College Board sues test-prep company

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

      College Board sues test-prep company
      ------------------------------------

      SAT, PSAT owner alleges company had copy of test, shared with customers

      The Associated Press

      updated 6:23 p.m. CT, Wed., Feb. 20, 2008

      The owner of the SAT and PSAT exams sued a Dallas-area test-preparation
      company Wednesday, accusing it of trying to give its customers an unfair
      edge on the tests by illegally obtaining "live" copies to help students
      practice.

      The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Dallas, alleges that the Karen
      Dillard College Prep company got a copy of the PSAT administered last
      October from a Plano, Texas, high school principal whose brother works at
      the company.

      The lawsuit brought by the New York-based College Board, alleging copyright
      infringement, could bring attention to the burgeoning test-prep industry,
      which some critics contend gives well-off students an unfair advantage on
      entrance exams.

      "We are outraged by the deceptive and unlawful tactics, knowingly practiced
      by KDCP," said Edna Johnson, senior vice president of the College Board, a
      not-for-profit membership group of high schools, colleges and educational
      groups.

      "Most distressing to us is that students and their parents put their faith
      in this expensive prep process that was ultimately based on stealing the
      College Board's work product," she said.

      A message left at the company's office requesting comment from the
      defendants owners Karen and David Dillard, and executive director Matthew
      Novotny was returned by Karen Dillard.

      She said she had not seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment.

      According to the lawsuit, Novotny obtained a copy of the PSAT administered
      Oct. 17 from his brother, Michael Novotny, the principal of T.C. Jasper
      High School in Plano.

      The PSAT is generally taken by younger students as practice for the SAT. It
      is also used to select National Merit Scholarship recipients.

      Reached by telephone at his office, Michael Novotny, who is not named as a
      defendant, declined to comment.

      The SAT is administered seven times per year, and questions and portions of
      the exam are sometimes reused. The exams are considered "live" until they
      are officially retired. Test-site administrators are instructed to collect
      all test forms and lock them away.

      Whistle-blower comes forward

      The lawsuit also claims the company sold or tried to sell some copyrighted
      materials to another test-prep company and even to unspecified Texas school
      districts.

      According to its Web site, KDCP has campuses in Dallas, Plano and
      Colleyville, Texas, and according to the lawsuit charges as much as $2,299
      for test prep services. Johnson said the College Board was approached by a
      whistle-blower inside the company.

      Johnson declined to speculate on whether the scores of KDCP customers would
      in fact be canceled, but confirmed that the College Board has done so in
      the past when it has come across SAT tutors with access to improper
      materials.

      However, "We have never come across a test-prep company that appears to
      have based its entire SAT and PSAT curriculum on stolen materials," she
      said. The lawsuit alleges the company was well aware of the copyright
      infringements, referring to test material as the "PVA," which stood for
      "Pirated Version."

      The allegations come as some express alarm about the rapidly expanding
      test-prep industry, which capitalizes on the sometimes frantic anxiety
      students and parents feel about applying to college.

      The College Board maintains that students don't necessarily need an
      expensive preparation course. It recommends they prepare by taking practice
      tests, some of which are available for free on its Web site.

      In 2006, the College Board endured a wave of bad publicity after it was
      disclosed that several thousand exams had been scored improperly by a
      subcontractor.

      © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

George Sheridan