Students who come from tough backgrounds just might catch a break the next time they take the SAT. The College Board, the nonprofit group that runs the standardized test, said it will start assigning a score to students who take the SAT to reflect their social and economic backgrounds. The Environmental Context Dashboard would factor in things such as crime and poverty in a student's neighborhood to capture their "resourcefulness to overcome challenges and achieve more with less."

This dashboard score will not include a student's race. College admissions are under heightened scrutiny after indictments were handed down against wealthy and powerful parents who allegedly paid their kids' ways into elite universities.