The legal term for this is “contract of adhesion.” Translation: the stronger party (CB or ETS) writes the contract and the weaker party (student) has no bargaining power and little to no choice but to sign it. It doesn’t, however, mean that the contract is necessarily invalid, but courts are often more favorable toward the weaker party in these cases. I don’t want to get into the weeds here too much, as the legal aspects get very complicated.
To my knowledge, this point has never been brought up in court in a testing-related situation. Most of these cases that are brought to court are for grad/law/med school admissions or state licensing exams, so the test-taker is usually of age. Of all the points cited in the article, I think this one has the largest chance of success from the student’s perspective. However, if that is the case, then these organizations may simply require that a parent sign something in the future. From ACT’s perspective: problem solved.
@mathhappy - no lawyer here but totally agree on your point #2 (current lack of parental approval). And that will be a no-brainer to fix.
As to the first point, problematic, since the decision to use ACT/SAT rests with the individual university (yet another powerful party writing terms that that student has no choice but to follow . . . ). However, the difference here is that there are but two effective testing entities used for thousands of institutions, the large majority of which are not test-optional or test flexible. While a student can always choose which uni’s to apply to (including those for whom there will be more bargaining opportunities in general) he/she simply can’t choose which tests to take other than SAT/ACT. It gets worse when you consider stuff like NCAA standards and rules (as those start to venture into the realm of actual federal law, I believe?).
^ It says she is “considering retaking”. Wonder if FSU might be offering her a conditional acceptance if she demonstrates an ability to maintain that score. No idea… just wondering…
I suspected that this was on the horizon. Her claims of “civil rights violations” were completely unfounded and never had any chance of holding up in court.
CB has said that they will be looking into possible changes in their policy related to these allegations, but that could very well just be PR. I won’t hold my breath.
There must have been pretty substantial evidence that she did in fact cheat, which ETS must have supplied. While people tried to make this about the score improvement, it was probably always about anomalies in the pattern of correct answers that raised the flag.
Getting many “easy” questions wrong, and then getting an anomalous number of “hard” questions correct, for instance, could be enough. They can also check the test booklet manually; correct answers to “hard” math problems would be very unlikely if there were, for instance, no markings or intermediate calculations in the test book.
It’s unfortunate that these things are “litigated” in public. CNN disingenuously writes: “Neither side has said what the report [from ETS evidencing testing irregularities] shows.” But, because of privacy concerns, ETS cannot release information or evidence that other students might have cheated in the incident, or even any specific evidence that Ms Campbell cheated. But Crump and Ms. Campbell could always voluntarily release anything ETS provided to them. And they haven’t.
Kamilah Campbell is choosing the same outcome that thousands of other students have chosen - w/o fanfare, sympathetic press coverage or attorneys - when faced with credible allegations of testing irregularities. This was a nothingburger that she and her attorneys chose to “litigate” in public. If she has truly experienced “stress and trauma” from all the attention, it was completely self-inflicted - either that, or she was a convenient pawn in an overly-ambitious attorney’s quest for the spotlight.
Kudos to ETS for not allowing themselves to be bullied and maintaining testing integrity.
Wait–a multi-hundred-million-dollar company that pays no taxes and answers to nobody was in danger of being “bullied” by a teenager? That’s a pretty interesting take.
In the process of trying to catch the ‘too many’ who do somehow cheat, there can be smaller fish caught in the net. It does not mean the net is correct.
@marvin100 - not by the teen. The flow of information was one-sided from the beginning and her legal team took advantage of that. Fortunately it didn’t work out.
It wouldn’t be the first time that a multi-million dollar institution that pays taxes and answers to nobody caved under incendiary demands.
I think people should hold off piling on a teenage girl. You can’t say she cheated just because she’s backed down from the controversy. People really seem to enjoy when others fail.
I hope she takes the test again and improved her score even more , goes to college and succeeds.
No one is saying that she cheated for sure. It’s just likely in my opinion, based on her legal team dropping the challenge, and her academic background.
It’s interesting that no one asked the basic question. Was it ever likely that Ms. Campbell could gain admission to FSU and succeed there?
On the one hand, she attends a fairly low-rated school, Dr. Michael M. Krop in Miami Gardens, at which average proficiency levels in math and science are substantially below that of Florida generally. She is a 3.1 GPA student there, interested in dance. 3.1 is nowhere near the top; she is not the “honors” student that was reported. Her SAT scores are 900 and 1230, and the latter is disputed.
On the other, the 25-75 GPA at FSU is 4.1-4.5. The 25th percentile SAT score there is 1290.
Ms. Campbell and her team made this public. Many outlets picked up the race aspect, encouraged by her attorney. She is also seeking taxpayer funding through the Bright Futures program, which requires a 3.0 GPA and 1170 minimum SAT score (or equivalent ACT). We have every right to question her motives and veracity.
I think people are piling on the attorney more than Kamilah Campbell LOL. While she chose to hire a civil rights attorney, he came out hitting rather hard before even seeing the ETS report. Now he’s backed off. Oops. Unfortunately, she’s the one left with the mess. I actually feel sorry for her. If she’s able to retake the exam and score the same that’s fantastic news. Remember, it’s not clear what the exact allegation is - ETS doesn’t publicize its findings when there are credible allegations of cheating.