportunities?
(03:20):
I know you're not a Cobbperson per se, but you work closely
with our Cobb team, right?
Absolutely.
I am the Cobb county human forthe College Board.
To put it simply, a human is good.
That's always a plus.
I support all the district'sgoals as far as preparing students
for college and career.
(03:41):
We work very closely toprovide specifically the PSAT8.9
for all students here in Cobbcounty in 8th grade in the middle
schools.
That's one opportunity thatunlocks a lot of information and
support for parents to know.
Is my student on track for thePSAT nmsqt, which we'll talk about.
Lots of letters.
(04:01):
Wait, what?
The National Merit ScholarshipQualifying Test, which is actually
taken by 11th graders toqualify for the National Merit Scholarship.
But when they take it earlieron in 10th grade, which is supported
by the Department of Educationthrough the legislator, they also
get access to $300 million inscholarship opportunities.
Oh, wow.
So it kind of unlocks areadiness part, but also scholarship
(04:24):
and also some other tools andresources around kind of college
and career planning, becauseit's a big picture work for the College
Board to make sure studentsknow what's out there for them, to
empower them, to kind of lookinto things.
Okay, so you've alreadyunlocked two key purposes for taking
these assessments, and thatis, first of all, qualifying to get
(04:46):
into an institution of higherlearning, and then the second is
to possibly be able to getsome scholarship funding as a result.
That's really cool.
So you mentioned all of these letters.
And by the way, when I sawthose letters, my first thing that
came to my head was New Mexico something.
I don't know why.
(05:08):
So what other purposes mightthese assessments have?
We typically think of them as.
As preparation for once wegraduate from high school, being
able to go to that next step.
But is that all that thatreally is for, or is there more to
it?
There's more to it.
I think specifically, if we'reTalking about the PSAT8.9 8th grade,
(05:30):
we've opened up a new accesspoint called Big Future School, which
is tied to our Big Futureprogram, which is a free college
and planning tool that allowsstudents to kind of as they take
the assessment in the fallhere in the district, they can then
unlock the ability to learnmore about colleges and careers and
scholarship.
They'll also get scores.
Right?
I know scores are a big partof testing, but that doesn't identify
(05:53):
or solidify who the student is.
It just gives them anopportunity to kind of learn more
about who they are and kind oflean into what that test will do
for them in the future.
Also, something that a lot ofpeople don't know is our tests are
vertically aligned.
And that's just a technical term.
That means the assessmentscore you get in 8th grade would
be the same score you wouldhave gotten on the SAT that day.
Okay, so it's almost likeinflation adjusted.
(06:19):
Absolutely.
No, absolutely.
What you're expected to knowby the time you're in 8th or 9th
grade informs what you expect later.
That's interesting.
I didn't realize that.
And a big part of that too isa lot of students are looking at
colleges when they're younger,in eighth grade, ninth grade, and
they don't really know wherethey want to go or what's appropriate.
By knowing the scores theyhave early on, they can start to
(06:40):
see, oh, I need to improvethese skills to improve my score.
And we have a lot of resourcesto support that too.
Okay.
So it's not just to beatyourself up about it, right?
Absolutely.
And a test doesn't identify.
I mean, it doesn't like, putyou in a box.
Right.
It's just a moment in time.
And you should look at it thatway as an opportunity.
Especially early on whenyou're in middle school and early
high school, as you move into11th, 12th grade, it gets a little
(07:01):
more serious for studentsbecause there's other things going
on, like applications forcolleges and admissions, but early
on, it's really meant to be acheck in.
Okay.
And kind of an unveiling ofthe invisible monster thing.
Right.
Taking away some of themystique and the fear that you might
otherwise have in the sat.
And something the districtdid, I'll just add, was when we jumped
(07:25):
in in Cobb county, was weshifted to a digital assessment.
Cobb county was early to givethe PSAT 8, 9 to 8th graders, which
gave them a really goodpreview of what the digital test
would look like early on.
So now that those samestudents are taking further assessment
with us, whether it's the sat,they've already had a couple of check
in opportunities.
So they were really wellprepared for the digital assessment
(07:46):
when we shifted.
Okay.
Do you see again, a left fieldquestion for you?
But is there any data thatreflects how a student who's been
prepared by the PSAT doescompared to one who has not?
Yes, we have a lot of datathat shows that readiness experience
gives students thecomfortability, but also the awareness
(08:07):
of what kind of skills aregoing to be assessed.
But the best thing thatactually shows students performance
over time is their teachersleaning into teaching them the skills
and the opportunity that'sconnected to the assessments so they
can prepare.
But yeah, there is definitelya clear indication that when students
take our assessments indifferent grade levels, it's building
capacity to do better later on.
(08:28):
Okay, so it's kind of a.
For what we call a formativeassessment in the district.
Yep.
That's awesome because that,that enables you as a parent to be
able to guide your student, orhopefully your student to guide themselves
into areas of learning thatthey might otherwise kind of tend
to avoid.
I would think that's really cool.
(08:49):
So earlier you said that thetesting allows students and families
to be able to pursuescholarship money as well.
Are there any more detailsthat you could provide on that?
Like what do these scholarshipgiving organizations typically look
for in the test scores?
(09:10):
So we have a lot of nonprofitpartners that specifically focus
on providing access for a verybroad group of students.
So we have a couple ways inwhich students can access scholarships
when they test in PSAT.
The NMSQT, the National Meritin 10th and 11th grade.
That does give them directaccess to about $300 million in nonprofit
(09:31):
partners that the students can explore.
But they also have in bigfuture, which we can talk about,
I know we probably will, isthe opportunity for students to actually
look up scholarships and do asearch based on their own filters.
And then a third scholarshipis actually a specific big future
scholarship which incentivizesstudents to go in and use our career
(09:52):
and college planning tools tobuild a college list, look for scholarships,
and as they complete thosesteps, they get entered into drawings.
We've been fortunate here inGeorgia to have a lot of micro winners
of $500 scholarships from that scholarship.
Every bit helps.
And also in the past severalyears, we've had many students like
8 or 9 win $40,000 scholarships.
(10:13):
What?
Right.
It's been crazy.
And those opportunities we'dlove to have for students here in
Cobb, we haven't had a winneryet in Cobb, so hopefully that's
going to happen.
Parents, encourage yourstudents use a Big future.
Yes, please.
Good grief.
Okay, so again, you are afountain of information here.
So for a student or familiesto be able to pursue that scholarship
(10:37):
money As a reiteration here,they have to have had at some point
the NMSQT.
For certain scholarships forcertain partners are looking for
scores.
The 300 million I referencedthose partners.
The scores don't mirror orhave the same selectivity as National
(10:58):
Merit, which is that 11thgrader test.
So it's a much broaderopportunity for students to get access
to scholarships.
But additionally, in BigFuture, we do have an opportunity
for students to look upscholarships regardless of their
taking an assessment with us.
Okay, so you mentioned BigFuture again.
Is that a website?
It's a website.
Go in depth a little more onthat, if you don't mind.
(11:19):
Sure.
So bigfuture.org is the website.
It's really just meant to be acollege and career planning tool
for students.
It provides a career searchwhich aligns back to their PSAT8.9
if they took the assessment.
It also gives them NPSAT,NMSQT and the SAT will all kind of
give them data on theircollege and career journey.
(11:41):
But it's meant to givestudents and parents, if you'd want,
is the opportunity to reallylook into what is out there for my
student.
Whether it's, you want to staylocal for college, how do you fund
that, whether you want to goabroad and study out in a different
state, New Mexico, forexample, as you mentioned, looking
up what does the University ofNew Mexico require, what is the scores,
(12:01):
requirement for sat, what kindof things do I have to have?
So Big Future unlocks.
And it's a free resource,really, the ability to look for colleges,
careers, scholarships.
The Career Interest Survey isreally powerful.
It's a newer feature of theCollege Board site that lets students
kind of see what careers areavailable in their area, but also
how much those careers willafford them.
(12:22):
Okay, so let me try toreiterate some of this stuff for
the sake of clarity.
Sure.
So this Big Futures websitehas tools on it that allow a student's
PSAT scores to be entered inwith perhaps some additional questioning
(12:44):
to help ascertain what thatstudent might be strong in as a career
choice.
Correct.
Wow, that is a huge tool right there.
That's an amazing resource for anybody.
Absolutely.
I'd love to take it now, seeif I might be able to have a good
career at some point.
And we have a special tool forthe PSAT8.9 and NMSQT for in school.
NMSQT National MeritScholarship Qualifying Test.
(13:06):
Those assessments were givenin school, actually give the students
an ability to see the careersthat match up here in Georgia.
And it gives them more depthof information on their answer sheet
or their score report,specifically around what those careers
require as far as a degreegoes, what kind of attainment it
takes, but it's also alignedto the student interest.
So that's a new feature thatwe've included that I think here
(13:29):
in Cobb, when talking toprincipals and schools, they've been
very interested to share thatwith students because we really want
students to kind of beunlocking that empowerment of, like,
what am I doing next?
Why does this matter right nowas they go through this journey from
8th grade through the end ofhigh school?
So this is.
As a parent, I've got a lot of kids.
(13:49):
I've got seven kids and stillgot some in school.
We're working them through, but.
And it's not like they keep failing.
And I just have a.
Anyway, enough about me tohave this sort of a resource to not
only help determine what thestudent might be best at in life,
(14:13):
but also to be able to helpwith all of those financial, just
in some cases, terrifyingforms and information for who requires
what and so forth.
This is an invaluable tool forparents to have.
Absolutely.
So what are some of the freepractice resources that might be
(14:37):
available to students and howdo they work with platforms like,
I think the Khan Academy, andI heard of one called Blue Book,
but the only Blue Book I knowof is for selling used cars.
Yeah, that's a different one.
Yeah.
Okay, so I hope it is.
So tell us more about thatside of the prep.
Sure.
So there's several ways forstudents to Prepare for the PSAT
(15:00):
8, 9, the NMSQT or the SAT.
But one of the main ways isthrough the Bluebook application.
And that's the testing appthat we use for these assessments.
Now that we're a digital test,students also take AP or Advanced
Placement tests on that same platform.
So students might havefamiliarity depending on what they're
doing in school, but that haspractice tests locked into it so
(15:24):
that students can do practice,and then it will give them feedback
on how they did on thoseassessments to do more practice.
Then we have a skills insighttool and a question bank that's open
for students to kind of go inand be like, oh, these are the areas
I want to work on and improve.
Here's some kinds of questionsI can practice to learn more about
why that tool also gives themkind of the answers and the rationale,
(15:47):
which helps them understandwhy they got it right and wrong.
Not just, you know, you didn'tunderstand this.
And here's the answer.
Yeah, that's great.
And then you spoke to KhanAcademy, which has been a long partner
with us for many, many yearsnow, for over a decade.
And they provide very in depththrough their official SAT digital
platform, their prep program,the opportunity for students to kind
(16:08):
of pick up on a mastery growthmindset as early as they want.
But specifically the sat, itallows them to kind of build up foundational
skills and then work towardadvancing their skills.
So for our students in eighthgrade and our younger students, it's
a big, big platform practicefor them to build up all those skills.
Because what we don't want isstudents to go into an assessment
(16:29):
not knowing what's on it, notknowing why they're taking it, and
then just not being feeling prepared.
So there's plenty ofopportunity for them to practice
and prepare.
Yeah.
So half of the battle, I wouldthink, in taking an assessment like
this is just the anxiety, right?
Absolutely.
So familiarity is.
Well, Kevin, thank you so muchfor coming in and sharing these insights.
(16:51):
Again, as a parent, I canappreciate these and I certainly
am going to have my kids lookinto some of these resources.
But before we wrap up, can youtell parents and students where they
can find more information andsome of these resources about the
SAT suite of assessments?
Sure.
The easiest way is to just goto SAT suite College Board.
(17:14):
If you go there, you can alsogo to bigfuture.org just make sure
you're on the college board.
Those two resources areprobably the best ones for parents
to learn one about theassessment or specifically about
the Big Future program.
But both are invaluable for students.
And students can learn moreabout their AP potential too, from
our assessment.
So that tool you'll findlinked there as well so we can figure
(17:36):
out what students courses theywould need to take in high school
to be prepared for thosecollege and career opportunities.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Well, to our listeners, thankyou so much for listening to us.
Joining us on the InsideScoop, all of those links that he
mentioned are going to be inthe description and in the show notes,
so don't panic to try to writeeverything down if you haven't already.
(17:57):
Don't forget to like subscribeand share this episode so that other
parents can benefit from thediscussion we've heard today.
Thank you so much forlistening to the Inside Scoop, a
podcast produced by the CobbCounty School District.
It.
Psats and sats.
What's new in that world?
Coming up next on the Inside Scoop.
Welcome back to the Inside Scoop.
I'm your host, David Owen.
Today we're talking about animportant milestone in every student's
journey.
Preparing for college and career.
Standardized tests like thePSAT or the SAT suite of assessments
(00:24):
equip students and familieswith some powerful tools, whether
your child is in middle schoolor in high school.
Thinking ahead to collegeapps, today's conversation is going
to help you gain some valuable insights.
I'm excited to be joined todayby Kevin Maloney with the College
Board, State and DistrictPartnership Team.
Welcome to the podcast, Kevin.
(00:45):
Thank you, David.
That's a great long title.
Do you have an abbreviationfor that?
We go by stp.
Stp, sdp, db.
That's.
That makes more sense.
It does.
That's usually how.
So College Board has a lot ofentities inside organization and
I work directly with statesand districts to support college
readiness for career readinessfor students.
(01:07):
So the College Board is justkind of a term that everybody has
heard of, but few people trulyunderstand what the College Board
is all about.
We know it has something to dowith the sats.
Can you kind of do?
I guess a primer would be agood description of the College Board,
the SAT suite of assessmentsfor the new parents out there in
(01:30):
particular.
Sure.
College Board has been aroundfor over 100 years supporting educators
and students for the SAT, theAP exams for a very long time.
We're a non profitorganization that is dedicated to
providing access for all students.
Okay.
And those assessments are forwhat specific purpose?
(01:53):
Ultimately?
Sure.
To provide students with thevery best option to be prepared for
college and career readiness.
Whether it's taking anassessment to learn about reading
and writing skills or whetherit's to learn more about specific
content by taking something inAdvanced Placement, really to kind
of help prepare them forwhat's next.
Okay, now I've got a leftfield question for you, so don't
(02:15):
let this freak you out, butyou worked in career readiness.
I know that.
You know, some students willgo to a program like what we have
here in Cobb, ceta, the career.
Don't ask me to figure outwhat those letters are on the moment,
but it's basically helping totrain students to be ready to go
(02:36):
down both paths.
But they think they're goingto go into a career, so they immediately
go into that arena.
But sometimes they do a quickstop by, so to speak, in a.
What a trade school?
It could be.
Yeah, that's really the wrong.
That's an old term, I guess atechnical school.
Technical school, Technical education.
Okay.
And that also requires SAT score.
(02:59):
Absolutely.
Typically, since most of thosetype career programs require certification
exams or, you know, areadiness or a piece, they typically
can use our assessment becauseit's in reading and math, to identify
their skills that are showingreadiness for career.
Okay.
All right.
Well, can you walk us throughsome of the free opportunities?
(03:20):
I know you're not a Cobbperson per se, but you work closely
with our Cobb team, right?
Absolutely.
I am the Cobb county human forthe College Board.
To put it simply, a human is good.
That's always a plus.
I support all the district'sgoals as far as preparing students
for college and career.
(03:41):
We work very closely toprovide specifically the PSAT8.9
for all students here in Cobbcounty in 8th grade in the middle
schools.
That's one opportunity thatunlocks a lot of information and
support for parents to know.
Is my student on track for thePSAT nmsqt, which we'll talk about.
Lots of letters.
(04:01):
Wait, what?
The National Merit ScholarshipQualifying Test, which is actually
taken by 11th graders toqualify for the National Merit Scholarship.
But when they take it earlieron in 10th grade, which is supported
by the Department of Educationthrough the legislator, they also
get access to $300 million inscholarship opportunities.
Oh, wow.
So it kind of unlocks areadiness part, but also scholarship
(04:24):
and also some other tools andresources around kind of college
and career planning, becauseit's a big picture work for the College
Board to make sure studentsknow what's out there for them, to
empower them, to kind of lookinto things.
Okay, so you've alreadyunlocked two key purposes for taking
these assessments, and thatis, first of all, qualifying to get
(04:46):
into an institution of higherlearning, and then the second is
to possibly be able to getsome scholarship funding as a result.
That's really cool.
So you mentioned all of these letters.
And by the way, when I sawthose letters, my first thing that
came to my head was New Mexico something.
I don't know why.
(05:08):
So what other purposes mightthese assessments have?
We typically think of them as.
As preparation for once wegraduate from high school, being
able to go to that next step.
But is that all that thatreally is for, or is there more to
it?
There's more to it.
I think specifically, if we'reTalking about the PSAT8.9 8th grade,
(05:30):
we've opened up a new accesspoint called Big Future School, which
is tied to our Big Futureprogram, which is a free college
and planning tool that allowsstudents to kind of as they take
the assessment in the fallhere in the district, they can then
unlock the ability to learnmore about colleges and careers and
scholarship.
They'll also get scores.
Right?
I know scores are a big partof testing, but that doesn't identify
(05:53):
or solidify who the student is.
It just gives them anopportunity to kind of learn more
about who they are and kind oflean into what that test will do
for them in the future.
Also, something that a lot ofpeople don't know is our tests are
vertically aligned.
And that's just a technical term.
That means the assessmentscore you get in 8th grade would
be the same score you wouldhave gotten on the SAT that day.
Okay, so it's almost likeinflation adjusted.
(06:19):
Absolutely.
No, absolutely.
What you're expected to knowby the time you're in 8th or 9th
grade informs what you expect later.
That's interesting.
I didn't realize that.
And a big part of that too isa lot of students are looking at
colleges when they're younger,in eighth grade, ninth grade, and
they don't really know wherethey want to go or what's appropriate.
By knowing the scores theyhave early on, they can start to
(06:40):
see, oh, I need to improvethese skills to improve my score.
And we have a lot of resourcesto support that too.
Okay.
So it's not just to beatyourself up about it, right?
Absolutely.
And a test doesn't identify.
I mean, it doesn't like, putyou in a box.
Right.
It's just a moment in time.
And you should look at it thatway as an opportunity.
Especially early on whenyou're in middle school and early
high school, as you move into11th, 12th grade, it gets a little
(07:01):
more serious for studentsbecause there's other things going
on, like applications forcolleges and admissions, but early
on, it's really meant to be acheck in.
Okay.
And kind of an unveiling ofthe invisible monster thing.
Right.
Taking away some of themystique and the fear that you might
otherwise have in the sat.
And something the districtdid, I'll just add, was when we jumped
(07:25):
in in Cobb county, was weshifted to a digital assessment.
Cobb county was early to givethe PSAT 8, 9 to 8th graders, which
gave them a really goodpreview of what the digital test
would look like early on.
So now that those samestudents are taking further assessment
with us, whether it's the sat,they've already had a couple of check
in opportunities.
So they were really wellprepared for the digital assessment
(07:46):
when we shifted.
Okay.
Do you see again, a left fieldquestion for you?
But is there any data thatreflects how a student who's been
prepared by the PSAT doescompared to one who has not?
Yes, we have a lot of datathat shows that readiness experience
gives students thecomfortability, but also the awareness
(08:07):
of what kind of skills aregoing to be assessed.
But the best thing thatactually shows students performance
over time is their teachersleaning into teaching them the skills
and the opportunity that'sconnected to the assessments so they
can prepare.
But yeah, there is definitelya clear indication that when students
take our assessments indifferent grade levels, it's building
capacity to do better later on.
(08:28):
Okay, so it's kind of a.
For what we call a formativeassessment in the district.
Yep.
That's awesome because that,that enables you as a parent to be
able to guide your student, orhopefully your student to guide themselves
into areas of learning thatthey might otherwise kind of tend
to avoid.
I would think that's really cool.
(08:49):
So earlier you said that thetesting allows students and families
to be able to pursuescholarship money as well.
Are there any more detailsthat you could provide on that?
Like what do these scholarshipgiving organizations typically look
for in the test scores?
(09:10):
So we have a lot of nonprofitpartners that specifically focus
on providing access for a verybroad group of students.
So we have a couple ways inwhich students can access scholarships
when they test in PSAT.
The NMSQT, the National Meritin 10th and 11th grade.
That does give them directaccess to about $300 million in nonprofit
(09:31):
partners that the students can explore.
But they also have in bigfuture, which we can talk about,
I know we probably will, isthe opportunity for students to actually
look up scholarships and do asearch based on their own filters.
And then a third scholarshipis actually a specific big future
scholarship which incentivizesstudents to go in and use our career
(09:52):
and college planning tools tobuild a college list, look for scholarships,
and as they complete thosesteps, they get entered into drawings.
We've been fortunate here inGeorgia to have a lot of micro winners
of $500 scholarships from that scholarship.
Every bit helps.
And also in the past severalyears, we've had many students like
8 or 9 win $40,000 scholarships.
(10:13):
What?
Right.
It's been crazy.
And those opportunities we'dlove to have for students here in
Cobb, we haven't had a winneryet in Cobb, so hopefully that's
going to happen.
Parents, encourage yourstudents use a Big future.
Yes, please.
Good grief.
Okay, so again, you are afountain of information here.
So for a student or familiesto be able to pursue that scholarship
(10:37):
money As a reiteration here,they have to have had at some point
the NMSQT.
For certain scholarships forcertain partners are looking for
scores.
The 300 million I referencedthose partners.
The scores don't mirror orhave the same selectivity as National
(10:58):
Merit, which is that 11thgrader test.
So it's a much broaderopportunity for students to get access
to scholarships.
But additionally, in BigFuture, we do have an opportunity
for students to look upscholarships regardless of their
taking an assessment with us.
Okay, so you mentioned BigFuture again.
Is that a website?
It's a website.
Go in depth a little more onthat, if you don't mind.
(11:19):
Sure.
So bigfuture.org is the website.
It's really just meant to be acollege and career planning tool
for students.
It provides a career searchwhich aligns back to their PSAT8.9
if they took the assessment.
It also gives them NPSAT,NMSQT and the SAT will all kind of
give them data on theircollege and career journey.
(11:41):
But it's meant to givestudents and parents, if you'd want,
is the opportunity to reallylook into what is out there for my
student.
Whether it's, you want to staylocal for college, how do you fund
that, whether you want to goabroad and study out in a different
state, New Mexico, forexample, as you mentioned, looking
up what does the University ofNew Mexico require, what is the scores,
(12:01):
requirement for sat, what kindof things do I have to have?
So Big Future unlocks.
And it's a free resource,really, the ability to look for colleges,
careers, scholarships.
The Career Interest Survey isreally powerful.
It's a newer feature of theCollege Board site that lets students
kind of see what careers areavailable in their area, but also
how much those careers willafford them.
(12:22):
Okay, so let me try toreiterate some of this stuff for
the sake of clarity.
Sure.
So this Big Futures websitehas tools on it that allow a student's
PSAT scores to be entered inwith perhaps some additional questioning
(12:44):
to help ascertain what thatstudent might be strong in as a career
choice.
Correct.
Wow, that is a huge tool right there.
That's an amazing resource for anybody.
Absolutely.
I'd love to take it now, seeif I might be able to have a good
career at some point.
And we have a special tool forthe PSAT8.9 and NMSQT for in school.
NMSQT National MeritScholarship Qualifying Test.
(13:06):
Those assessments were givenin school, actually give the students
an ability to see the careersthat match up here in Georgia.
And it gives them more depthof information on their answer sheet
or their score report,specifically around what those careers
require as far as a degreegoes, what kind of attainment it
takes, but it's also alignedto the student interest.
So that's a new feature thatwe've included that I think here
(13:29):
in Cobb, when talking toprincipals and schools, they've been
very interested to share thatwith students because we really want
students to kind of beunlocking that empowerment of, like,
what am I doing next?
Why does this matter right nowas they go through this journey from
8th grade through the end ofhigh school?
So this is.
As a parent, I've got a lot of kids.
(13:49):
I've got seven kids and stillgot some in school.
We're working them through, but.
And it's not like they keep failing.
And I just have a.
Anyway, enough about me tohave this sort of a resource to not
only help determine what thestudent might be best at in life,
(14:13):
but also to be able to helpwith all of those financial, just
in some cases, terrifyingforms and information for who requires
what and so forth.
This is an invaluable tool forparents to have.
Absolutely.
So what are some of the freepractice resources that might be
(14:37):
available to students and howdo they work with platforms like,
I think the Khan Academy, andI heard of one called Blue Book,
but the only Blue Book I knowof is for selling used cars.
Yeah, that's a different one.
Yeah.
Okay, so I hope it is.
So tell us more about thatside of the prep.
Sure.
So there's several ways forstudents to Prepare for the PSAT
(15:00):
8, 9, the NMSQT or the SAT.
But one of the main ways isthrough the Bluebook application.
And that's the testing appthat we use for these assessments.
Now that we're a digital test,students also take AP or Advanced
Placement tests on that same platform.
So students might havefamiliarity depending on what they're
doing in school, but that haspractice tests locked into it so
(15:24):
that students can do practice,and then it will give them feedback
on how they did on thoseassessments to do more practice.
Then we have a skills insighttool and a question bank that's open
for students to kind of go inand be like, oh, these are the areas
I want to work on and improve.
Here's some kinds of questionsI can practice to learn more about
why that tool also gives themkind of the answers and the rationale,
(15:47):
which helps them understandwhy they got it right and wrong.
Not just, you know, you didn'tunderstand this.
And here's the answer.
Yeah, that's great.
And then you spoke to KhanAcademy, which has been a long partner
with us for many, many yearsnow, for over a decade.
And they provide very in depththrough their official SAT digital
platform, their prep program,the opportunity for students to kind
(16:08):
of pick up on a mastery growthmindset as early as they want.
But specifically the sat, itallows them to kind of build up foundational
skills and then work towardadvancing their skills.
So for our students in eighthgrade and our younger students, it's
a big, big platform practicefor them to build up all those skills.
Because what we don't want isstudents to go into an assessment
(16:29):
not knowing what's on it, notknowing why they're taking it, and
then just not being feeling prepared.
So there's plenty ofopportunity for them to practice
and prepare.
Yeah.
So half of the battle, I wouldthink, in taking an assessment like
this is just the anxiety, right?
Absolutely.
So familiarity is.
Well, Kevin, thank you so muchfor coming in and sharing these insights.
(16:51):
Again, as a parent, I canappreciate these and I certainly
am going to have my kids lookinto some of these resources.
But before we wrap up, can youtell parents and students where they
can find more information andsome of these resources about the
SAT suite of assessments?
Sure.
The easiest way is to just goto SAT suite College Board.
(17:14):
If you go there, you can alsogo to bigfuture.org just make sure
you're on the college board.
Those two resources areprobably the best ones for parents
to learn one about theassessment or specifically about
the Big Future program.
But both are invaluable for students.
And students can learn moreabout their AP potential too, from
our assessment.
So that tool you'll findlinked there as well so we can figure
(17:36):
out what students courses theywould need to take in high school
to be prepared for thosecollege and career opportunities.
Oh, that's fantastic.
Well, to our listeners, thankyou so much for listening to us.
Joining us on the InsideScoop, all of those links that he
mentioned are going to be inthe description and in the show notes,
so don't panic to try to writeeverything down if you haven't already.
(17:57):
Don't forget to like subscribeand share this episode so that other
parents can benefit from thediscussion we've heard today.
Thank you so much forlistening to the Inside Scoop, a
podcast produced by the CobbCounty School District.
It.
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