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CollegeBoard Does Not Play Fair--or Even Care About Accuracy
A concerned parent found out that the CollegeBoard does not reread essays--even when they are paid $100 to "look at" the test. If a student erases too much and thus makes the essay illegible on the computer screen, then too bad. Collegeboard does not consider this its problem.
If anyone has advice for this parent, please send it on.
by a concerned parent
Hi, I am currently having a disagreement with the CollegeBoard about my child's SAT 1 test. The problem involves erasing--the machines the CollegeBoard uses can not "read" the erasures properly and the CollegeBoard's response to my complaint is unsatisfactory to say the least.
My child took the SAT 1 with the writing section this spring (March 2007). She scored much lower (a hundred points each) on two of the three sections than she normally had in practice and what she scored on the next SAT 1 test she took--only about six/eight weeks later (I think May 2007).
We were shocked when we viewed her essay on the computer screen. Portions were illegible. It turns out that everywhere my child erased and wrote over that part of the paper, the scanned in essay was illegible. Although about one-fourth or one-fifth of her essay was illegible on the computer screen, two people supposedly read and marked it.(The SAT only gives the test takers two pieces of paper. I understand, from my conversations with the CollegeBoard employees, that two test markers only see the scanned version and read it quickly and score it. If the two scorers are more than one point apart on the score a third person reads it, also from the computer screen.) I also disapprove of their requiring a handwritten essay when all the students write with computers now a days--this too is inherently invalid.
My daughter also did much worse than usual on all the multiple choice questions, so it made us wonder if the erasing problem evident on the essay on screen was also causing the scantron multiple choice answers to be misread. If she marked an answer and then wanted to erase it and choose another, perhaps the computer marked it wrong because the erasures were also being read. So it would look as if she had marked two answers for one question, and automatically be marked wrong.
I've spoken to the CollegeBoard. Their employees have agreed that the essay was partly illegible. It's supposedly been noted in her file. I paid for a verification of her scores.
The problem is the CollegeBoard is saying they never re-read essays, they are inherently valid and if the student did not follow the instructions of erasing as much as possible--then too bad. This would mean that they are not going to change her multiple choice scores either.
I've replied--this is form over substance, they are not re-reading since no-one really read the essay before and my child erased to the best of her ability--which I argue meets their standard (possible--not perfect), and obviously the human eye sees it differently than the computer--they should just have a person read it. This is a technical problem. Their attitude is appalling. Usually I just get e-mails that say the same thing over and over and request the same information over and over.
I also feel your organization might be interested in this problem in general. I was unaware of the problem with scanning in the handwritten essay (with or without the erasure) or that this problem could carry over to the short and multiple choice answers. Plus their attitude of the inherent validity of the essay scores--they never re-read them--is outrageous. Also outrageous is supposedly applying a rule of just follow the instructions or too bad, when they could easily have a human being really see what the student wrote or meant to write. The best interests of the child and truly finding out how much student knows are certainly are not factors here. Although they were happy to take my $100 to agree to look into it.
My child is a straight A student (took four AP classes in her junior year, five next year), in the National Honor Society and in two other language honor societies. She is an amazing musician and writer, and very smart and simply wonderful. She used to be classified as perceptually impaired, but she has, through tremendous effort and resilience, overcome it, and she has been declassified since seventh or eighth grade. She took the SAT tests under normal conditions. Probably this past experience has made me more sensitive than the average person to the CollegeBoard's attitude and methods. I have looked into lists of colleges that do not require the SAT, but most of them would still prefer to get a score if it was good enough, I asked this question of Bowdoin and a few other colleges. Also, even if SAT testing is optional for admittance, most of the colleges require it for merit scholarships. So, there is no real escape from the CollegeBoard.
Would you please tell me who to forward this e-mail to or if you know anyone who might be interested? At a minimum, I would like to change and expose the CollegeBoard's policies. It has become a matter of principle for me. Any suggestions or any help you could give me would be welcome.
— A concerned parent
e-mail
2007-07-25
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