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[quote]
Beginning with exams taken in September, students will have to submit a photo of themselves when they apply for a test. That photo will be printed on the student's test admission ticket and the roster provided to proctors at testing sites. Testing staff will compare the submitted photo to a photo ID and to the student in person at the testing site.</p>
<p>Photo checks will take place when the student arrives at the testing site, during breaks and when tests are handed in.</p>
<p>Student photos will also remain in the testing databases and be checked again by high school counselors and college admission officials once scores are calculated and submitted
<p>What left me aghast: “That photo will be attached to students’ scores as they are reported to high schools and colleges.”</p>
<p>I can see a lot of students who might not want race, ethnicity, or physical appearance outed to their prospective colleges, and frankly, if I were a college admissions officer, I would not want to see them given the potential they have for influencing decisions. (If they do proceed with this, I fully expect to see a study in about ten years showing that students who were less attractive physically were less likely to be admitted than were better looking students with statistically equivalent credentials.)</p>
<p>I guess it will depend on the timing of the disclosures. High School Counselors are the key to this equation. I would think that colleges would only have access to these photos once a student is admitted, in order to cross reference with a University student id if they felt there was ever a suspicion. You have to have some type of check and balance for the home school set. They don’t have a counselor to verify identity.</p>
<p>Since we send test scores directly to colleges, I don’t see how they are going to avoid seeing the photos. Will it also become mandatory that the student must send scores to the hs as well? Our school had a policy to list every test score, so many parents did not choose to report. The colleges will have the pictures on the score reports, and while they may say that they won’t look at them, there will be no guarantee. I imagine that some campuses will request all SAT scores to verify that it is the same picture, and some may now choose to request a picture with the application, to imediately verify the person.</p>
<p>Pictures will need to be scanned in and submitted with online registration, but may also be mailed in with registration form. Aside from any privacy concerns, the move away from allowing standby testing is a big one. Most of my students are registering well in advance since they tend to have ADD/LD reasons to request accommodations, but some will opt to take the test standby if they feel ready that day. It also stinks if you did register in advance but were assigned an undesirable testing center. This eliminates the possibility of showing up at your preferred location and getting in standby.</p>
<p>The College Board/ETS has had this kind of policy for the TOEFL and TOEIC for years. They have the techniques down pat. I’m sure the reason it hasn’t been installed previously here in the US is because of the huge numbers of students sitting for these exams. Advances in portability of technology (what testing center can’t scare up a couple of lap-tops and a portable scanner?), it will be much easier to make it work here.</p>
<p>Well, it might be more inconvenient, and it might have other potential problems, and if people weren’t cheating, it wouldn’t be necessary. But it is. That is the price the people who don’t cheat are forced to pay to prevent those who do cheat from having an unfair advantage over them. Given the choice of having to do a little more work to register, or to have my spot taken by a cheater who wasn’t as qualified, I’ll take the inconvenience. In a perfect world people wouldn’t cheat, and we wouldn’t have to put up with doing this, but clearly this isn’t a perfect world.</p>
<p>Almost everyone carries a camera these days. Just use it to take a picture of yourself and upload it with the test registration. (If not using a smart phone to register, email or upload via USB to a computer from which you can register.)</p>
<p>A college using holistic admissions that truly wants to avoid having the photos influence admission decisions could easily separate the recording and bookkeeping functions of attaching scores received (but not the photos) to the correct applications from the actual reading and reviewing of the applications.</p>
<p>On the other hand, not all colleges may have such motivations to “firewall” the photos from those doing the actual reading and reviewing of the applications. Some may want to figure out, for whatever purpose, what race or ethnicity a “decline to state” applicant is, for example.</p>
<p>I can see it now… Glamour Shot type studios opening up around the country offering clothing and make up stylists allowing kids to portray the desired “look”</p>
<p>I think that eventually they may find some kind of way where the high school can upload the pictures/student names/ID from the school’s CAASS system into the CB using the school’s CEEBS code</p>
<p>Does it strike anyone else as just a bit odd…it is illegal to require a photo ID to vote as it ‘disenfranchises’ some voters. But, now, it’s okay to require a photo ID to take the SAT and then have the picture sent to colleges and GC’s. Hmmmm I guess the bright side is all those who take the SAT will be ready if there ever is a voter photo ID requirement. The collegeboard can just forward the info (along with CR score) :D</p>