The Metro and education reporters Jenny Anderson and Winnie Hu provide an update in Wednesday’s Times on the Long Island SAT fraud investigations, which began two months ago after a college freshman was caught impersonating high school students on test day and sitting for the exam under their names.
http://liarcatchers.com/fraud_investigation.html
This week, The Times reports, 13 students in the region — in addition to the seven first charged in September — were accused of accepting payment or paying others to take the SAT or ACT over the last three years.
The students said to have commissioned others to bubble in their answers under a false identity came from at least three area high schools: Great Neck North High School, North Shore Hebrew Academy High School and Roslyn High School.
The names of those high school students accused are protected, as the students are or were at the time of the incidents under 18; but the names of at least five accused fraudulent test-takers have been released, identifying students original to the region and now enrolled at Emory University, Indiana University, Tulane University and SUNY Stony Brook.
As Ms. Anderson and Ms. Hu report, the broadened scope of investigation has authorities looking to assign responsibility for the breaches and institute reforms to prevent future violations. They write:
At a State Senate meeting on Oct. 24, legislators and school officials accused the College Board and Educational Testing Service of having lax security and a system that failed to punish cheats.
… Educational Testing Service has said that a New York law prohibits the company from releasing information about cheating. Prosecutors say the law simply prohibits disclosure of the investigation: Once cheating has been proven, they maintain, the testing service has full authority to report the outcome to third parties. Prosecutors and legislators have said that the law should be re-examined and that proven cheats should face consequences.
