Report Reveals Security Breaches in SATs Administered Overseas

Security-related problems with the SAT in Asia have been announced since 2013, but the problems are more widespread than previously known, Reuters reports.

In a review of internal documents of the College Board, which owns the admissions test, Reuters found an additional eight incidents since 2013 when the examinations were administered overseas even after their contents had been compromised online. Reuters says the College Board has delayed test scores six times in Asia since 2014.

“Four of the exams had been compromised by an unnamed Chinese website,” the news service reports. “Even so, College Board officials confirmed that some portions of those tainted tests were later administered overseas.”

“We agree that the challenges of test security internationally are escalating,” the College Board said in a statement on Monday in response to the Reuters report. “We have recently taken more aggressive actions to secure the exam internationally, including canceling an administration in China. We continue to balance widening access with protecting the exam.”

The College Board barred employees of test-preparation companies from taking the March edition of the SAT, stating that they would have to wait until May. The company said the decision had been made to prevent fraud.

The organization’s director of assessment communications, Katherine Levin, told The Chronicle this month that an “unusually high number of people associated with a security risk” were registered for the test.

This year the College Board will roll out a new version of the test, which will be given for the first time overseas in May, Reuters reported. The new exam will continue to use recycled test material.