Can't get no SAT-isfaction

Students know that when relying heavily on technology when it matters the most, anything that can go wrong usually does. The Educational Testing Service, the administrators of the always controversial SATs, has learned this lesson the hard way as it recently found scoring errors in almost 6,000 exams that were overlooked, resulting in scores that were far too low or falsely high. The perfect academic storm has culminated as several overstressed teenagers, who have learned hundreds of words they will never use and struggled through SAT prep courses with nerves frayed, have now had their incorrect test scores sent to several universities across the country. Worse, it has come at the peak of the university admissions cycle. The situation is certainly untimely, unfair and ultimately a symptom of academia's over-reliance on standardized testing and \ntechnology. \nETS deserves its fair share of blame as the company is entrusted -- and more importantly paid -- to ensure accuracy and efficiency in the standardized testing. However, it is academic institutions that have allowed ETS to become the gatekeeper -- a godfather of sorts -- determining a large part of the fate of so many. The universities' overdependence, hungrily slurping from the fountains of ETS, has been harshly criticized as have their reliance on the SAT and other scores. The tests have repeatedly been questioned for inefficiency and potential bias. Through it all, standardized tests, though consistently controversial, have been an essential part of classifying potential students on their ability to learn and survive in a university setting. However, the system has managed to get itself in even more trouble, giving naysayers ever more fuel to protest the exam and displaying an awe-inspiring lack of competency and irresponsibility with information that means so much to the futures of so many. No institution outside of a university -- a private business at that -- should have this much control over the future of potential students. \n"This we should have caught," said Brian O'Reilly, executive director of SAT information services. Unfortunately they didn't and thousands of students might have to be sacrificial lambs in order to spur change in the college admissions process. College admissions officers who are at the peak of reviewing admissions materials might now be forced to re-evaluate another batch of applicants with incorrect SAT scores, and they will need to do it quickly. Opportunity arises out of the storm as ETS and universities can no longer sidestep or "discuss" change. They must act in overhauling their individual processes to make the SATs work. Standardized testing can be effective, but only if university overdependence is examined.\nAs John A. Blackburn, dean of admissions at the University of Virginia, knows, "sometimes little differences can make the ultimate difference." We hope academia and ETS will realize their error and fix the problem.