Host: What is the history of the SAT?

Laura Rheinauer: Well, in 1900 a group of 12 college Presidents from some of the leading Universities at the time and still today, got together to form the Educational Testing Board and they decided we need to come up with a set test that's going to force all of the New England private boarding schools to come up with a uniform curriculum. Well, that never penned out but the first college boards were administered in 1901. In 1948, it officially, the Educational Testing Service formed a branch in Princeton, New Jersey where it still is today. Also, another branch was out in Berkley, California. The goal at that time in the 40s and the 50s was to get the University of California to become the one University system that would force everyone to take the SAT and thus become the leading clients of the Educational Testing Service in the College Board. Officially, that happened in 1960 and colleges and Universities really fell in the line and followed soon and now for the most part, pretty much, every college and University in the country requires a standardized test. In 2005, the newest version of the SAT was unveiled and that included a writing section. That was amidst concerns that the SAT really wasn't measuring all of students' abilities especially, in the areas of writing and the rest is history.