Ex-Nassau County DA who uncovered SAT cheating calls for College Board overhaul
The former Nassau County DA who uncovered widespread SAT cheating in Long Island eight years ago says the College Board needs to be overhauled because it failed to stop the college-admissions scandal.
“The College Board has lost the ability to be taken credibly,” said Rep. Kathleen Rice, now a New York congresswoman. “This stuff is still going on? It’s crazy!”
The new scandal has snared 50 people, most of them wealthy parents who allegedly paid more than $25 million to fixer Rick Singer to help fake their kids’ test scores and bribe officials at Yale, Stanford and other elite colleges. Actress Felicity Huffman has been arrested in the case.
Some parents allegedly paid $15,000 to $75,000 for others to take the SAT for their kids or give them answers.
As the top prosecutor in Nassau County, Rice filed criminal charges in 2011 against 20 teenagers from five Long Island high schools, five of whom were accused of taking the SAT for others in exchange for $500 to $3,600 per exam.
The widening scandal led Rice to demand that the College Board institute several reforms, such as attaching students’ photos to tests to confirm their identities.
But Rice told the Post on Friday that the College Board at first wouldn’t agree to take basic steps to stop the cheating.
“They kept saying this was an isolated incident. They were fighting me tooth and nail,” she said. “We had to extend the investigation to show it was more pervasive than they were claiming it was.”
SEE ALSO
Alleged college admissions mastermind used two schemes to get kids into schools
The College Board, a non-profit that administers standardized tests and raked in about $1.2 billion in 2017, later did put in reforms.
Rice rejected a recent claim by the Board that it has “a comprehensive, robust approach to combat cheating, and as part of that effort we work closely with law enforcement, as we did in this investigation.”
“For them to say they have this incredible oversight, it’s not true,” Rice said.
“It’s a huge money-making operation for them — humongous. They are all about CYA and brushing things under the carpet. That was my experience in 2011 and 2012, and it sounds to me that they’re taking the same attitude now.”
She added: “If you’re going to require kids to take this test as an indicator of their future educational success, you have to maintain integrity around it.”
“Otherwise, it’s something that can be used, abused and applied in an unfair way.”
Rice also blasted the parents for gaming the system.
“It enrages me so much because these kids you would assume have already been the recipients of a quality high school education that should get them into a good enough college.
“It’s like pouring salt in a wound. Are you kidding me?”
https://nypost.com/2019/03/16/ex-nassau-county-da-who-uncovered-sat-cheating-calls-for-college-board-overhaul/