Senator Kenneth LaValle proposed a bill last week that would make cheating on SAT tests a felony in the state of New York. The legislation is targeted at offenders guilty of impersonating other test takers for financial compensation. It would possibly call for test security measures to prove the test taker matches the name on the test including photo identification, fingerprinting, and retinal scans of each student.
The bill was prompted by a high-profile cheating scandal that rocked Long Island last fall, where test-takers were accused of being paid up to $3,600 for being SAT stand-ins for high schoolers. It would make this sort of activity a felony.
In Tuesday’s hearing, LaValle and Senators Toby Ann Stavisky and Lee M. Zelden complained to the members of The College Board, which administers the SAT that the company’s testimony in November wasn’t helpful in finding a solution to the problem.
“We’re not a law enforcement agency,” said Tom Rudin, The College Board’s senior vice president for advocacy, government relations and development. He said only “a handful” of these cheating cases are ever referred to law enforcement.
Ray Nicosia of The College Board’s office of testing integrity defended their stance, saying the company is constantly updating its security measures. “Such things as cellphones make our jobs more challenging,” he testified. “But we, senator, have never had a case like this with sums of money changing hands.”
LaValle made a call for transparency in higher education, comparing scandals like these to the alleged sexual cover-ups by school officials at Penn State University and Syracuse University. He said a heightened security in the state would likely trigger national changes because of the large numbers of New Yorkers who take the SAT and other entrance exams.
“I would say to you that we’re in a new era,” LaValle said. “It happened at Penn State and happened at Syracuse, there are new rules … and if we need to use legislation to spell that out more clearly, we’ll do that.”