My son is going through this right now. He is accused of cheating due to statistically similar answers. Among other many many reasons this is false, he was sitting in FRONT of and diaganol from the other student. How does someone repeatedly turn around and look at someone else’s test without notice? We appealed and were told they were going with the stats. He graduates this May and he has no other option but to retake this test even though he hasn’t prepared for it in nine months. Why wait so long, ACT, to let us know? Is there anyone who has contacted an attorney for a class action law suit? There is absolutely no reason with today’s technology for ACT to not be able to provide each student with an individual test in order to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
reach out to calkymom 2 posts above . They just won arbitration.
Can you give details on how you won arbitration?What proof did you show,etc
Congrats!!!
Our experience is somewhat related – not to cheating, but to incompetence of some national standardized testing orgs… Our DD is homeschooled, but took the PSAT at our local public HS over a year ago. Never got any scores… they seem to have simply vanished! There is a record of her registering for the test… and the administrator (a guidance counselor) remembers DD, and remembers putting her booklet in the batch. She also counted both the booklets and the score sheets, and the numbers matched, before shipping them to College Board. But College Board says they have absolutely NO record of her even taking the test, and no score sheet to be found. Thankfully, DD was in a lower grade at the time, so this was just a practice experience. But imagine if she had been in 11th grade!! And NOW… she just got her scores from this year, and there are some questionable things on there… like her score report says she omitted questions on the reading and writing sections, when she swears she finished both of those sections with time to spare. I am going to search CC to find out how to get a copy of her answer sheet, if that is still possible.
Maybe she didn’t omit questions.
But maybe she didn’t bubble deeply enough with the pencil, so the scanner didn’t read the bubbles.
I would call College Board and see if you can have the test hand scored. If yes, there will be a fee.
Were the questions omitted or just her answers? Sometimes CB tosses out bad questions.
Just saw this article for those in this situation.
As a follow up to @sunset88 a judge in NJ just ruled today that the student can sue the ACT for damages after being accused of cheating. The judge found that the clause test-takers must sign giving up their rights to sue the testing company is “unconscionable” and “void as against public policy."
Not sure how the signature of a minor would be valid for a decision involving legal outcomes. Some of these kids are 18, of course, but many aren’t. How many 16 year olds sign up for the ACT/SAT? Lots.
“A judge has sided with a New Jersey teenager accused of cheating on the ACT exams, saying a clause test-takers must sign giving up their rights to sue the testing company is “unconscionable” and “void as against public policy.”
The ruling from Somerset County Judge Michael Rogers means Readington Township teenager Brendan Clare can seek damages from ACT Inc., the company that runs the test and threatened to invalidate his scores. It also opens the door for teenagers across the country to attempt to sue the testing company citing Rogers’ ruling." …
This is a big victory for many of us going through this same situation.We need to all band together to fight against this injustice for our kids who are being falsely accused!
An article I wrote 13 long years ago (google “Disputes with ETS”) about SAT score challenges is still surprisingly accurate, and most (but not all) of it applies to ACT score review procedures. It gives a good global perspective on what’s involved. Inspired by last week’s excellent NJ court decision (on which I advised, along with FairTest), I’m working on a parallel article on the ACT system, addressing, among other issues, two factors on which I think ACT is particularly vulnerable: the 6+ month delay after the test for the student to receive ACT’s first notice letter, and the onerous, one-sided arbitration Submission Agreement ACT requires. Arbitration, on occasion, serves a student well, but almost always it favors ACT, which is represented by counsel and has experts available.
An unintended consequence of the ACT’s actions: A girl cheated on the ACT (admitted to us) and the ACT busted her - clear evidence. She got into our state flagship with some merit aid. She told the school the ACT was accusing her of cheating and she had no idea why. The school said that there have been so many “false positives” from the ACT on cheating, and that she should let them drop her score and her admission was guaranteed, as well as the scholarship (barring senioritis). I know her grades and prior scores and they were significantly below average at our state school.
This is the problem with crying wolf.
This is a problem the ACT has created itself. While I’m not in any way an expert on this, some of the biggest complaints about the ACT when they accuse someone of cheating is the delay in reporting it (six months or longer) and the bad supporting evidence in their incorrect seating charts. Students have been accused of cheating off of someone while not sitting next to each other or even in the same room.
It would seem, possibly oversimplistc, that some solutions would be having students “sign off” on where they were sitting (seat number) on a standard seating chart, and/or giving out different versions of the same test. Each version could have the same questions in the same order on every test (for consistency and fairness) but ‘shuffle’ the possible answers on each version. When the people around you have different versions, cheating by looking over your shoulder, or right or left, to someone else’s answer key would offer no benefit.
But back to the first point, they brought this on themselves by waiting so long to notify students of discrepancies on their score sheets and then really having no - or inaccurate - seating chart documentation.
Does the SAT have the same issues?
@WilsonTimes - No, not based on the recent case we’ve been seeing in the press. ETS flags you within the two weeks of waiting for your scores, notifies you that you have a score hold, then they do an investigation and notify you within two months that they will not release. It’s much quicker.
It’s almost as if ACT is showing bad-will by holding onto your score until you are about to graduate. They are either super lazy by doing their investigations after score release or they are unfairly playing hardball by forcing a re-take so that the student can go on to college (much less expensive than continued arbitration). It really appears to be nasty.
@JBStillFlying - Thanks for the info.
If the SAT is able to notify students within two weeks, then there’s just no excuse for the ACT.
I’m incredulous about a lot of what I read on this thread, but one thing that I just can’t fathom is when I read stories where the ACT’s “evidence” is an incorrect seating chart. If you can’t produce an accurate seating chart …
You are correct in that the ACT is either just lazy or nasty.
My son has just received ACT letter of cheating, we are going to pick option 3, he did not cheat, he has already been awarded a scholarship to his dream college and risk losing, because ACT states too many similar right and wrong answers and too much improvement from last test! This is his Senior year!
Any ways to join protest against ACT method of ruining young people’s opportunity to a college degree, I am on board.
He has worked hard for his education!
Euless TX
ACT is awful! @Williamsmaggie my son received the same letter 7 months after the test. He is also a senior. We sent in documentation in December supporting his increased score and letters from teachers. ACT security did not accept this! We are now requesting documents from them and wanting to move towards arbitration, but most on here have said that the students usually lose arbitration. This is so stressful!
Yes, within the past year FairTest has dealt with cases in which SAT scores were released to the student on the normal scheduled but challenged months later.
@CALKYmom I would really love to hear more about your experience winning arbitration. Any guidance is much appreciated!!