College Board, Test Company Sued Over SAT

[GinPA]

College Board, Test Company Sued Over SAT
By BRIAN BAKST
Associated Press Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A high school senior whose SAT was incorrectly scored low is suing the board that oversees the exam and the testing company that was hired. The lawsuit, filed late Friday in Minnesota, is the first since last month's announcement that 4,411 students got incorrectly low scores and that more than 600 had better results than they deserved on the October test. It names the nonprofit College Board and the for-profit Pearson Educational Measurement, which has offices in Minnesota's Hennepin County.

...

The lawsuit alludes to the Minnesota mistake and others in alleging that Pearson has taken shortcuts. "The College Board contracted with Pearson despite the fact that Pearson is no stranger to botching test scores," the lawsuit reads.

AP Story
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Is this too far, or a legitimate case? I'm interested in seeing where the kid went to school, I wouldn't be surprised if he's suing because they scored him at a 760 instead of an 800. Reflections, comments??

[bcon1388]

way too far
it's not the CB's fault

[Arti]

Someone has to do it. I'm not saying he's right for suing CB, but it will light a fire under them and make them perform better.

[Icedragonad]

Dix Hills is a very prominent and wealthy community on Long Island.

[Nalcon]

"it's not the CB's fault"

then whose fault is it?

[bcon1388]

mother nature...

[conyat]

Sloppy journalism there. It's already been widely reported that the reason the College Board asked for hand-scoring is because 2 suspicious test-takers paid the $50 each for it. CB apparently has no procedure in place to tell when scores are off for a large number of applicants. It's not really a fair article without that information.

[Rizwan]

Well, this lawsuit was obviously in the making, just surprised it hasnt happened before. I really dont think its too far, this incident has quite possibly cost students admission to their dream schools. Snodgrass?

[sanguine99]

Litigate. Its the American way.

This will be an interesting case. Since the college admissions process is not 100% quantitative, it will be hard to prove that any actual damage was done. I guarantee that Adcoms will be subpeonad and will attest that the SAT is not the sole factor in the college decisions process.

[gumba2468]

I think that this guy whos suing is going to far...its not like the collegeboard intentionally screwed these kids over...as long as the people who staff the college board are human...mistakes will happen...

Absolutely agree with Sanguine. This person has every right in the world to sue but ultimately has absolutely no case because they'll use the whole "SATs aren't everything argument" and prove that the effect was negligible. Plus, he has the right to appeal to everyone single one of the schools he got rejected from with the new SAT scores.

[Stephensploosh]

I don't like the college board much, so I'm a bit glad they're being sued.

[holyspirit]

It doesn't matter whether or not it was a mistake on the part of the college board. Product liability is nearly impossible to weasel out of.

[rightwing]

gumba: i agree that the CB isn't intentionally screwing kids over. however, when we're paying $42 per test, they really need to have better checks in place for the scoring.

personally, i don't think CB should be forced to pay thousands or millions of dollars in a huge lawsuit. They should refund everyone's money who took the test in october. I think they will call adcoms to the stand who will say SAT's aren't everything, and I don't think the kid is going to win mucho $$. BUT I do think this will prompt internal reforms with teh CB and I think they will do EVERYTHING to make sure this doesn't happen again.

[nspeds]

Absolutely agree with Sanguine. This person has every right in the world to sue but ultimately has absolutely no case because they'll use the whole "SATs aren't everything argument" and prove that the effect was negligible. Plus, he has the right to appeal to everyone single one of the schools he got rejected from with the new SAT scores.

Of course SATs are not everything; however, you can be pretty sure, just by sheer statistics, that a student with a 1300 will have less of a chance of getting into Harvard than a student with a 1600. The numbers do not lie.