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Students are suing a major college admissions test maker for allegedly selling information about their disability statuses with universities, which they say could hurt their chances at getting into schools and impact the rest of their lives.
When students register to take the ACT—a standardized test used for college admissions taken by more than a million high schoolers each year—they answer a barrage of personal questions. As part of this, they are asked to note if they have disabilities that require "special provisions from the educational institution."
The ACT, which is administered by ACT, Inc., is the only real competitor to the College Board's SAT exam. The lawsuit claims that the ACT is selling the data it gleans from those student questionnaires—connected directly to students' individual identities—to colleges, which then use it to make important decisions about admissions and financial aid.
"A lot of students and parents have no idea how these testing agencies, which are gatekeepers to college, are using very sensitive and confidential data in the college admissions process," Jesse Creed, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, told me in a phone call. "[Colleges are] hungry for disability data, because they have limited resources, and it's expensive to educate people with disabilities."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 15 2018, @03:08AM
Well this was 25 years ago. So at the time it was the score and HS plus a battery of tests. The tests were to see which level of math/English you plugged into. This was also when getting a 1600 on the SAT or 35 on ACT meant you could write your ticket to any college. Think they wildly changed the scaling on them now. I had between 21 and 34 depending on subject. Like I said it was mostly just to get in and could not afford anything really good. I had to get above 18.
These days the higher end schools want 1500+ and a bunch of extra after school activities (the right kind) plus straight A's in the lowers. Lower end schools are not as picky and mostly just want to get you into a loan. The federal loan program has really screwed up a lot of what is going on. Not sure there is a good fix for that, that would not obliterate the whole system.