SAT
errors have little effect at CSULB
By
Sara Esquivel
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writier
Approximately 4,000 high school students nationwide were given erroneous scores
after taking the SAT reasoning test, according to the Los Angeles Times; however,
providing incorrect SAT scores did not seem to affect admissions at Cal Sate
Long Beach.
The College Board announced approximately 4,000 students, less than 2 percent
of the students who took the SAT reasoning test in October 2005, received incorrect
scores.
According to Susan Platt, director of Testing and Evaluation Services at CSULB,
Pearson Educational Measurement, the company responsible for scanning the answer
sheets, reported that the answer sheets became moist causing the incorrect
test scores.
The College Board said, “The score differences for the vast majority
of students was less than 100 points.”
CSULB receives approximately 30,000 first-time freshmen applications and, according
to Platt, CSULB had 18 students affected by the incorrect test scores.
“
In our particular campus, fortunately, it has affected very few students,” Platt
said.
A first-time freshmen applicant would not really be affected by this error
unless the applicant scored below a 550 on the SAT because, according to Platt,
the California State University system has deemed a score of 550 on the SAT
as college ready.
“
One student out of 18 students was deemed not college readiness material.”
“
We had 19 freshmen applicants for next fall who had scores that were incorrect,
most just by ten points,” said Tom Enders, associate vice president of
Enrollment Services. “We have rechecked all of these cases and none of
them made a difference in their admission decision but all have been corrected
in our system. So this had no effect on our prospective students or the campus.”
If the student received a score of 450 on the SAT Reasoning Test and had an
incorrect score with a difference of 10 points, then the student would be affected.
“
Only one student received a differential score of 20 points, but even then
the student scored a 240 not affecting the student as much,” Platt said.
Even if a first-time freshmen applicant scored below 550 on the SAT, CSULB
requires that the student take the English Placement Test or Entry Level Mathematics
test to determine placement.
After the error was reported, an investigation was conducted and once the investigation
was finalized, Educational Testing Services (ETS), a private non-profit organization
that developed and administers the SAT, notified CSULB of the flawed test scores
via overnight mail on March 7.
“
There is no reason to be overly concerned,” Platt said.”“The
good news is that we were notified and we are making sure that we are taking
care of our students.”
The College Board has also begun notifying students who were affected by the
incorrect scores and received higher scores. As well as refunding those students’ test
registration fees and any other fees associated with sending scores from the
October test administration, as stated in its press release.
Likewise, the Office of Admissions at CSULB has begun notifying first-time
freshmen applicants about the error. According to the College Board press release
this scoring error was a one-time problem that only involved the October 2005
SAT Reasoning Test.
According to Platt, ETS announced that an additional 1,600 answer sheets from
the October 2005 SAT are affected, but CSULB is expected to receive word from
them soon.
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