<p>The Emory student who is now charged with a felony for impersonating high school students and taking the SAT or the ACT for them for a fee will express his no-regrets attitude on 60 Minutes this Sunday.<br>
Favorite quote:
[quote]
“I mean, a kid who has a horrible grade-point average, who no matter how much he studies is gonna totally bomb this test, by giving him an amazing score, I totally give him this . . . new lease on life. He’s gonna go to a totally new college. He’s gonna be bound for a totally new career and a totally new path on life.”
<p>It's a shame that this kid sees nothing wrong in what he did. And he is assuming that someone who has a horrible gpa in HS is going to "turn around" in college!</p>
<p>This Long Island scandal revealed that the College Board didn’t do anything when they uncovered fraud. That must change. Everyone thought that a student would get “blackballed” from good colleges if they were caught. Instead, College Board didn’t tell anyone. That revelation could greatly increase cheating if something isn’t done. </p>
<p>Apparently, it is not directly a crime in many states - but it should be. In NY, the news reports said it was only a crime if money changed hands. </p>
<p>How would like someone cheating on the nursing certification exam and getting false credentials before they treat you?</p>
<p>I feel confident that all of these testing boards go out of their way to hide the inherent problems of fraud. It’s just not in their interest to publicize it. I recall years ago there was a big GMAT fraud issue going on in a region of China. They didn’t alert those of us who use GMAT scores, and instead acted like it never happened (but we found out through back channels). Now I know most schools and departments have to rely on their own informal ways to decide when to throw out scores but that is also unfair to honest students. </p>
<p>Even the notion of ‘score choice’ is suspect to me. Sure it might be a way to reduce stress, but more than likely it just encourages more test taking which means $$ for CB. Moreover, it also hides two obvious problems with these tests- fraud and unreliability (which really is a hallmark of validity if these tests are meant to be predictive of something). If schools don’t insist on all tests taken, one overlooks ridiculous patterns across many tests (e.g. imagine 4 tests in the 20th to 30th percentile range, suddenly jumping to the 90th percentile range and you get my drift).</p>
<p>He is pleading guilty: “Eshaghoff will accept a plea deal that will allow him to avoid jail time”, so not sure it matters…</p>
<p>Just . WOW .</p>
<p>I hope 60 Minutes interviews the College Board about this… SOON. Wonder if they’d be willing/doubt their lawyers would allow it.
Many many issues need to be brought out in the practices of CB and test-takers.</p>
<p>You’re right - it wouldn’t matter if the plea deal was a done deal - I’m just not sure that that has happened yet. And the judge would still have to approve it, and this arrogance could jeopardize it. Not that I’d have a problem with that. . .</p>
<p>Then there are students who “boost” their chances by spending thousands on SAT prep, prep that simply isn’t available to low-income students. CollegeBoard claims that prep doesn’t help, but their own data indicates otherwise. Institutional cheating. Perfectly legit of course. There’s corporate profit in it. Sam just eliminated the middle man.</p>
<p>Just the most horrible of crimes! Let him rot in the lowest level of hell.</p>
<p>This kid wasn’t taking the exam for poor kids. Except perhaps when he took the test for his ex-girlfriend for free, there was nothing altruistic about his behavior. It was all about greed.</p>
<p>And, yes, I hope the IRS audits his tax return and nails him with penalties and interest if he didn’t report the $50,000 or more he made for doing this. </p>
<p>As I understand it, the ex-girlfriend had a gender-neutral name–a name that could be used by a male or female. </p>
<p>I’m disgusted that the kid didn’t get at least some time in the slammer—not a lot, but some. I think Emory should expel him immediately. </p>
<p>I also think the prosecutor should publicly identify all the kids who used his services.</p>
<p>I’d also like to know where the high school students got the thousands of dollars to pay him. If any parents knew what was happening, they should be charged.</p>