2020 was not a good year for The College Board, the maker of the SAT. In fact, with all the cancelations of SAT administrations due to the pandemic and all the colleges not requiring students to submit SAT or ACT scores, we’d argue it was College Board’s absolute worst year ever. What could go wrong went very wrong. And, with many highly selective universities having already announced test-optional admissions policies for next year’s batch of applicants, 2021 isn’t exactly shaping up to be a great year for the company either. It is thus little surprise that College Board is announcing layoffs.

As Scott Jaschik reports for Inside Higher Ed in a piece entitled “Layoffs at the College Board,” “About 14 percent of people at the College Board lost their jobs this week. A spokesman said, ‘We have made changes to become a more flexible organization, which included difficult decisions to reduce the size of our team. These changes will allow us to make strategic investments to meet the evolving needs of students and our members. We are strongly positioned to adapt to the future and invest in our mission of advancing all students into opportunity.’ The College Board’s recent announcement that it was killing the SAT Subject Tests and the SAT Essay has prompted speculation about the College Board’s future.”

While we are often the first to call out College Board on their mistakes and seemingly perpetual PR spin, we never want people to lose their jobs — particularly during the stressful time of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re very sorry to learn that 14% of College Board’s workforce lost their jobs this week. Here’s hoping they find new employment quickly.