SAT and ACT to Tighten Rules After Cheating Scandal
Source: NY Times
Stung by a cheating scandal involving dozens of Long Island high school students, the SAT and ACT college entrance exams will now require students to upload photos when they sign up for the exams, and officials will check that image against the photo identification the students present when they arrive to take the test, the Nassau County district attorney said Tuesday.
The change was one of several announced Tuesday in the aftermath of the cheating cases, in which high-scoring students used fake IDs to take SATs or ACTs for other students. Twenty teenagers from five schools in Nassau County were arrested last fall, five of them suspected of taking tests for others and the other 15 accused of paying them $500 to $3,600 to take the tests.
The new rules apply nationwide, and the Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen M. Rice, said in a statement that they would take effect in the fall. Ms. Rice said a goal of the new requirements was to close the gaps in test security that had allowed students to impersonate other students. The photograph that students will be required to upload will be printed on their admission ticket and the roster at the test center. The statement said the uploaded photos would be retained in a database that high school and college admissions officials can look at.
Under another new requirement, test registrants will have to provide their gender. Officials said last year that one of the five teenagers arrested as a test-taker, Samuel Eshaghoff, a 2011 graduate of Great Neck North High School, was said to have taken tests for girls and had shown fake identification.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/education/after-cheating-scandal-sat-and-act-will-tighten-security.html
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