[Feature] SAT scandal leaves many questions unanswered

SAT preparation test books in a Seoul book store.

On November 17, 22 teachers of Hanyoung Foreign Language High School posted a lengthy statement on their school's online bulletin board. The statement represented a plea to reform the management of the school's study abroad track. Among the many points it made, there is one in particular deserving of attention: The signatories referred to a past problem in the administering of the U.S.-based college entrance Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) that led to the school's loss of certification to serve as a test center. At present, international high schools and nine foreign language high schools are recognized as official SAT test centers in Korea. Why, then, is Hanyoung Foreign Language High School no longer among these?

In May this year, a team from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) visited the school to investigate the integrity of its testing center. The school's testing license was revoked on June 16. The investigation had begun in the wake of a report that previous SAT questions had, with slight modifications, been distributed in the form of test preparation booklets. [These questions had not been published officially by the ETS, as it has done with several former tests.]

Suspicions in regards to cheating and the testing center's integrity stem from two incidents. The first is that in June of last year, the school supplied second and third year students in the overseas study track with advance copies of questions from the very SAT-II chemistry subject test they were slated to take. The second involves the distribution of modified questions from the math SAT II as a "model test" to prepare students for the real thing. As the College Board recycles many of the same test problems during the seven rounds of SATs a year that it administers, it adopts very stringent measures to restrict the distribution of questions other than those that have been officially released.

In Korea, the SAT is mainly administered by a select group of overseas study track teachers on behalf of a small number of students aspiring for admission into U.S. universities. "Whether past test questions are being sought out abroad or are being leaked by Korean schools, we cannot know for sure," said one private SAT prep center employee, "but the fact is that the use of previous SAT questions at privately run prep centers is common practice."

The parent of a student who had taken the chemistry SAT-II in question at Hanyoung Foreign Language High School spoke with the Hankyoreh21 as well. "The problems that some of the students saw in advance showed up on the actual test, and those students received high scores. Some say that a teacher presented the test to the students and said, 'Give it a shot,' while others say that one student took the exam, copied it, and distributed it himself."

When ETS employees showed up at Hanyoung Foreign Language High School in May this year, they investigated the actions of the principal, the administrator of the overseas study track, and the SAT-II chemistry lecturer, among others. "I know that a student took a copy of the test a few days in advance, copied it, and gave it to his friends" said Ms. Kim, administrator of the overseas study track. "We cannot know for sure if he just copied a practice test that he obtained from a private test prep center or whether he got his hands on the very test itself." When asked of their child's conduct, the parents of the pupil in question said "our child did not attend a test prep center, so he could not have obtained it from there." The chemistry teacher declined to comment altogether.

The words of another student's parent sheds further light on the situation. "Before the test," he said, "the word among students and parents was that due to the severe difficulty of the test questions, they would fail if they could not see the questions beforehand. As a result, the students who saw the test beforehand were reported to get perfect scores of 800 in the end." Though it is clear that some students saw the test beforehand, it remains a mystery as to how exactly they managed to do so.

Though Hankyoreh21 contacted ETS repeatedly by phone and email, they refused to comment on the investigation and subsequent revocation of the school's license.

The SAT is distributed to test centers several days before the examination is to be held. After receipt of the tests, SAT center coordinators keep it in secure storage until unsealing them on the day of the test administration. After the test has been taken, the question and answer sheets are both returned to ETS. Therefore, the unauthorized release of test questions can occur by proctors making a copy of the original examination. Or, students can just get together and try to piece the test back together by memory.

Hankyoreh21 was unable to verify whether the practice math problems allegedly distributed by the school were modified versions of authorized practice questions or unauthorized ones appearing in prior tests. Yet after receiving a sample of the distributed practice problems used, ETS requested that all of the practice problems be sent to them and subsequently launched their investigation of Korean schools that administer the SAT, including Hanyoung Foreign Language High School. However, ETS was reported not to investigate the math preparation questions at the time of their visit to the school. The math teacher who handed out the questions explained, "I created the practice problems on the basis of officially released ones that I found in several different books." Hankyoreh21 asked ETS whether there were concerns in regards to the secure storage of the test, but received no reply.

Rather, ETS only confirmed to Hankyoreh21 that the Hanyoung Foreign Language High School's SAT test center had been closed in June 2006. In a letter sent by ETS official Ray Nicosia to the Hanyoung Foreign Language High School coordinator on 16 June, only a brief explanation was printed, charging that the test center had failed to meet ETS standards and rules and would therefore lose its certification to administer the test. The director and coordinator of the overseas study track both said they had never received official notification from ETS on the revocation of the testing license. Though they received notification that ETS held concerns with the test's storage at their site, Hanyoung school has yet to receive a detailed explanation, and are still pursuing the matter.

It is estimated that several hundreds of Korean overseas study track high school graduates enter U.S. universities every year. Though there have been many problems with the administration of various tests in Korea, the Korean educational authorities have yet to take concrete action. Regarding the case of Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, Hankyoreh21 requested through the offices of Uri Party legislator and member of the Committee on Education Cheong Bong-ju that the Department of Education make an official request to ETS that they clarify their charges. An official in the office declined the request, however, stating that "as ETS is a private entity, it is inappropriate for the Department of Education to make a request to them for clarification."

Six months after the Hanyoung school lost its SAT administration license, the details remain murky. Between the neglectful attitude of education authorities and the contradictory statements of those involved in these incidents, it seems that the truth may well be lost.

Written by Park Ju-hee, Nam Jong-yeong, and translated by Daniel Rakove

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