Ongoing SAT Scandal in Asia

Valerie Strauss of “The Washington Post” has led the reporting on the SAT scandal in Asia.

The College Board and the Educational Testing Service are under fire from students in Asia as many are frustrated that their scores, held up in the ongoing cheating scandal, have been withheld. Because their scores have been withheld, this has impacted their ability to gain admission to highly selective colleges in the United States. In fact, a letter was received by the College Board from these students and Tom Ewing, director of external affairs for the Educational Testing Service, has responded. It’s quite an interesting read, we find.

In his response, as reported in an article about the ongoing SAT scandal in Asia in “The Washington Post,” Mr. Ewing writes, “We have received the letter and appreciate the concern and frustration expressed by these students and parents. For reasons of privacy, it is our practice to communicate directly with students regarding all aspects of their SAT experience from registration through score reporting, and we have been in communication with affected students. We offered to provide them with a letter of explanation they can send to universities explaining that the delay is through no fault of their own.”

We wholly agree with Valerie Strauss, writer of the piece in “The Washington Post” and the journalist who has covered this developing SAT scandal extremely effectively from the very beginning. She believes the response by Mr. Ewing raises more questions than answers. As she points out, does this mean the students who received this response have been cleared of any wrongdoing? And, if so, why can’t their scores be released? We’d like to add on to Ms. Strauss’ questions: “What’s the deal, ETS and College Board?” Punish the guilty and free the innocent already! Their college admissions are at stake.

Oh and if you’re wondering how this letter was sent, a petition was mailed to ETS and The College Board. The petition read: “Hereby, we signed this petition to claim fairness! We need fairness! We have the right to gain the test scores!” Based on that grammar, we’d be a bit concerned about those Writing and Critical Reading scores! But we’re with the students who took no part in cheating in spirit.