How much has changed since Great Neck North High School first discovered that a former student was paid up to $3,500 to take SAT tests for students hoping to improve their chances of getting into the college of their choice?
Officials now say at least 20 students and former students are involved in the scandal. There is a realistic fear that this is just the tip of a nationwide cheating epidemic. The Nassau County kids didn’t invent the wheel.
Karl Landgraf, the president of ETS, the company that administers the SAT test for College Board, testified at a recent hearing. He said that of the more than 2 million SAT tests taken in any given year, about 4,000 scores are canceled because of suspected cheating.
Of those, 200 to 300 are impersonation cases, he said. In addition each year several hundred students are turned away at the door of the test centers because of questionable IDs.
It should be noted that it wasn’t ETS that discovered the Nassau County cheating. Great Neck North High School found out when a student told the administration about the cheating. This appears to mean that ETS and the College Board have no idea how many impersonation cases there are each year. The 200 to 300 is a stab in the dark.
“All they can say is they are unaware of a large number of impersonations,” said Great Neck Principal Bernard Kaplan.
In Albany state legislators are considering toughening penalties for people caught cheating on SATs. At a hearing state Sen. Kenneth LaValle said, “Cheating on your SAT is wrong and the committee will have to consider whether it is indeed criminal.”
In the wake of this scandal the College Board says it is determined to root out cheating. The College Board has hired former FBI chief Louis Freeh to review its SAT security protocols.
At the moment any kid with a computer can create a fake ID that will get him or her into the testing room. If the College Board wants the SATs to be respected it has to greatly improve security at this level.
The high schools can help with security by flagging test scores that are unusually high for a particular student.
If SAT security is greatly improved the county’s SAT scandal may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
A Blank Slate Media Editorial
