College Admissions Cheating Racket

[Belsnickel]

(03-14-2019, 10:08 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: As someone who proctors SAT's, I can tell you that it would be incredibly easy for a site coordinator to fix scores. They have access to the test ahead of time and access to the completed tests afterwards.

ETS (they run the SAT) should have had red flags going up over a Florida based test coordinator traveling to California to administer a test.

This leads us into the discussion of the for profit education and the push for college. It makes nearly twice as much a year as the NFL. We over test and then we over pay for these shitty tests. Then we tell kids that all that matters at the end is one more final shitty test to get into college.

Of course, for someone like Aunt Becky's shitty kid and her shitty youtube channel, college becomes a necessity to sell herself online. It can't be some basic af state college that will take her shitty scores, it has to be somewhere marketable.

There is some hope in this realm, at least, that there will be a trend coming of universities making the ACT/SAT thing optional. University of Chicago made the announcement that they were going that route, last year, and The Chronicle put up an article talking about the potential implications. I don't know how long this trend will take to get solid traction or even if it will, but I think there would be a tremendous benefit in going that route.

We, at JMU, assess the shit out of everything. I mean, between out Office of Institutional Research and our Center for Assessment & Research Studies, we are constantly testing things out in an effort to improve education. I am someone that loves quantifying anything I can because I understand that sort of data better. But even I understand that you the sort of testing that is done by the ACTs/SATs is a poor representation of the what sort of student the person is. The university recognizes these flaws as well and does not require the test scores for admission.

Throw in on top of that fraud risks involved and the inadequate control mechanisms and it really is just sickening. Even more so for public institutions that have a responsibility to the public beyond that of private institutions.