Massive cheating scheme for elite college admissions, via ACT testing and fake athletic recruiting

What is also unfair are the kids who dont have to study or study very little and get all "A"s while my son had to study for hours to get a "B"

Oh, it's fair-- those kids have deal with being nerds, while your son doesn't. :)

I got mostly straight A's in HS without studying. That "advantage" disappeared completely when I got to college and learned I had no idea how to study effectively (or really at all).

Then post the quote of who said actresses are bright.
All actresses may not be bright, but Bright is definitely an actress.
 
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What is also unfair are the kids who dont have to study or study very little and get all "A"s while my son had to study for hours to get a "B"

Oh, it's fair-- those kids have deal with being nerds, while your son doesn't. :)

I got mostly straight A's in HS without studying. That "advantage" disappeared completely when I got to college and learned I had no idea how to study effectively (or really at all).

Then post the quote of who said actresses are bright.
All actresses may not be bright, but Bright is definitely an actress.
My younger son has a friend from elementary school and we are friends with the parents. Mother went to Columbia. Father went to an Ivy League school. Older son, was a National Honor Society member, played high school football, was accepted to colleges he never applied to and then went to an Ivy. Younger son also accepted to the same Ivy. While I wont deny they worked for their acheivement, they won the DNA lottery. Having said that, their personal lives, not so hot. Sometimes I think they are too smart for their own good
 
It's hard to imagine how this happens. My school district has a magnet school that is ranked at or near the top annually and people whisper that students/parents cheat on the admissions requirements. If they are cheating, then the school is letting them skate through the four years. The numbers say otherwise. The graduation rate and college acceptance rate is 100 percent. Big name colleges. The average SAT is near perfect. A few years ago the admissions department was forced to open up seats in the name of diversity. The under-qualified kids were eaten alive. Apparently the faculty were not told to drop standards. I just checked their current demographics which shows 68 percent Asian, 21 percent white, and less than two percent black and Hispanic. The other indicator of success is the free and reduced meals and fees is less than two percent. Those of lesser means do not perform as well in school.

I finished my M.Ed. a few months ago and wrote a few papers which included demographics, low income students, English Learners, and the effect on learning in a general education classroom. A goal of administrators every year is to narrow the achievement gap. That's a noble goal of course, but when the methods of narrowing the gap include bringing the top performers closer to the lower performers instead of bringing the lower ones up, something else must be figured out. It's difficult these days to talk about that without somebody invoking Brown v. Board, but I believe the system must change to where the hard chargers take one path and those less qualified take a path with less rigorous academics. Students would still have equal opportunity to excel in their journey through high school. Pressure would be taken off educators to slow down instruction in order to bring along the slower students. An alternative path to four years of high school might be at grade 10 when students go the vocational route and learn a trade. After two years, the student graduates with a high school diploma and continues learning the trade in a journeyman program and receive pay and benefits. The student who took the academic path is better prepared for college since he/she sat in classes with rigorous instruction.

I teach in career and technical education, formerly vocational education, and that type of student has kept me employed for 12 years. Most of my students though will not go to college, yet they are required to sit through four years of math, English, and social sciences. Anyway, speaking of students, I am at work. Rant off.
Don’t quote me on this but when I spent time in school in Germany they talked about having a similar vocational type path for students based on a test in like fourth grade.
 
Duffeblog is a military satire site. It’s like the Onion.
 
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I just read that a large number of Marines were arrested in a scam involving them cheating on the ASVAB. Apparently the mastermind charged five dollars to manipulate scores so under qualified recruits could get in.
 
I just read that a large number of Marines were arrested in a scam involving them cheating on the ASVAB. Apparently the mastermind charged five dollars to manipulate scores so under qualified recruits could get in.
^--

Speshul Merine ASVAB

Pick the best answer:

The Red Crayon is:
1. Smart
2. Wealthy
3. Tasty
 
Clearly the answer is #3, though there are some shades of red that I'm not keen on.
 
Clearly the answer is #3, though there are some shades of red that I'm not keen on.

@kinnem There is an entire menu of red hue crayons available for your perusal. You could host a crayon-tasting.
https://www.crayola.com/explore-colors/red.aspx

I apologize for diving into the crayon rabbit hole in this very serious thread.
The scale and variety of the outcome-changing actions boggles my mind, as well as the money that changed hands.
 
I would really be interested in a reply from the standardized testing authorities. That was the biggest deal for me. We understood the importance of those test scores on WCS during the academy application process. My mid spent countless hours in their free test preps and I mean countless. I would say he easily spent 500+ hours 9-12 grades doing those test preps. SAT and ACT make it seem like it’s impossible to cheat on those and even refused a kid from our school the ability to take a test because he wore a hat in his ticket photo. Now, I find out that if you’ve got the golden ticket and special snowflake card then you can pay to play with SAT and ACT? Not cool.

Makes me even more proud of the kids who get there through hard work and sacrifice.
 
@boatsfordays The paid a proctor. The SAT/ACT organization as a whole seem to have been unaware of this. One corrupt individual vs a corrupt organization.
 
I would really be interested in a reply from the standardized testing authorities. That was the biggest deal for me. We understood the importance of those test scores on WCS during the academy application process. My mid spent countless hours in their free test preps and I mean countless. I would say he easily spent 500+ hours 9-12 grades doing those test preps. SAT and ACT make it seem like it’s impossible to cheat on those and even refused a kid from our school the ability to take a test because he wore a hat in his ticket photo. Now, I find out that if you’ve got the golden ticket and special snowflake card then you can pay to play with SAT and ACT? Not cool.

Makes me even more proud of the kids who get there through hard work and sacrifice.

Completely agree with you. As I understand (and I’m only an observer in the cheap seats, to be clear), one way it was done was by having the child diagnosed with a MD to have testing anxiety. Which allows the child to test separately from others (a private room) with unlimited time.

To pull off all these frauds, there has to be at least two conspirators.

Coaches
Assistant AD’s
SAT/ACT admin’s
Parents
Test taker Mark Russell
Ring leader Rick Singer

Amazing.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&sou...aw0Tq56-ckydr0waMhqcSMB_&ust=1553192252253071


I wonder if having to provide transcripts to test would make sense? I guess this is also looked into at the college application level. I would think that if a student needs help with scoring well on a standardized test, they may not have the academic resume to support great standardized test scores. Also, it could be that a student isn’t a good standardized test taker. Maybe it’s too subjective to be helpful. Reading this article makes me second guess my opinion that this type of thing couldn’t get it ugly tentacles into a SA application process....
 
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At least at a SA, kids who got in via mom and dads help will eventually show their tru colors (hopefully?). Although DS and I were discussing this last night. He said he heard of a classmate who said their parent did their whole application for them. Wrote the essay. This student didn’t want to attend but the parent bribed them to sign (a military family). Obviously don’t know if that’s true or not, but it could happen.

When we picked my daughter up from AIM, my husband asked how many kids dropped or were sent home. She said one kid had no idea about the program, did not want to be there and left. His parents filled out the application, wrote the essays, all of it without even telling him until a little while before he was supposed to leave.

She was absolutely disgusted, but glad the kid admitted he didn't do any of the work to get there and left.
 
@justdoit19 You don't need all of those people at the start, you start small. Forget "helicopter" or "snowplow" parenting, I'm talking about a RICO-type conspiracy. You only need the MD to provide the school district with a diagnosis that requires state-mandated "accommodations." The school will then have to provide extra time, one-on-one teaching, quiet room, etc. This sets up the opportunity for their child to raise their GPA as well as SAT/ACT test scores in their HS. In senior year after all SAT/ACT test taken, the child no longer needs the special treatment (cured??o_O) & the special treatment is ended with it's removal from the academic record as if it never occurred. This strategy was explained to me by a parent when I ran for the school board. If that unfair advantage is not enough, the private proctoring service taken down by the FBI would be Plan B. All this of course is in no way to pass judgement on those parents/students who have a legitimate condition for which the state mandated procedures were put in place for.

DS was in Middle School when he began having academic issues. We paid for a 504 test (mistake, the school is required to pay for it) & had a mandated hearing at the school. He didn't need any of the accommodations listed above, he needed more structure as he was scattered. DS was fine in elementary with 1 teacher in 1 room all day but was all over the place in middle school, different teachers/rooms throughout the day. Well needless to say, DW & I have the distinction of probably one of the only parents whose child was denied a 504 accommodation in this BS North Shore town! For more structure only...not anything else...he didn't need more test time..he has a near photographic memory so he either knew it on test day, or not. More time never mattered for him. The parents who defraud the school district of resources for their child who does not need it are committing a crime & since the school district accepts federal funds, it's a federal crime. Doubtful? Ask the Massachusetts State Police who submitted traffic summonses written on straight time as written on overtime which was never worked. That's stealing OT. The PD takes federal funds hence federal jurisdiction. The US Mass. Attorney General's office is cleaning house with 1 entire troop disbanded. There's a reason the saying, "Make a federal case out of it" denotes a bad outcome.
 
Some people have always cheated, some are now cheating, and some will cheat in the future. Some people have, are, and will enable that cheating. That is just the way it has been, is now, and will be in the future. Welcome to the real world.
However, that does not mean that it is an endemic problem, just that a smallish percentage of the population is afflicted with ethical dysfunction.
The other reality us that, for the most part, few truly qualified third parties are adversely impacted by the cheating. Fringe candidates may be, and that is definitely regrettable. However, if you have the talent and put in the work, you will usually reap the rewards you deserve, regardless of the transgressions of those who compromise their integrity.
This does not justify the lapses of the unethical; far from it. They deserve to be caught and punished. But don't use their weakness as an excuse to justify your own failures. If you fail, it normally has more to do with you, than with anyone else gaming the system.
 
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