Thanks to the aggressive action taken by Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice and Great Neck North High School principal Bernard Kaplan, students around the nation faced tough new measures designed to make it harder to cheat when they took their SAT tests last weekend.
On Saturday the students were required to submit a photograph at registration which was printed on their admission ticket and checked against a photo ID presented at the test center. The photo will also accompany the student’s test scores that are reported to the high schools.
The measures were put into place following revelations that students at Great Neck North had paid a former student thousands of dollars to take the test for them. An investigation showed that SAT security standards were incredibly lax.
In a statement, Rice said, “Last year, my office uncovered a widespread SAT and ACT cheating scandal in Nassau County that put a national spotlight on gaping holes in standardized test security. We worked with the College Board and ACT Inc. to bring about comprehensive test security reform to level the playing field, at no additional cost to students.”
In addition to the photos, test-takers can no longer change the venue where they will take the test on the day of the test.
These measures and others will make it far more difficult to cheat on the test that plays such an important role in determining what college a student can get into.
When Kaplan was made aware of the cheating, he could have tried to sweep the scandal under the rug. Instead he took the evidence he had found to the district attorney’s office and together Kaplan and Rice exposed the cheating and, more importantly, the lack of security at the testing service to local and national media.
The cheating, of course, was nothing to be proud of. Their response was.
