Piedmont will host the SATs for the first time on March 17, 2025.
For years there have been requests to bring the SATs close to home. Recently parents have been trying to have PHS host the SATs in hopes of making the testing process easier, said Parent Club president Nairobi Kim.
Others echoed this sentiment.
“Parents have been asking PHS to host the SAT or ACT for as long as I can remember,” said Parent Club volunteer Amy Aubrecht who works closely with the College and Career Center at PHS. “Parents have had a lot of difficulty finding testing sites.”
Senior Logan Watral recently took the SATs in San Francisco but said he knew people who had to fly to places like Texas due to a lack of testing sites.
“It’s a huge problem,” Watral said.
Recently, the issue of finding testing sites near Piedmont has become more pressing. Students and parents need to drive, or fly long distances to access testing sites. According to a student survey run by TPH, 85% of students reported the lack of testing sites being a problem, and 98.6% would like to have the SATs in Piedmont.
“Because of COVID, schools became test optional, and then as they became test optional, a lot of the sites went away,” Aubrecht said. “You have a situation where a lot of parents are doing crazy things, like flying out to Reno, flying out to Vegas. Spending a ton of money, spending a ton of time.”
The survey reported 48.5% of students had to drive over an hour to take the SATs. One of these students was senior Emmett Baldwin. Baldwin tried to find a testing site in the Bay Area, but they had already filled up.
“I had to take the SAT in San Diego,” Baldwin said.
He also mentioned how competitive signing up for the SATs can be.
“People are signing up for specific testing sites as soon as they open,” Baldwin said.
This challenging scenario of hosting the SATs has prompted the Parent Club to step in and encourage parents to fill vital roles for staffing the tests.
Kim said parents need to step up and are needed to fill a crucial role to avoid excess costs and trouble from hiring people outside of Piedmont. Without parent involvement, it will be difficult to host the SATs, due to the extra logistics and costs of hiring others.
Aubrecht also said that due to Piedmont’s limited resources regarding space and a lack of parent volunteers, the test will be closed off to outside school districts..
Kim said the test will only be for PHS students because, as of now, Piedmont doesn’t have the space to handle the extra students that might come if testing was opened up. However, it is a possibility that Piedmont will be able to open testing to students from other districts in the future.
Principal David Yoshihara said the test will be open to PHS and MHS students, and there will be accommodations made for students who need them.
Aubrecht said Piedmont plans to host their first SAT on March 17, 2025. Kim said that’s all that is currently planned, but the Parent Club hopes to expand the testing in Piedmont to other dates in the future, and potentially also host the ACT.
Kim also said the Parent Club will wait and see how spring testing goes in 2025 and 2026, before moving to make PHS available for hosting the SATs in the fall after the 2026 date.
Assistant Principal Joseph Marik said students will be able to sign up for either of the tests in Infinite Campus in January.
