Tests come in all shapes and sizes and no matter the test, or the venue, the outcomes can have a serious effect on your life. The effects can come from simply failing a final exam, to doing poorly on you SAT or to tanking on certification testing later in life. Testing is hard enough without worrying about bad results – and not bad results on your part, but because of poor scoring techniques or inadequate scientific data. Recently, victims of bad test results have been fighting back in courts to protect the rights of others and to seek justice on their own behalf. Thousands have been affected by badly scored SAT tests, standardized testing false failures and even false positive drug test results.
Standardized testing is used across the United States for academic and licensing reasons. With the federal No Child Left Behind Law, the federal government is actually spending about $410 million dollars on standardized testing and giving about 11.4 million more standardized tests this year. When problems occur with these standardized tests they can affect people’s lives greatly. These companies are getting millions of dollars for their product and are still failing to score all tests properly. As a result some people are filing standardized test lawsuits, SAT lawsuits and ETS lawsuits in response.
For instance, recently more than twenty class action lawsuits against the Educational Testing Service (ETS) alleging damages to 4,100 prospective teachers because of issuing false failing grades on its Praxis Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) licensing exam have been consolidated in Federal District Court in Louisiana. While ETS will agree that they violated their contract with the teachers by giving them incorrect grades, the content that refunding their testing fees is sufficient compensation for the mistake. The plaintiff’s attorneys in the case, meanwhile, plan to argue that the lost jobs, the prevention of some test takers from graduation from college and other issues caused pain and suffering and loss of income that must be redressed.
In October of 2005 over 8,000 students received SAT scores that were significantly lower than they should have been – all because of a scanning error and too much moisture in the test papers. This effected students in their options and choices for college and since it hasn’t yet been completely resolved, continues to impact their futures. In fact, Pearson Educational Measurement, the company that scores the SAT just found over 1,500 more test papers that had not been checked and re-scored. SAT lawsuits against Pearson Educational Measurement are popping up across the country as students suffer losses because of the test scoring errors.
Pearson Educational Measurement recently settled a lawsuit with a number of students in Minnesota who were given lower standardized test scores than they deserved. Among the 8,000 student affected, several were unable to graduate as a result of the erroneous test scores.
Drug testing is another arena that is creating debate and litigation. Despite the long and growing list of over 250 drugs that prompt false positive test results, employers and schools continue to conduct random or widespread drug testing. For instance, did you know that if you take a high dosage of ibuprofen or naproxen you are likely to test positive for marijuana use? Or did you know that cold medications that use pseudo ephedrine, used in the home brewed Crystal Methamphetamine, can provoke a false positive for amphetamine use? There is a huge problem with false positive drug results and if you have been the victim of this kind of bad test results you know the catastrophic results it can bring. There are drug test lawsuits pending in the courts across the country attacking false positive drug results and the privacy issues around drug testing.
The emotional and financial impact of these incorrect test results can be significant. False positive drug results can mean losing your job or getting expelled from school. In the case of teacher certification exams, many test takers could not secure jobs as a result of the failing marks and may have been forced to move to other careers or been left with a significant loss of pay. For college students, the SAT can make or break your chances of getting into the college or university of your choice. For over 4,000 students to receive incorrect and low scores at the time when most students are completing their college applications is horrendous. It not only causes incredible stress, they may have had to pay to take the test again, or for an unnecessary and costly SAT prep course when they thought they had not done well.
If you have lost money, compensation or incurred any other damages from a bad test result whether in incorrectly scored SAT or standardized test or a false positive drug test you aren’t alone. You should speak with a qualified product liability attorney about the defective product being sold and scored and analyzed. You may be entitled to file a standardized test lawsuit, SAT lawsuit or drug test lawsuit to get the compensation you deserve and to restore your reputation.