College Board and NSC Pearson pay for mistakes

A settlement has been reached with regard to the suit brought by test takers who received incorrect scores for the October 2005 SAT. The College Board, who owns the test, and NSC Pearson, who scores it, have agreed to pay 2.85 million dollars to about 4,000 people.

"A tentative settlement was announced Friday by the two testing entities and lawyers who filed the class action. About 4,400 people — or about 1 percent of those who took the test that month — are in the class because their scores were reported incorrectly. Under the planned settlement, they will have two options. They can fill out a short form to automatically receive $275, or they can provide more information — if they believe that their damages were greater — and a retired judge will make binding decisions on how much they are entitled to receive."


The full story is here.

This is certainly embarrassing for the testers and will no doubt be used as ammunition by opponents of standardised testing and its use in university admissions and assessment. But one wonders how many more people have suffered from the gender, race and class bias of interviews. And are we ever going to see THES or QS acknowledge or apologise for any of their errors?