Secondary School Admission Test Board
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The Secondary School Admission Test Board (SSATB) is a nonprofit organization founded in the United States in 1957 by independent school admissions officers with three goals in mind: to provide a forum for exchange and support among admission professionals, to create an admission test for use by private independent schools, and to assist parents and students in their independent school search.
SSATB is a member organization servicing more than 900 independent schools. The organization offers professional development services for admission professionals including webinars, special reports, and regional meetings. In addition, SSATB hosts an annual conference (The SSATB Annual Meeting) focused exclusively on admission networking, information, and training. SSATB develops and administers the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) to connect to and support the overall independent school admission process. Each year, the SSAT is administered to more than 75,000 testers in more than 900 test locations around the world. SSATB provides member schools with perspectives and data on an applicant’s potential academic success, as well as a school’s applicant pool, competitive position and potential market position, through a variety of school-specific studies and reports. SSATB also provides a Standard Application Online (SAO) to families and member schools - comparable to higher education’s Common Application. The SAO was used by families to submit over 22,000 applications in 2013-2014 (stats YTD through January 2014). The SAO allows students to apply online to multiple member schools through a web-based portal that houses biographic information, teacher recommendations, essays, and more.
Contents
Board of Directors
The SSAT Board of Directors is made up of independent school professionals, leaders in the testing field, and others who support independent education.
Admission Leadership Council
The SSAT Board of Directors founded the Admission Leadership Council (ALC) in 2009 to re-establish a more consistent organizational and professional voice for members. The role of the ALC is to be a sounding board for the development of SSATB’s admission services, to provide leadership in the area of professional development for admission professionals, and to act as advocates for the critical role of admission in schools.
Think Tank on the Future of Assessment
SSATB established the Think Tank on the Future of Assessment to create an ongoing conversation about 21st century admission and the needs of enrollment managers during their selection process.
Annual Meeting
This year, the SSATB’s Annual Meeting is being held in Orlando, Florida, from September 16-20. Last year’s conference, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offered more than 40 collegial workshops and attracted over 700 attendees. SSATB also offers the Admission Training Institute (ATI) at the Annual Meeting, designed specifically for those new to admission. ATI is a pre-conference professional development program where participants receive a thorough introduction to practical admission information and useful techniques. All aspects of admission are addressed and the exchange of ideas and experiences is encouraged.
Administration
The current Executive Director is Heather Hoerle, former Vice President, Member Relations for the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS). Hoerle became the Executive Director of SSATB in April 2011. Since then, SSATB has restructured the organization’s management, completed an IT infrastructure rebuild to modernize operations, enhanced SSATB’s test development process and procedures, including hiring the organization’s new Chief Testing Officer from ETS, launched an Elementary Level SSAT, and published ground-breaking research in the field of enrollment management.
History
The Secondary School Admission Test Board (SSATB) is a nonprofit organization founded in the United States in 1957 by independent school admission officers with three goals in mind: to provide a forum for exchange and support among admission professionals, to create an admission test for use by private independent schools, and to assist parents and students in their independent school search.
