No scoring problem in the history of the SAT has affected
more students than the one announced this month by the
College Board. Fewer than 1 percent of the nearly half
million people who took the tests in October received
incorrectly low scores, but in practical terms it means that
more than 4,400 students have received, or will be
receiving, e-mails from the College Board notifying them
of the mistakes.
While most students whose scores were affected lost fewer
than 40 points on the 2,400-point exam, 200 lost more than
100 points and least one lost 450.
The news surfaced on March 8, when the New York-based
College Board, which owns the test, made the
announcement. The problems apparently stem from a heavy
rainfall in the Northeast part of the country that fell the
days the tests were given. David Hakensen, a spokesman
for Pearson Educational Measurement, which handles the
scanning of the SAT, has said that humidity and dampness
may have caused the test documents to expand. Some
scanning was done at Pearson's scanning facility in Austin,
Texas, and Hakenson speculates that the documents
shipped there may not have had time to dry out before
being fed through the machines. As a result, the paper
expanded and some of the answers didn't align with the
scanners. Stray pencil marks and answers boxes filled in
too lightly are likely to blame for other mistakes.
Errors were found in all three multiple-choice sections of
the test.
They were discovered after two students asked the College
Board, in late December, to rescan their tests. The results
showed that the tests had been improperly scanned, and in
February about 1.5 million tests were rescanned from three
different test dates.
The College Board has received withering criticism for
waiting until Jan. 31 to rescan the two tests, and it was not
until early February that officials at the College Board
notified Pearson that there were problems. Colleges and
universities were not notified until earlier this month.
College Board President Gaston Caperton maintains that
the board took the month of February to examine the tests
and to "check prior testing to make sure that we knew
exactly what the problem was."
Most of the students have been notified of the problem by
e-mail from the College Board.
And on Wednesday, Pearson and the College Board
announced that a stash of 27,000 tests that they thought had
been double-checked for errors had not.
The timing has college officials scrambling again to
reevaluate applications. The scores are especially
significant because they could affect not only college
admissions but scholarships as well.
Some critics of the SAT, including Robert Schaeffer, public
education director of FairTest, claim there is an over
reliance on standardize tests such as the SAT and have
called for an independent investigation into the causes and
the aftermath of the scandal. A New York state senator,
Kenneth LaValle, said he questions whether regulations
have been tight enough. As chairman of the state Senate's
higher education committee, he will hold hearings into the
matter in April.
For its part, the College Board has announced that it will
change its practices, ensuring that each document is
scanned in twice. A consulting firm will also perform a 90-
day review.
The board has also said that it will refund the students'
$41.50 registration fee as well as all charges for sending
their scores to colleges.
In a statement this week on the College Board's web site,
the company announced that it has investigated the incident
and "determined that this scoring anomaly was a one time
problem, and only involved the October 2005 SAT
Reasoning Test." The company added: "We deeply regret
the anxiety and inconvenience that this problem
undoubtedly has caused. The College Board will put
whatever resources we need into resolving this type of
situation. Our goal is that students and their families never
have to experience such inconvenience again and colleges
never have to be caught in such a trying situation during the
hectic admissions month."
The College Board reported that 4,411 students have
received incorrectly low scores. The company announced
that high schools and colleges that were affected have been
notified.
More than 600 students actually received higher grades
because of the errors. Chiara Coletti, vice president of
public affairs for the College Board says the company will
not correct those scores because it would not be fair to the
students and that the board "has a policy of never
penalizing a student for a factor beyond his or her control."
The scandal comes at a time when some feel that too much
importance is placed on standardized tests. Now the tests'
dependability is being questioned as well. A dozen
accredited four-year colleges this year will be deciding
whether to continue requiring applicants to send in
standardized test scores; to date, more than 700 do not.
This is not the first time Pearson, formerly National
Computer Systems, has had problems with test scoring.
Four years ago, several hundred high school students were
prevented from graduating because of scoring errors on
8,000 tests in Minnesota. Zimmerman Reed Attorneys at
Law, a Minneapolis-based firm, brought suit against
Pearson, and won a large settlement.
According to Zimmerman Reed's web site, the students
were incorrectly told they failed the math portion of the
Minnesota Basic Standards test.
Pearson also made significant scoring errors in Washington
and Virginia.
There is little doubt that some students have been
discouraged from applying to top colleges and universities
because of their unfairly low SAT scores. But colleges say
they have been relying less on standardized tests as a
criteria for admission than on a holistic approach that
considers students' high school transcripts and factors such
as extra-curricular activities.
The biggest impact of the SAT scoring scandal, though, is
likely to be eligibility for scholarships. To be eligible for
some scholarships, applicants must reach a cut-off score on
their SAT – often about 1,500 – while others offer a sliding
scale, depending on a student's class rank and SAT score. In New Jersey, students in the top 5 percent of their
class who earn from 1,500 to 1,600 on their combined math
and reading scores on the SAT can receive full-tuition,
room-and-board, and a laptop computer.
The College Board has discouraged schools from using
scores in this way.
To date, no lawsuits have been filed against the College
Board or Pearson. Pearson has been involved in the Texas
testing program for the two decades. It got a break in 2002
when President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Law
and demand for state testing skyrocketed. A year later,
Pearson was awarded the contract to scan the SAT answer
sheets, and it began working on the project last year.
After the 2002 settlement in Minnesota, Pearson pledged to
improve its procedures by adopting new quality control
measures; some say that has yet to happen. Today the
company remains one of the largest in the testing field.
The scandal seems certain to attract lawsuits of one sort or
another. Robert Schaeffer, of the National Center For Open
Testing, has said that in terms of consequences, the scandal
"is the largest mistake ever made on the SAT."
Schaeffer's group opposes the overuse of standardized
testing. "They're going to be sued," he said. Schaeffer said
the NCFOT has talked with several firms that are scouting
for clients.
One of the lawyers investigating the action by Pearson and
the College Board is Catherine Riccards. Riccards began
her legal career as a criminal prosecutor, working for the
New York City Office of the Corporation Counsel. She has
argued hundreds of criminal cases in court and two years
ago, in addition to prosecuting some of the most serious
crimes in New York City, she began training newly-
admitted attorneys. Riccards has since branched out to
regulatory matters and civil litigation.
Two months ago, she joined Balestriere PLLC, a
Manhattan law firm that, among other things, represents
individuals, companies and institutions in criminal and civil
matters. On Feb. 15, Balestriere announced that it had filed
a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York against the National
Association of Security Dealers whom Balestriere claims
failed to tell clients that they had failed a broker
qualification exam.
Riccards feels that the actions of Pearson and the College
Board have left it vulnerable to legal action. She argues that
the lucky few who had their test scores inflated might be
unfairly taking other applicants' spots. "I think there's a
good negligence claim here," she said in a Newsweek
article.
Days after the scoring scandal broke, Riccards posted a
notice on the collegeconfidential.com website asking
students who were affected by the mistake to call her
office.
On Saturday, I asked Riccards for an update.
"We are still investigating the case and may file suit," she
said in an e-mailed response. "We do not have any clients
yet but have spoken to several parents of students who were
affected."
Riccards said the case "could go forward as a class action
although a plaintiff always has the right to opt out of the
class and pursue the case independently." In order for it to
be a class action, a suit would have to be filed and then the
attorney would have to apply for certification, she said.
Zimmerman Reed is also seeking clients in the most recent
SAT case. Those who were affected by the scoring errors
are asked to visit the www.zimmermanreed.com and fill out
a case review or call attorney Gordon Rudd.
Class actions can be more affordable to join, since there are
generally no out-of-pocket costs to class members,
regardless of the outcome. And unless plaintiffs are asked
to become class representatives, they will not have to
testify. However, class action lawsuits can take several years to
resolve, and the payoff is often small.
Zimmerman Reed said the most recent SAT errors make it
doubtful that Pearson has made the improvements it
promised four years ago.