Tighter Security to Thwart Cheating on SAT and ACT
Beginning next fall students taking college entrance exams will have to produce a photo ID when they arrive at the testing site. That picture will be checked against an image they uploaded at the time they registered for the exam, which will appear on the admission ticket.
This is one of several new policies instituted nationwide in response to a cheating scandal that was uncovered last year in Nassau County, NY. Twenty teens were arrested for taking part in a scheme where students paid others to take the SAT or ACT exam for them.
Fittingly, the new security measures were announced in Nassau County in late March. At the press conference were representatives from the ACT and the College Board, which runs the SAT in conjunction with the Educational Testing Service. Also on hand was Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen M. Rice who said:
“These reforms close a gaping hole in standardized test security that allowed students to cheat and steal admissions offers and scholarship money from kids who played by the rules. Millions of college-bound students who take the SAT and ACT each year should have renewed confidence that honest applicants will not take a back seat to cheaters, and that those who cheat will be caught.”
In other efforts to thwart cheating, registrants will be required to provide their gender and list their high school when they sign up. In addition, on-site registration (where students sign up the day of the test) will no longer be allowed.