After Criticism, a Controversial Effort to ‘Recast’ Admissions Pushes Back Its Start Date

Organizers of the much-talked-about effort to “recast” the college-admissions process are pushing back its start date, from January to April, according to an email on Wednesday from the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success to college counselors.

The planned January release of the coalition’s “virtual college locker” feature, which would allow high-school students to upload videos and essays in real time, has prompted worries among counselors and others that the effort is moving too fast. “This feels like a mad dash,” one high-school counseling director told coalition organizers in a crowded session at this year’s National Association for College Admission Counseling conference. “Don’t rush and, pardon me, screw it up.”

In the email, the coalition’s Board of Directors referred to those criticisms and said the delay would “allow for more time to engage and answer questions and for counselors to be closer to finishing their work with the current senior class.”

The organizers also used the email to provide some more detail about what the “locker” is. For instance, the locker is, they said, a “completely optional free tool” that students may use to “securely and privately store classwork, awards, journals, and notes.” Here’s the section describing the locker, in full: