CNN/AP: Lawsuit: Company grading SATs blew it

[DeepModem Mom]

Lawsuit: Company grading SATs blew it
Company responds that excess moisture may have caused errors
Saturday, April 8, 2006

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- 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, filed by attorneys for an unidentified high school senior in Dix Hills, New York, seeks class-action status. Lawyers want to allow anyone who took the test in October except those who got a marked-up score to join the lawsuit....

***

(Pearson spokesman David Hakensen)has said the culprit may have been excessive moisture that caused answer sheets to expand and some marks to be unreadable. The error was discovered when the College Board asked the company to hand-score some tests....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/08/SAT.suit.ap/index.html

[jsamuel]

1. How do any of us know that this didn't happen to us too?

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Whoa -- we don't! nt

[PaDUer]

8. What other tests

might be involved resulting in low scores, I.e., LSAT's, MCAT's? We know some other people who scored lower than they should have on these standardized tests.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. I'd question those, too. nt

[BlueIris]

7. Okay, seriously? I would totally believe my score was FUBARed.

My little sister's score (along with that of several other close friends) simply doesn't match up with their level of academic achievement, even or especially on standardized tests, up until that point in their lives.

[Canuckistanian]

2. They must have spilled champagne on the test sheets

While celebrating their no-bid contract to score SAT's.

Are you sure this company isn't a subsidiary of Halliburton?

[Liberty Belle]

4. or Diebold?

[Canuckistanian]

5. State your political affiliation:Republican. ....Pass!

No Diebolding necessary.

[orleans]

6. the college board deals with various companies (depending on the

state) and they collect info on the kids--names, addresses, etc and sell the lists to places that offer "scholarship" programs -- this includes the army, marines, navy, air force, etc.

i made a ton of calls on this, including to the college board & the company it works with in illinois (offhand, i forget the name) and discovered lists are compiled and sold.

names are on tests kids are required to take in order to pass into the next grade. kids are asked on the tests if they would like more info on opportunities at no expense to them. of course most of the kids check yes.

illinois board of education assured me that no lists were compiled and sold. i assured them that they were--because i had called and was mistaken for a rep from an institution with scholarships to offer. i was told it was slightly over $100 to open an account and then "we" would be charged per name!


i did all this tracking down because my daughter was getting crap in the mail from the navy, army and marines.

so, you don't want the army to know you have a kid in high school or jr. high? don't put your child in public school so they don't have to take mandated tests that are given and graded by an organization that supports itself by selling your child's information to "scholarship" programs such as the army!

[mrdmk]

13. Do not like the public school system, send them to private school

Need some help with your child's private education, here are some vouchers! Is this a vicious circle or what? Why did my B.S. meter go red (+20db and climbing)?

[LostinVA]

9. Seriously, this company is a total monopoly, and a borderline scam

I've thought this for years... this proves it. And, this isn't new: anyone who's watched "STand and Deliver" know they've been screwing up in many ways for YEARS.

[sweetheart]

10. The SAT's are aweful monopoly indeed

THey force education to be "flat", and in particular areas
like maths, i'd say its good, in other areas, the distinct lack
of dimensionality in teh testing regimen oversimplifies human beings terribly.

However, what if the person's art is musical instrument design?
Then the exam tests nothing.

What if the person's art is writing?
Then the exam tests nothing.

What if the person's art is martial arts?
Then the exam tests nothing.

I think the exam selects the wrong set, the "yes people" who
attaboy up to the top of the class. These are not the
self-motivated entrepreneurs, those who challenge orthodoxy.
They "are" the ultimate orthodoxy, that defines every person relative
to any other on a rote aptitude scale on verbal and maths.
My child is not 2 numbers, nor am I, it is absurd, and were
i a university, i would use interviews to test applicants
who shortlist based on a very wide qualificaton criteria,
open to challenging every single interest a person could
ever have in learning.

I was a 590 when i first took the verbal. Then i took some of
those boning up courses and upped the score to like 660 or
whatever. But how i did on that exam does not tell anything
about how much i've read and learned about language over
the past decades since that silly exam.

[sweetheart]

11. no, it wasn't that high

I don't think my first SAT was any good at all, it might
have been 470 or so. I guess i experienced first hand what
a little dilligence in those "tune-em-up" courses do, and
had i actually been interested, surely i would have done
better.

I guess what bothered me about the exam, is that its a "trick"
a hoop, and richer people get more coaching for their kids to
jump through the hoop... and poorer people can't afford the
kind of coaching... its classist, that exam... loathsome.

Progressives should be against the SAT monopoly? ARe we?

[sweetheart]

14. judgement judged are SAT

Judge the children by their SAT,
This one's smart, that one's no good.
This one has a learning disability;
I only want that one, he'll pay for more food.

That one culn't speak english like he shuld,
and this ones got a perfect 1600. (patriarchal attitude)
That girl should get pregnant if she could.
The SAT's right, low scoring kids, worthless fish food.

When everyone's ranked and defined above,
each other in perfect meritocratic pyramids include,
one dimension of the truth, performance without love,
potential cantidates for commanding the colonially rude.
Amoral kapital selecteth in thy perfect state,
rank number all the slaves, that they know their mortal fate.