College Board

(https://www.collegeboard.org/)

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Created By: College Board

Audience: Students and educators

Focus: Comprehensive higher-education readiness

Big Picture: This is a mammoth web portal for furthering the College Board’s mission of getting students into and graduating from colleges and universities. Students and educators can become site members and have access to online organizational tools, AP and SAT test scheduling and reporting, and much more. Resources are vast, with links to the Board’s various subsidiary programs—including Big Future (https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/) for interactive college-enrollment planning, and ReadiStep (http://readistep.collegeboard.org/), geared toward giving middle-schoolers skills for success in high school and beyond. Current educational news feeds, rich research tools, and Spanish-language content options round out the site’s potent offerings.

Big Challenge Solved: The College Board has smartly constructed its knowledge base as a handful of dedicated, interlinked websites—making exploration much more user-friendly than many college prep sites which are laid out as an overwhelming list of links.

Must-Use: The College Board has partnered with Khan Academy to provide students, teachers, and parents free SAT practice tests and guidance—just click the Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/sat?utm_source=cb&utm_medium=cb418-cb&utm_content=ct&utm_campaign=practice) link from the homepage to easily get started.

Most Unique Tool: ACCUPLACER (http://accuplacer.collegeboard.org/) provides an assessment of math, reading, and writing skills, as well as interactive tools to improve weaknesses. The tech-savvy service provides a for-purchase web app, plus a free one for the iPhone.

Best Middle-School Student Tool: SpringBoard (http://springboardprogram.collegeboard.org/) is a career-readiness portal that targets students in grades 6 and higher—providing them with rigorous math and language arts instruction, assessment tools, and personal accounts of the program’s success.

Best High-School Student Tool: Students considering Advanced Placement classes can use the site’s comprehensive AP tools (http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/home) to educate themselves on what to expect, how to prep for the tests, and what the rewards are.

Protip: Educators should take advantage of the News & Press (https://www.collegeboard.org/press) section, an up-to-date repository of current events and news valuable for counseling sessions and ongoing discussion of student achievement.