Originally Posted by madeinuk
delivering dross...
Agreed, but with one caveat: dross for all.

Originally Posted by VR00
Can some point to any study on this?
Letting the college board speak for itself, the new SAT is described here: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/, which includes, in part:
Originally Posted by college board information page on redesigned SAT
The tests are designed to:
•Measure the essential ingredients for college and career readiness and success, as shown by research.
(Emphasis added)
The College Board does not cite the research it is referring to. Despite an emphasis on ostensibly encouraging "access", "critical thinking", reading of primary source documents, and "data analysis", ironically the College Board does not empower the public with access to source documents or data to analyze and think critically about, to weigh what is driving the College Board changes to the SAT and Suite of College Assessments.

Some may say this lack of "access" and transparency is poor role modeling on the part of the College Board. Possibly the College Board believes it is powerful beyond questioning or reproach.

Some may say that College Board withholding the source(s) of mentioned research may tend to indicate that the research is not convincing and/or does not come out strongly in favor of the changes. Another possibility, ignoring chronological order, is that pressure is being applied to higher education institutions, to provide the answers that College Board wants, retroactively, in order to seemingly have driven the changes already made. Interested parties may contact College Board to inquire about the mentioned research and request that it be made public and easily accessible on the College Board webpage on which it is mentioned.

Meanwhile, if it helps the OP to know which version of the test their child would take, this link presents a chart of cutover dates. As mentioned upthread by another poster, the redesigned SAT will be administered beginning in March 2016.