Colorado is ranked the 30th in the country for education, due to students college readiness, graduation rates and schools’ quality overall; therefore, it would be crazy if Colorado had some of the highest expectations for our High-Schooler’s Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT), right?

The SAT is used for colleges to see where the students place on a 1600 point scale. Most colleges take an abundance of things in to consideration that students take part in other then just their SAT scores. Clubs, sports, classes taken and grades that were received are all other factors that colleges take value in when considering a potential student.   

Homework, tests, quizzes, sporting events and friends are all things that people have concerns and stress about in high school, and the last thing that students need is a fear about the possibility of not being able to graduate because of inability to score well on the SAT. The State of Colorado, decided to add a certain SAT score to the list of expectations that High-Schoolers must meet in order to graduate.

The State of Colorado implemented these requirements, because if they did not Colorado could potentially lose their funding for schools and that is the last thing that Colorado needs. The funding for schools is set up by how much the local government provides from property tax and fundraising efforts, although the money has to get distributed among the schools.  The website Colorado.gov predicts that Colorado ranks between 39th and 47th nationwide in Educational funding.

The class of 2021 is the first class that has scores established that they must reach in order to graduate High-School, of course there are alternate tests and plans for students to graduate. The scores that are expected 2021 students are cumulative score of 890 broken down by a 430 in English and a 460 in math. Although the future classes to graduate have increased expectations, the class of 2022 must receive a composite score 970 broken down by a 470 in English and a 500 in math.

While many may argue that the scores that students must receive are very low and easy to achieve, but the fact that Colorado is one of the first states to establish these requirements is ridiculous considering its ranking on education. Even the highest education schools do not have these requirements in place for students yet. If the plan was for all states to enlist these scores at one point, we should have started with the schools that ranked higher on education and then see how it went with them, such as Massachusetts or New Jersey rating highly in the education department. Then based off of how those school’s do, different states can fragmently incorporate these requirements.

Put yourself in the position of someone with a learning disability, walking into High-School with the mindset of knowing that school is already going to be one of the hardest things they will ever do, and the additional stress of potentially not being able to graduate is mentally defeating. While there may be “alternative plans,” for them to graduate they could potentially feel isolated from their class and feel as if they are not good enough to graduate the same way everyone else. Which that is reason enough as to why Colorado should have never enforced these unfair SAT score requirements.

While these scores may be considered “low,” they will be increasing with each class, and so will the expectations. The class of 2021, have a lower score expectations than the class of 2022, and freshman will tell sophomores how lucky they are to have lower score expectations, then them. Seniors and Juniors will laugh and say how unlucky the classes of 2021 and 2022 are.

Colleges such as New York University, Cornell, Pitzer, Arizona State University and George Washington University do not require SAT scores as they believe that transcripts, extracurriculars and Advanced Placement (AP) courses taken and the AP tests show more about a student then the SAT; thus, the idea of High-Schoolers expecting more from their students then some of the most prestigious colleges is ridiculous.

In a few years, the scores will probably be expected to be higher than the scores are now and students may not be able to “graduate” according to the requirements and Colorado will have a problem. They may have to mend the requirements due to the strenuous expectations and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

If you are a Colorado resident and agree that students should be able to graduate for their hard work and grades all throughout high school instead of one test (SAT) out of hundreds that we have taken throughout our high-school career, then consider contacting the Colorado state legislatures and voice your thou