SAT officials to testify about LI cheating
A photo of a scantron test sheet. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
Top SAT officials responsible for testing more than 2 million students worldwide each year are expected to testify Tuesday before a State Senate committee hearing about a recent Long Island cheating scandal.
Gaston Caperton, president of the Manhattan-based College Board, which sponsors the SAT, will appear at the hearing of the Senate's Higher Education Committee at Farmingdale State College, the nonprofit organization confirmed Monday.
Kurt Landgraf, president of ETS of Princeton, N.J., which administers the college-entrance exam on behalf of College Board, also is scheduled to speak.
The cheating scandal, which included the arrests of seven students, past and present, from Great Neck North High School, has gained nationwide media attention and generated widespread demands for tighter test security.
State Sen. Kenneth LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), who is chairman of the higher education committee, has suggested that any student whose SAT score is invalidated for suspected cheating should be barred from further testing for a set time.
Such students are now offered a chance to retake the test or to have fees refunded, and their names are not provided to the colleges they wish to attend. Among others scheduled to testify are Roger Tilles of Great Neck, the Island's representative to the state Board of Regents; Bernard Kaplan, principal of Great Neck North; Robert Schaeffer, public education director of FairTest, a Massachusetts-based organization that opposes overuse of standardized tests; the Rev. Philip Eichner, president of Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale; Herb Brown, superintendent of Oceanside schools and president of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents; and Alan Groveman, Connetquot superintendent and president of the Suffolk County School Superintendents Association.
