College test firms defend policies
SAT, ACT procedures exploited in scandal
Part of a college-cheating scandal rocking the nation hinged on two test proctors who accepted bribes of up to $10,000 per student to inflate scores on college admissions tests.
The College Board, which administers the SAT, and ACT Inc. have defended their policies and procedures, which were exploited by the ringleader of the cheating scheme. Both testing companies rely on schools that host test sessions to select administrators and proctors who will follow the rules.
Actress Felicity Huffman and high-powered Greenwich lawyer Gordon Caplan are among the 50 people ensnared in the plot to get their children into elite universities, according to federal prosecutors. The mastermind, William “Rick” Singer, a college admissions consultant in Newport Beach, Calif., pleaded guilty Tuesday to racketeering and other charges in the $25 million scheme.
“ACT contracts with thousands of people to locally administer the ACT around the country,” Tarah DeSousa, with media communications for the ACT, said in a statement Thursday. “In these cases, the two charged individuals allegedly did not follow ACT’s rules.” ACT Inc. said it is cooperating with prosecutors.
“We appreciate the efforts of the authorities and the attention that they have brought to the importance of fairness in testing,” the statement said.
When proctors do not follow policies, the College Board takes appropriate actions, spokesman Jerome White said in a statement.
“Further, when schools don’t comply with our policies and procedures, we reserve the right to prohibit them from administering future tests,” White said.
But Singer found a way around the system, federal prosecutors said. In the scheme, he first instructed a parent to get an evaluation from a psychologist that their child had learning differences and qualified for extra time to take college entrance exams.
Singer then had the family change the child’s testing location to one of two test centers that he controlled — telling the parents to fabricate reasons for testing out-of-state, such as a bar mitzvah or a wedding.
The test administrators at those sites — Niki Williams and Igor Dvorskiy — were bribed to allow someone else to take the exam, to provide students with correct answers, or to review and correct the students’ answers afterward.
According to the federal court documents, Williams, 44, an assistant teacher at a Houston high school, and Dvorskiy, 42, the director of a private elementary and high school in Los Angeles, received up to $10,000 for each test that was changed.
Singer assured the families he had used the scheme many times. In a June call, Greenwich’s Caplan asked Singer, “And it works?” And Singer replied, “Every time.” Both laughed, according to federal transcripts.
Caplan’s daughter took the ACT in December at the West Hollywood Test Center, and Singer promised her test would be fixed so the score would be in the low 30s. A perfect score on the test is 36.
In the case of William McGlashan Jr., a private equity investor from California, and his son, it appears someone else took the test. Records show the ACT was taken on Dec. 9 and 10, 2017, in West Hollywood. But cellphone records show the son was hundreds of miles away in the San Francisco area on the second day.
Both Caplan and McGlashan have been arrested on federal charges of with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
In recent years, The College Board has increased test security efforts and resources, White said. It has added personnel to its test security team, who have suggested adding more test content, banning and collecting cellphones, employing lock boxes, conducting data-driven analyses of test-taker behaviors and enhancing security measures at test centers.
“We’re doing more today than ever to ensure the test scores we report to colleges are accurate and valid,” he said.