When looking for information for another thread, I discovered a few facts from the history of the ETS and CB; I hope they are worth sharing.
In 1974 Ralph Nader (founding co-father of the NYPIRG), and Allan Nairn launched an intensive research of the ETS.*
In 1975 the FTC opened an investigation into the ETS.
In 1979 New York enacted Truth-in-Testing Law, which required the ETS to release copies of previously administered SAT tests.**
In 1980 the CB released real SATs for the first time.
In 1981 the CB began offering to students copies of their tests along with their answers and the correct ones.
In 1989 the ETS, CB, GRE, and TOEFL filed a suit with a purpose of dismantling Truth-in-Testing law.
In 1990 a Federal judge striked down Truth-in-Testing law.
In 1991 Federal Appeals Court overturned that decision.
That’s all for now.
Thanks for this, I had heard of parts of it but good to see the details.
I have never understood why ETS has been hesitant to release official SAT tests. Are they afraid that disclosing the tests would lead to a rise in SAT scores? Are they planning to reuse questions and older tests? Are they trying to reduce the cost of test development by releasing little or no information about the test?
I had heard that one of the motivations to go for a computer adaptive test for GMAT and GRE was so that the truth-in-testing law would no longer be applicable. Because computer based tests, at least for GMAT and GRE, are conducted throughout the year, there is no mass testing as is the case with SAT and ACT. Of course they like the fact that the computer based tests use fewer questions and that they can reuse the pool of questions for a much longer time frame.
Unfortunately, all this leads to other distorted behaviors. For example, GMAT had a serious breach in China where the entire database of questions was downloaded and shared. Even today, Chinese students openly discuss GMAT questions that have been on the exam recently and this seriously compromises the test. We see the same distorted behavior with international SATs.
I think they just need to keep creating fresh tests and make all of them public. At least this is what I have been telling Collegeboard, and it seems like they may do this for the new SAT. In my opinion, LSAC has done a great job by being transparent about LSAT, they release almost all of their tests. The tests are written by ETS, but the testing process is controlled by LSAC.
Since time immemorial, College Board/ETS and also ACT have been reusing tests. It is rare to get a new test as opposed to one already given at some point in the past before. For SAT that cycle of reusing prior tests will end when the new test is introduced in March, but then will eventually begin again after a few years.