Tighter security for SAT, ACT in wake of cheating

FRANK ELTMAN

Asso­ci­ated Press

MINEOLA, N.Y. — The mil­lions of stu­dents who take the SAT or ACT each year will have to sub­mit pho­tos of them­selves when they sign up for the col­lege entrance exams, under a host of new secu­rity mea­sures announced Tues­day in the after­math of a major cheat­ing scan­dal on Long Island.

The two com­pa­nies that admin­is­ter the tests, the Col­lege Board and ACT Inc., agreed to the pre­cau­tions under pub­lic pres­sure brought to bear by Nas­sau County Dis­trict Attor­ney Kath­leen Rice, who is over­see­ing the inves­ti­ga­tion. The mea­sures take effect in the fall.

“I believe these reforms, and many oth­ers which are hap­pen­ing behind the scenes, will pre­vent the kind of cheat­ing that our inves­ti­ga­tion uncov­ered and give high schools and col­leges the tools they need to iden­tify those who try to cheat,” Rice said.

Rice has charged 20 cur­rent or for­mer stu­dents from a clus­ter of well-to-do, high-achieving sub­urbs on Long Island with par­tic­i­pat­ing in a scheme in which teenagers hired other peo­ple for as much as $3,500 each to take the exam for them. The five alleged ringers arrested in the case were accused of flash­ing phony IDs when they showed up for the tests. All 20 have pleaded not guilty.

In one instance, a young man allegedly pro­duced ID and took the test for a teenage girl who had a name that could have been either male or female.

Stu­dents have long been required to show iden­ti­fi­ca­tion when they arrive for one of the tests. Under the new rules, they will have to sub­mit head shots of them­selves in advance with their test appli­ca­tion. A copy of the photo will be printed on the admis­sion ticket mailed to each stu­dent, and will also appear on the test site roster.

School admin­is­tra­tors are “going to be able to com­pare the photo and the per­son who showed up and say that’s either John Doe or that’s not John Doe. They didn’t have the abil­ity to do that before,” the dis­trict attor­ney said.

The photo will also be attached to the student’s scores, which, for the first time, will be sent to his or her high school, so that admin­is­tra­tors and guid­ance coun­selors can see the pic­tures. Pre­vi­ously, test results were sent only to the student.

“Mil­lions of college-bound stu­dents who take the SAT and ACT each year can have a new con­fi­dence that their hard work and prepa­ra­tion will be rewarded and not dimin­ished by cheaters,” Rice said.

Offi­cials from the Col­lege Board and ACT Inc. said that any addi­tional costs would be absorbed and not passed on to stu­dents. The Col­lege Board charges $49 for the SAT; ACT Inc. charges $34 for the basic test, $49.50 if it includes a writ­ing exam.

“We believe these mea­sures sup­port both test integrity and access and equity for all stu­dents,” said Kathryn Juric, vice pres­i­dent of the SAT pro­gram for the Col­lege Board.

Dur­ing the 2010-11 school year nearly 3 mil­lion stu­dents world­wide took the SAT; 1.6 mil­lion stu­dents took the ACT in 2011.

In another key change, stu­dents will be required to iden­tify on their appli­ca­tion the high school they attend. In the Long Island scan­dal, the impos­tors often went to high schools in neigh­bor­ing com­mu­ni­ties so they would not be recognized.

Bob Scha­ef­fer, pub­lic edu­ca­tion direc­tor of FairTest: National Cen­ter for Fair & Open Test­ing, a long­time critic of the SAT, said the new pro­ce­dures would still not pre­vent cheat­ing if a stu­dent sub­mit­ted an impostor’s photograph.

“The image on the reg­is­tra­tion form will match up with that of the per­son tak­ing the exam so long as an equally phony ID is used at the test site,” he said.

But Rice argued that the follow-up report to the student’s high school, with the pho­to­graph, should deter most cheating.

“Know­ing that’s going to be going back to their high schools, specif­i­cally their guid­ance coun­selor, that’s the backup check that’s going to pre­vent it from hap­pen­ing,” Rice said. She also said the pho­tos would be kept in a data­base should any ques­tions of cheat­ing arise later.

In addi­tion, admin­is­tra­tors will check stu­dent IDs more fre­quently at test cen­ters. IDs will be exam­ined when stu­dents enter a test site, when­ever they re-enter the test room after breaks, and again when the answer sheets are collected.

Stu­dents will have to upload the photo of them­selves or else mail it in.

Vivian Tam, a 17-year-old senior at the LaGuardia School for the Per­form­ing Arts High School in New York, wel­comed the changes.

“Some peo­ple are get­ting bet­ter grades because they have more money to pay some­body to take the test for them,” she said.

Posted by AP News on Mar 27 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.