What is a concordance? "A state in which things agree and do not conflict with each other" or "an alphabetical list of all of the words in a book or in a set of works written by an author."

In the case of the latest College Board/ETS SAT concordance table, it could mean "Your new SAT score is not as strong as you think it is."

NOTE: What I say here is just one man's opinion ... my opinion. Take it for what it's worth. If you're on the other side of this issue from me, great! Feel free to comment.

It's not hard for my readers to discern my disdain for the College Board and ETS (Educational Testing Service). I've cast a cynical eye upon them for decades as I've watched numerous high schoolers suffer miseries and disappointments because of the debatable value of the SAT. Oh, yeah, proponents of standardized testing loudly proclaim that we need some yardstick by which to measure students' "ability to deal with college-level work." I proclaim, "Bunk!"

They also trot out some variation of the tired old argument that the SAT levels the playing field among high schools of various quality. In other words, if you go to a not-so-hot school, chances are, generally speaking, that you won't do as well in college as students from stronger schools. Your 4.0 GPA from your "lesser" school won't stand comparison with the 3.75 of a student from a "more rigorous" school.

The hand-wringers who defend the SAT emerge from the woodwork every time someone attacks the value of this flawed instrument. The designers of the test have plenty of negative press to counterpoint. If you would like to peruse the tip of the bad-SAT-news iceberg, check out 10 Myths about the SAT. FairTest.org deserves much credit for presenting an ongoing objective look at the deficiencies of this deceptive international "institution."

But I digress.

The purpose of my post today is to alert those of you who may not already be aware of the so-called new-SAT Concordance Table. If you want a quick overview of the confusion and consternation it has caused, scan this thread on the College Confidential discussion forum.

In a nutshell, the concordance table shows students and parents how scores from the latest "new" SAT compares with score from the "old" (previous) SAT. The Washington Post article to which I link in my second paragraph above, says it pretty well:

It turns out the new test comes with a degree of score inflation. Simply put: a 1300 on the SAT is not worth as much as it used to be.

The new SAT represents more mindless marketing shell games from CB/ETS. If you are really cynical, you would say that the new SAT is easier than the old one -- on purpose -- so that more students will use it instead of the ACT, which is pulling astride, if not "outselling" the SAT. As an old friend of mine always said about eyebrow-raising situations, "Follow the money."

Anyway, back to our regularly schedule rant. The SAT Concordance Table: what is it and what does it mean?

First, for a refresher on what's inside the new SAT, here's an overview from PrepScholar:

The College Board has redesigned the SAT. Beginning in March 2016, the new SAT will be on a 1600-point scale rather than a 2400-point scale, and it will emphasize skills learned in high school rather than abstract reasoning skills. The scores for the Reading and Writing sections have been combined into a single section with a maximum score of 800. The Math section will still be scored out of 800, but new material has been added.  The SAT essay has been completely redesigned and is now optional. The essay will be scored on a new scale (from 2-8), and the score you receive on it will be separate from your 1600-point scale score.

PrepScholar continues with an explanation of how to compare new SAT scores with your old scores through a conversion chart a.k.a. concordance table:

For a more detailed look at all the new changes to the SAT, check out this article here. Below, we’ll go over rough estimate of score conversions. If you took the 2400-point version of the SAT and are looking to take the 1600-point version, then what does that mean? What scores should you target? Our chart will help you answer these questions.

Note: in addition to the chart below, you can use our quick, easy, and more accurate formula and calculator here! 

To use this chart, find your old scores from the 2400-point SAT. These may be from an official SAT you already took, or from practice SATs that still used the 2400-point scoring scale. Locate your score on the chart, under the "Old Score" column. Then, look at the number immediately to the right of that score (under the "New Score Conversion" column). That is roughly the score you'd receive on the new SAT with its 1600-point scale.

[But] ... This conversion is imperfect because we don't have any data on how students are doing on the new SAT yet ...