Things have not been looking good for the College Board since the redesigned SAT made its first appearance in March. A few hiccups were expected, of course. Any major changes to a test of this magnitude give an open invitation to a plethora of issues, especially in the first couple months. For the College Board, one of those big issues has been dealing with test security.
SAT scams make it to the news
Within the past two weeks, stories with headlines including "Test Scams," "Security Breaches," and "Tests Leaked" made their way into the news. One of the first hits came from The Atlantic, which covered the practice of hiring "professional test takers" to take exams for students. The article explains that law-enforcement believes the practice may be on the rise. There have been cases in the U.S. in the past and there seems to be a rising number of such instances in China. Officials warn that "In these [new] schemes, brokers in China are using computer-enhanced photography to create nearly undetectable fake passports for schemes that allow imposters to take a range of tests—including the SAT, the GRE, and the TOEFL for students across the globe."
Following that story, Reuters released an exposé claiming that the College Board knew there have been security breaches in certain countries (South Korea, China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia) where copies of official exams were leaked to students before the test. The problem: the College Board decided to do nothing about it. This information is based on a confidential College Board PowerPoint from 2013 that Reuters gained access to. The biggest points revealed by the PowerPoint:
- 9 out of 18 versions of the SAT the College Board planned use internationally at some point had been leaked
- 8 out of 10 Math 2 Subject Tests had been leaked
- 10 out of 13 Biology Subject Tests had been leaked
The leak was primarily the result of the way the College Board reuses tests internationally. Most international SAT's have been given in part or in whole in the U.S. before they are used abroad. So why doesn't the College Board simply stop reusing tests? According to College Board spokespeople, using an entirely fresh exam every administration is expensive. It takes 30 months and $1 million for the College Board to write an entirely new SAT. These costs would have to be passed off to students and would likely double the cost of their registration fees.
As a second installment, Reuters focused on China as a primary hub for distributing these leaked versions of the test, in particular highlighting the fact that Chinese companies have gotten hold of illegal copies of the new SAT administered only once in March. This security breach puts a significant dent in the College Board's claims that "test security and delivering valid scores are central to its mission." The College Board attempted to avoid situations like this when they banned all non-student test-takers from the March 5 test date, but it appears this measure was not enough.
The College Board responds to Reuters
In response to the Reuters articles, the College Board acknowledged they are "not perfect" and "did [their] best with the information [they] had at the time," as well as admitted that they should have done more. They have taken administrative action since 2013, including cancelling a handful of administrations in China and South Korea. They are working to target "cartel-like companies in China and other countries that will stop at nothing to enrich themselves."
The statement also links to an email that the College Board wrote Reuters with additional information on what the College Board does if it receives reports that a test has been leaked. It's a pretty interesting look behind the scenes: "If we discover the leak early enough, we replace the form in the affected areas. Closer to test day, and if the stolen materials are tightly contained, we may continue with the administration as planned and perform highly reliable post-administration statistical analyses on the results to identify cheating students. If the leak is more widespread, we cancel the administration and allow students to test on a different date. And if we find out about stolen materials after test day, we take the appropriate actions, ranging from post-test analytics to more widespread score cancellation."
Not mentioned in the statement was anything regarded to the continual reuse of test forms and questions. In fact, the College Board continues to stand behind reusing exams.
What does ArborBridge think is next for the College Board?
The College Board is in a tough spot. The company needs to worry about 1) protecting its reputation as a fair test and 2) staying popular with students who pay to take the exam. And it couldn't come at a worse time for the College Board. Over the last few years the SAT has lost its position as the most popular college admissions test to the ACT. To regain market share, the College Board restructured the entire SAT and actively wooed states and school districts to require the SAT as part of their federally mandated tests each spring. It also went on a major media crusade to stress that the new SAT is more accessible to low-income students. All while the College Board faces increasing skepticism about standardized tests scores among some colleges, an increasing number of whom have gone test optional. The College Board will need to convince states, colleges, and students that tests are fair for everyone to prevent test takers from moving to the ACT. But to do this will require new, expensive procedures that could make the test less accessible to low- and middle-income students or the cash-strapped states that pay for students to take the test. Both could result in fewer test takers for the SAT.
The College Board is likely to make a few immediate changes. First, it could ban test prep professionals from all SAT administrations other than January, May, and October. In those three months, the test is released to the public afterwards and no longer used in future exams. Other months, though, do get recycled. By limiting the number of test takers in the exams that might be reused, the College Board can try to limit the leaks. Second, the College Board will likely increase its internal efforts to track cheating. More students might come under investigation, and score delays might increase. Third, the College Board could further limit the number of test administrations and cites in certain countries where the leaks seem to predominate. The College Board could also try more radical approaches in the future, such as moving to an online testing format where the questions would change for each student, like the GRE already does. But these adaptive, computer-based tests aren't 100% secure either. They may limit cheating but not entirely. Or, the College Board could decide to charge international students a higher registration fee to offset the cost of developing entirely new exams for the international administrations.
It's important to note that during all of this furor the ACT has remained largely silent. Most of the media attention has been on the SAT because of the changes to the test and because the stories focus on international leaks (the SAT is more popular internationally). But don't assume that the ACT is necessarily running a tighter security operation. The ACT also reuses questions to cut down on costs and may come under similar scrutiny.
What does this mean for students?
The good news is the College Board is taking this issue very seriously and is working to ensure security breaches do not happen again. We will continue to keep you posted on any administrative changes that occur, but there are a couple of main takeaways you as a student should be aware of:
Applying to attend schools in the U.S. is serious business
The Atlantic noted in its article that students in some countries may not realize how seriously U.S. schools and law enforcement take this type of cheating. Some students may need to be sensitized to how the U.S. views cheating if they hope to attend a U.S. school and do well.
We know we don't have to say this twice, but always be careful. Something that involves both the College Board and national law enforcement is not to be tampered with. The college admissions process is stressful enough—it isn't worth making it even tougher!
Don't let the pressure of college admissions get to you
As we just alluded to, applying to college has gotten progressively more competitive. This pressure sometimes forces students to take measures they normally would not take simply to get ahead of the game. Cheating on a college admission exam such as the SAT or ACT to get a higher score is one such measure.
It's important to keep things in perspective: getting into the "best" college in the U.S. is not what defines you, and neither does your SAT or ACT score. As a student you have accomplished things that are invaluable to not only your college application but succeeding in life after school. Admissions officers want to see those achievements and, more importantly, how you incorporate them into the rest of your story. Your SAT score may get you a seat at the table, but it is not the determining factor in admissions.
Keep your ear to the ground!
Make sure you remain informed throughout the exam and security processes. Changes and announcements are likely to be made, which may directly impact you as a student. Stay tuned to ArborBridge's blog to get the most recent updates!
