Concerns raised by SAT snafu
After Alexa Middleton finished taking the SAT on June 6, she flopped onto her parents' bed: "I'm done. I did it." She would tell her mother later, "I don't want to take that test ever again."
After Alexa Middleton finished taking the SAT on June 6, she flopped onto her parents' bed: "I'm done. I did it." She would tell her mother later, "I don't want to take that test ever again."
But the 17-year-old rising senior at Abington Friends School in Jenkintown would get an awful surprise a few days later.
Because of a printing error, the College Board, which owns the SAT, announced that it would not score two sections of the test - one in reading, one in math - given to 487,000 students in the United States on that Saturday. It was the first time such an error has occurred, according to the College Board.
"Her face completely dropped to the floor," recalled Gail Newsome-Middleton, Alexa's mother. "She was that upset."
The College Board says the students' overall scores are valid. The seven scored sections, it said, "had the same distribution of content and skills as the full-length test," and so losing two sections should not have an impact. The sections were eliminated because of a typo in the test books prepared by Educational Testing Service that gave students 25 minutes to finish the sections, as opposed to the correct time of 20 minutes.
But the Middletons are unsure whether they can trust the results - which were not as good as they had hoped - and some experts say their skepticism is with good reason.
"There is no way for students to know whether scores from two sections left uncalculated are the same" as all sections, said Bob Schaeffer, public education director of the Boston-based Fair Test: National Center for Fair and Open Testing, a critic of the SAT and other standardized tests. "It's an unknown."
For Middleton, a Division I basketball prospect and the daughter of two Philadelphia police officers, the test was especially important because coaches are scouting for potential players now. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound center/power forward, who has been a starter since her freshman year, has already visited Hofstra, St. John's, Iona, George Washington, Columbia, and St. Joseph's.
This month, she will show off her talents before hundreds of NCAA coaches at national tournaments, and she wanted her SAT scores in hand. "It was just disappointing," Middleton said of the problem.
The College Board has offered students a free retest in October, but the Middletons are concerned that will be too late - that coaches already will have zeroed in on prospects. They would like her to retest as soon as possible.
"Even if I had to pay again for her to take it, I would. It's that important," Newsome-Middleton said.
The Middletons aren't the only ones upset. The SATs are a high-stakes venture for many students hoping to get into the Ivy League and other top-ranked universities.
The June 6 test error already has drawn three proposed class action lawsuits, in New York, New Jersey, and Florida, against both the College Board and Educational Testing Service, Schaeffer noted. Students are looking for a variety of remedies, including a new test date sooner than October and some type of financial settlement for failure to provide a flawless test.
"Students paid to get 100 percent of their answers scored," he said.
Some officials who deal with college admissions were less concerned. At Conestoga High School, Misty Whelan, assistant principal, said students were notified of the issue. "They didn't feel it was that significant that they would want their scores canceled," she said.
The College Board said scores will be treated the same as those from other sittings. There will be no note on student records.
The Middletons knew their daughter wasn't a fan of standardized tests. They got her into a prep course. Every Saturday and Sunday for a month, she took classes. She tested at Roxborough High, near their Philadelphia home.
For Middleton, a difference of a few points could be crucial. Under NCAA guidelines, depending on her GPA, she will need to reach a certain level on her reading and math SAT to be eligible to play in Division I and receive a scholarship.
The Middletons declined to give the score their daughter received or the range she needs. Newsome-Middleton said she doesn't think the score is a true measure anyway. "With two sections missing, I don't really feel confident," she said. "She could have gotten every question on those sections completely right, but we'll never know that."
215-854-4693@ssnyderinq