A group of high school students sued the College Entrance Examination Board, claiming its advanced placement tests are unfair to teens trapped at home by the coronavirus pandemic without adequate computers or Internet connections.
The board, which offers college-level curriculum for courses and exams to high school students, and Educational Testing Services (ETS), which administers the advanced placement exams, discriminated against students without sufficient resources, those in remote locations and the disabled, according to a proposed class-action complaint filed last Tuesday in a Los Angeles federal court.
“It is unrealistic to think that all students have quiet, private spaces at home in which to test,” the students said. “Lower-income students are much more likely to face cramped housing, siblings and parents sharing the same workspace, Internet connectivity problems, noisy environments and less comfortable testing spaces.”
Photo: Pixabay 照片：Pixabay
The students were joined in the complaint by FairTest, an advocacy group that has been pushing colleges to drop the SAT and ACT as an admissions requirement because the standardized tests are allegedly biased against poor and minority students.
Like most of higher education, standardized college exams have been upended during the pandemic. In-person SAT exams have been canceled and a number of selective schools have made the exams test optional, at least temporarily.
Students take the AP exams often with the hopes of earning college credit. As many as 20 percent of students were unable to submit their responses through the testing platform in the first three days of the exam, according to the lawsuit. Others couldn’t finish their exams or log into the platform at all, although they practiced beforehand, according to the complaint.
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
The College Board said it would contest the lawsuit and expects to prevail. ETS referred a request for comment to the College Board.
Peter Schwartz, general counsel for the College Board, said that almost three million AP exams were taken in the first week after the test was redesigned to be taken at home. Students who were unable to successfully submit their exam can still take a makeup and have the opportunity to earn college credit, he said.
“This lawsuit is a PR stunt masquerading as a legal complaint being manufactured by an opportunistic organization that prioritizes media coverage for itself,” he said in an emailed statement. “It is wrong factually and baseless legally.”
Photo: Reuters 照片：路透
Watching videos of students who tried to submit their tests as the timer clicked down to zero are heartbreaking, said David Rion, Director of College Guidance at the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut, US.
“The College Board says somewhat cavalierly that students who weren’t able to submit can re-take the test in a few weeks, and that’s true,” Rion said in an email. “But it completely overlooks the in-the-moment trauma of having technical issues during an important test.”
(Bloomberg)
Photo: Pixabay 照片：Pixabay
美國一群高中生對大學入學考試委員會提起告訴，稱委員會所舉辦的大學學分先修課程考試﹝AP測驗﹞，對因冠狀病毒疫情困在家而無足夠電腦或網路連線的青少年不公平。
上週二向洛杉磯聯邦法院提出的訴狀寫道，為高中生提供大學程度課程與考試的大學入學考試委員會，及承辦AP測驗的美國教育測驗服務社（ETS）歧視資源不足的學生，也歧視偏遠地區學生與身障學生。
提出告訴的這群學生表示：「認為所有學生在家中都有安靜、獨立的空間來進行考試，是不符合實際情況的」。「低收入學生更有可能面臨住家擁擠、跟兄弟姐妹及父母共用工作空間、網路連線問題、環境嘈雜，以及較不舒適的考試空間等困境」。
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
倡議組織「國家公平開放測試中心」（FairTest）也加入這些學生提出投訴，該組織已持續敦促大學取消將SAT及ACT測驗定為入學條件，因為據稱這些標準化的考試會對貧困及少數族裔學生有偏見。
如同大多數高等教育之情況，標準化的大學考試在疫情肆虐期間已被打亂。考生親自出席應試的SAT測驗已被取消，一些名校也已將這些測驗改為選考（而非必考）──起碼暫時是如此。
學生參加AP測驗通常是希望能夠取得大學學分。訴訟稱，考試開始的頭三天中，有多達百分之二十的學生無法在測驗平台送出答案。投訴稱，也有人無法完成考試，或根本無法登入平台，即便已事先練習過。
大學入學考試委員會表示將對訴訟提出抗辯，且可望勝訴。ETS則表示此事要徵詢大考委員會之意見。
大考委員會法律總顧問彼得‧史瓦茲表示，AP測驗重新設計為可自行在家應考後，第一週便有近三百萬人次參加。他說，未能成功送出答案的學生還可以補考，仍有機會獲得大學學分。
史瓦茲透過電子郵件發出聲明：「這起訴訟是偽裝成法律投訴的宣傳手法，是投機取巧的組織所捏造的，只為了自己的媒體曝光率」。「這在事實上是錯誤的，在法律上則是毫無根據的」。
康乃狄克州溫莎市盧米斯查菲中學的升學輔導主任大衛‧利昂說，在視訊中看到計時器漸漸倒數向零秒，而學生仍試圖送出答案，令人心碎。
利昂透過電子郵件說道：「大學入學考試委員會傲慢地說，那些無法送出答案的學生，可以在數週後重考。這的確是事實」；「但是，委員會完全忽略了在重要考試中遇到技術問題之當下，學生所受到的心理創傷」。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
Questions
1. What difficulties might a student encounter when studying or taking exams from home?
2. What are the pros and cons of learning from home? Do you prefer attending classes at school or remote learning?
3. Have you participated in an online exam before? How does it feel compared to a paper-based exam? Which format do you prefer?
4. In your opinion, what are the main purposes of taking exams? (For example, to motivate students to learn, to discern students’ abilities, etc.)
(Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
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