Accusations are not convictions.
Like i said, ACT does not inform employers that you cheated.
Hi RandyErika,
I canât find the post about a successful appeal. Can you tell me when the post was made. Also, was this arbitration or part of the review process?
@kodiman24 Post is #229. Poster is kathy00
@mmk2015: We all know that ACT does not inform employers of cheating allegations. Why is that statement relevant other than when one must self disclose accusations of wrong doing such as for security clearances & state bar memberships ?
My point is that if one is wrongfully accused of cheating by ACT, then it is wise to hire an attorney now when the matter can be resolved in the studentâs favor as it may come into play later in life with respect to employment situations. For example, when a security clearance is needed or for bar memberships & the like. In fact, it may be a required disclosure just when applying to law school depending upon any particular law schoolâs application.
P.S. @mmk2015: Are you a high school student or college freshman ? Have you been accused of cheating by ACT ? If so, please consider my advice to clear up any wrongful accusation before it is too late.
I asked the ACT to provide all the materials regarding seating charts, the test/answer sheet/booklet of the student they claim my daughter cheated off of and the proctor reports. They provided all to me.
I also requested a polygraph. ACT refused.
Has anyone ever hired an attorney to fight this?
Understandable that ACT refused to provide you with a polygraph. You need to be proactive & take one at your own expense. The results will include a sworn statement by the test administrator.
Passing a polygraph should offer some protection if you are required later in life to reveal that you have been accused of cheating.
With respect to hiring an attorney, there are clear due process concerns as well as evidentiary concerns.
Seriously frustrated with ACT. My daughter had her second tests scores pulled for no reason given. The Ohio schools are now being instructed to give the ACT to all juniors. My daughter have Type 1 diabetes and her blood sugars are greatly affected by stress. We did a lot of studying and ultimately decided to have her try a practice run test on the National date in February. She started off great with English and then her blood sugars crashed to 50. She was shaking, had to stop the test for glucose a few times and then hovered around the 60s for the rest of the test which she kept going on. She did awful, but I wasnât concerned because I knew she was taking it again in a couple weeks. BIG MISTAKE! She came home after the second test so happy! Her blood sugars were great the whole test and she really thought she did so well. BUT we will never know. The ACT told the school they will not release her scores and has decided she should have taken a different test than the rest of her classmates. WHAT!?! She is a standard test with accomodation to stop time to check blood sugars and go to bathroom if necessary for high blood sugars. She took the standard test both times. Plus how discriminatory is it to have her take a different test than everyone else! The school appealed and lost and since we didnât personally register for the test we have no recourse. I called ACT and tried to submit her blood sugar readings for both days to explain what I assume is a huge fluctuation in scores but they will not accept anything from me. At this point she is registered to take it again in June .ALSO she took the test one on one alone in a room with the moderator. She has not been accused of cheating but the ACT has the power to just decide your scores are improbable and negate them. Seriously frustrated that this company has so much control over our childrenâs futures. I didnât think we would be in this position so close to college app time and if the appeal hadnât taken so long we could have squeezed in the April or May test. Oh wellâŠan unfortunate life lesson for her about how life isnât fair and you have to just keep going forward but man this poor girl already deals with so much!
ACT has opted to issue a statement to correct inaccurate information in this thread. You can find it here: https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/College-Confidential-Statement-9.pdf.
Because we understand College Confidential to be primarily a forum for college bound students and their families to discuss issues among themselves, we do not intend to make any further posts within this thread. If you or one of your family members is in the midst of the score review process and has questions, we encourage you to read the letters ACT sends to you and contact us directly with any questions you have at the contact information provided in ACTâs letters.
MODERATORâS NOTE:
The above user is indeed a representative of ACT. Please note that she states that she has no plans to further post on this thread, nor is she offering to answer PMs, so if you have specific questions to address to ACT, you are welcome to contact them through the channels indicated on their website:
https://www.act.org/content/act/en/contact-act.html
The ACT response changes nothing discussed in this thread. Interesting that the ACT response does not indicate how a student knows that he or she was accused of cheating. And that is what âscore invalidationâ is for an individual test taker.
Also interesting that no case law is cited, but just a reference to âthe courtsâ.
I find it interesting that the ACT response suggests that an invalidated test is not equivalent to an accusation of cheating. What other plausible explanations are there?
There is none.
In addition to being self-serving (as expected), it is a bit insulting, I suspect, to anyone who has been wronged in the âscore invalidationâ process.
ACT 's response states:
âThe purpose of the review process is to determine whether the score in question is reliable enough to be considered an ACT college-reportable score, and it results in a determination of whether the score should retain its valid status.â
And:
âCourts have rejected the argument that proof of misconduct is required to justify score cancellationâŠâ.
I would like to read that court decision or decisions.
Livingston v. ACT 890 F.2d. 380 (11th Circuit) Not sure, but if I recall correctly it is a decision from 1989. ACT uses the plural version of the word court because the appellate court affirmed the district (trial) courtâs decision in the same case.
The facts in this case are highly favorable to ACT & it is reasonable to assume wrongful conduct occurred by the test taker.
An Alabama high school football player was recruited by the University of Alabama to play football. The player scored a composite score of 10 (ten) on the ACT and was therefore ineligible academically to play football at Alabama per NCAA rules.
When student realized that his football scholarship & eligibility depended on achieving a certain level of score on the ACT, he retook the test & scored a 20 (twenty) composite score which was sufficient under NCAA rules.
ACT routinely flags any score showing a 6 point increase within 20 months of a prior test.
Holding: Under Alabama law, ACT needs only to show a âgood faith basis for its cancellation of the score.â
The Federal Appellate Court noted the alarming similarity between the football playerâs answer on his ACT test to that of a nearby test taker. 219 questions, 189 identical answers, and identical wrong answers to the same 70 questions.
The football player was offered several options by ACT that he refused. The court considered ACTâs actions to be reasonable.
A convincing factor in the case cited above is that the two test takers had the identical wrong answer on 70 questions. Each question typically has 5 answer choices so it is highly unlikely that so many wrong answers would be identical in my opinion, and, more importantly, in the opinion of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The football player was unable to get the court to do a due process of law review in this case for failure to demonstrate that any concern was a state actor or action of the state.
Again, this is a 28 or 29 year old case applying Alabama law with facts that were extremely favorable to ACTâs position.
âGood faith basisâ & âreasonablenessâ standards leave the doors wide open for challenge by one with a more balanced set of facts.
To be clear, the definition of what constitutes âgood faith basisâ and âreasonablenessâ will vary from case to case depending upon the facts of each particular case. Not very reassuring standards for ACT, in my opinion.
An additional note: Although I read the case quickly, I do not recall the court writing that no proof of misconduct is required to justify score cancellation. That may be argued as dicta, but it is notâbased on my quick readâa holding of the Livingston v. ACT case.
In fact, in the Livingston case there was convincing circumstantial evidence of misconduct ( âan alarming similarity between Plaintiffâs answers and those of test number 413619â was noted by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals).
P.S. âdictaâ is not legal authority.
Class action lawsuit folks. This is probably your best way forward. ACT is ignoring all the evidence for reasons only they know, but their actions have real-life, and unhappy, consequences.
On a positive note @ktrrights , you are clearly having an impact. Well done.
I read the statement, and there is no transparency there. Interesting use of the word âsometimes.â