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One of the biggest investments anyone can make is in the future of children. For eighteen years parents and teachers encourage students to do their best, believe in themself and work hard in school. Upon high school graduation, students apply for colleges and universities all over the United States in pursuit of their dreams and goals of becoming independent, educated and successful adults. Standardized testing is one of the most stressful contributors to the pressure these students face during their junior and senior years. In addition these scores are required to be accepted by most American higher education schools. So, what if your child received a letter from the ACT organization informing them that their test scores, that were already submitted to universities, is being cancelled due to suspected cheating? These accusations from the ACT organization have been a growing problem for years and continues to get worse, affecting undeserving high school seniors all across America.
The ACT test was introduced in November 1959 by University of Iowa professor Everett Franklin Lindquist, as a competitor to the Scholastic Aptitude Test. This test is taken by students all over the world in hopes of being accepted into American higher education schools. ACT has had an increasing problem internationally with “intentional, flagrant cheating.” This is largely due to a program known as the Global Assessment Certificate which is owner by the ACT organization. The GAC program cost students over $10,000 a year, which offers many students advantages over others that is not widely advertised. The GAC officials and proctors often times ignored complicit cheating on the ACT tests according to multiple students interviewed by Reuters (Stecklow, 2016). As a result of this, cheating students in Asia have been accepted into U.S. top universities taking the limited attendance spots of many qualified students that could have been accepted with qualified passing scores.
The ACT international cheating problem has not only proven to be corrupt but has also proven to be impacting American students by denying them the opportunity to be accepted into universities across the United States by cancelling their qualified ACT scores through another corrupt process of falsely accusing these students of cheating. Many people have asked why the ACT would engage in such practices. The reason for this is due to the commitment that the ACT organization has made to higher education school officials across America. This ensures these schools that fair and secure testing is conducted so that scores accepted by these schools are from students who are qualified (Goldschneider, 2006). These officials rely on this commitment to protect the quality of students being accepted into the limited enrollment opportunities available.
The ACT organization encourages students to take the test multiple times, a maximum of 12 times to according to the ACT terms and agreements in the ACT Student Test Prep Handbook. In many cases high schools will require that all students take the ACT during their junior year. Due to many of the test contents not being covered until a students senior year, many students do not score well the first time. As a result, many students will take recommended prep courses and tutoring offered through high schools and the ACT organization in effort to improve their scores. Once a student has taken the test multiple times, the ACT will conduct an internal scan of test results looking for students who have increased their score results by 4 or more points. The ACT waits over four months before notifying students that their most recent scores are being cancelled due to irregularities (cheating). During the four months that it took the ACT to notify these unsuspecting students, these seniors have turned these scores in with applications to universities, and in many cases have been accepted (parents across the U.S., 2017). As a result, these schools are notified of the cancelled scores, which shows the universities that the committed security measures are being upheld by the ACT. The affected students will then get an opportunity to retake the ACT test or appeal the decision. The appeal process goes through a review with the same Test Security Department that cancels the score. Ironically this is also the department that administers the test, scans the results, controls the appeal panel and produces all the statistical results used in justifying this manipulated and corrupt process. In short they are the accuser, the jury and the prosecutor making it virtually impossible for any student to defend themself against these false accusations.
The ACT organization's goal is to provide American universities Test Security results that will offset the widespread international cheating scandal. To accomplish this, they not only impact students individually but also entire school districts. In Knox County, TN. for example, the ACT cancelled the scores of 409 students due to what they claim was an error in the test. Although they mayor of Bearden County appealed the decision the students lost the fight (Crowe & Wade, 2017). A similar situation affected over 19,500 students in Ohio when the ACT organization claims to have administered an incorrect tests resulting in the cancellation of the scores. This not only affected these students emotionally and physiologically but also the risk students could run into by missing application and scholarship deadlines to some institutions of higher learning due to a lack of an ACT score (Aubry, 2017). Due to the significance of backlash the ACT organization then overturned their decision and reinstated the students scores.
The future of our children depend on the protection of our educational system and the officials that run it. Students all across America are required, in many school districts, to take the ACT test, regardless that they are unregulated, un-monitored and not audited by any third party agency. The unethical practice of this standardized testing administrator has impacted the future of our children for many generations. This problem of the ACT organization falsely accusing students of cheating continues to grow and will continue to worsen until awareness is made and regulation efforts are enforced. Spreading awareness of these facts is an investment to the future of all students across the country. Unknown to future seniors, they all depend on it. ktrrights
References:
Stecklow, S. (2016) Students and teachers detail pervasive cheating in a program owned by test giant ACT
Retreived from: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/college-cheating-act/
Goldschneider, A (2006) Cheater 's Proof: Excessive Judicial Deference toward Educational Testing Agencies May Leave Accused Examinees No Remedy to Clear Their Names
Retreived from: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/elj/vol2006/iss1/3/
College Confidential (2017) College Confidential: ACT Testing Wrongly Accusing Cheating 2017
Retrieved from: https://www.collegeconfidential.com/
Crow, M & Wade, M (2017) ACT denies appeal to validate Bearden scores after test distribution issue, principal says
Retrieved from: http://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/education/act-denies-appeal-to-validate-bearden-scores-after-test-distribution-issue-principal-says/51-492044555
Aubry, J (2017) ACT to accept tests given incorrectly to 21 school districts across Ohio
Retrieve from: http://nbc4i.com/2017/06/02/act-to-accept-tests-given-incorrectly-to-21-school-districts-across-ohio/