Hundreds of "test items" from the redesigned, Common Core-aligned SAT have leaked, according to a Reuters investigation into security breaches of the company that administers the test, College Board. The confidential "test items" are new reading comprehension packets and math problems, and now they're out there. (Hey, haven't I seen this movie?)
Whether the leak happened at the hands of very determined cheaters, Russian spies or anti-Core activists, we don't know. College Board has written more and more of its test questions in-house since adopting Core-alignment under current CEO and former Common Core architect David Coleman. And the company might be host to a mole, but they won't blame "bad actors" just yet.
A security agency Reuters contacted said, "the breach represents one of the most serious security lapses that's come to light in the history of college-admissions testing." College Board confirmed the authenticity of the copy of the October 2016 test Reuters acquired:
To ensure the materials were authentic, Reuters provided copies to the College Board. In a subsequent letter to the news agency, an attorney for the College Board said publishing any of the items would have a dire impact, "destroying their value, rendering them unusable, and inflicting other injuries on the College Board and test takers." College Board spokeswoman Sandra Riley said in a statement that the organization was moving to contain any damage from the leak. The College Board is "taking the test forms with stolen content off of the SAT administration schedule while we continue to monitor and analyze the situation," she said. Riley declined to say whether those steps would involve cancelling or delaying upcoming tests. The next sitting of the SAT is October 1.
Although College Board's not thrilled to entertain the possibility, the SAT, rendered useless by the breach, might be cancelled unless they're able to contain the leak.Calling off the SAT is a thousand snow days rolled into one. With the test's credibility effectively voided, why even set a make-up day?
Yes, bad guys might be making bank right now selling the test in the back alleys of the Internet. But let's imagine instead that it was computer wiz Anthony Michael Hall impressing his cool friends Emilio Estevez and Molly Ringwald. They're people too, and they've had enough of the Man stamping a number on their foreheads.