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Scoring
Problems Continue to Plague SAT |
Posted:
03.29.06
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The College Board has apologized to high school students and
college admissions offices for mistakes that resulted in over
5,000 incorrect scores on the October 2005 SAT.
Printer-friendly versions: PDF
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Of the 495,000 college entrance tests taken in October, 4,411
were scored too low and around 600 were scored too high.
The College Board, which runs the SAT, notified colleges, high
school guidance counselors and students of corrections for lower
scores. Higher scores were not changed.
"We couldn't be more sorry for the total stress this has
caused students and admissions officers, and families," Chiara
Coletti, a spokeswoman for the College Board, told the Associated
Press.
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Who scores
the SAT? |
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The problems came to light after two students who took the October
test questioned the scores they received in December. The College
Board said the problems are the fault of the Pearson Educational
Measurement, the company that scores most of the SAT exams.
The company said the scoring problems were due to technical issues,
including excess moisture that caused the answer sheets to expand
before they were scanned and scanners that did not pick up some
lightly marked answers.
Additional incorrect scores were discovered after the company
realized it had not fully re-scanned all the October tests for
errors.
Officials at the College Board said new scoring safeguards will
be added including scanning each answer sheet twice and improving
moisture detecting software.
"We know we have to restore public confidence in the entire
process because this anomaly occurred," Coletti told the
Los Angeles Times.
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Changes not
enough |
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Critics say the College Board is not being forthright about
problems in the testing system.
"Everybody appears to be telling half-truths and that erodes
confidence in the College Board," Bruce Poch, vice president
and dean of admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.,
told the New York Times.
Students, too, are upset by the scoring errors, including Beatrice
Bradley, a senior at the Williams School in Connecticut, who said
she found out that her writing section score should have been
700 instead of 690.
"You have to wonder how many things go unchecked,"
Bradley told the New York Times.
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Serious implications
for students |
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College officials say they will try to make sure students are
not negatively impacted.
SAT scores are less important than a student's grades, extracurricular
activities and other test scores, they say, but the real issue
will be scholarships.
"With scholarships, some use flat cutoff points with the
SAT score. They say if you score above 1,200 or 1,800 on the SAT,
you are eligible for a scholarship. If you don't get that score,
you don't get that scholarship," Donald Heller, an associate
professor of education at Penn State University and financial
aid expert, told the New York Times.
What seem to be insignificant differences can have big implications
for students.
"This would be a comedy of errors if the impact on human
lives were not so tragic," Robert Schaeffer of the group
FairTest, which opposes excessive standardized testing, told the
Associated Press.
One impacted student is Jake DeLillo, a star lacrosse player
at Yorktown High School in New York, who said his lower-than-expected
scores in October led him to reconsider his first choice schools.
DeLillo's scores were understated by 170 points.
"It was definitely upsetting," he told the New York
Times. "People make mistakes, but this was a big one."
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Compiled by Annie Schleicher for NewsHour Extra
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