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Deja
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 02:04 pm |
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How did you approach getting scores off transcripts?
My son's high school puts all Collegeboard scores (SAT, SAT2, AP) and ACT scores on the transcripts. When questioned, my son's (substitute) GC said that there "might" be a way to opt out of this, but she wasn't sure.
My son is taking the SAT2 tests on June 7, and when he signed up online they wouldn't let him change his high school code to no code. He could have taken the SAT in January without listing his high school. Perhaps he should have done that.
(If my son takes the ACT, there is no way he's putting a school code on that registration!)
The GC seemed to understand what I was saying about score privacy, but it was also clear that she wasn't going to do anything about it.
How have others approached their school systems to get this practice changed? I know that school systems like to know how their students score on the SAT and/or ACT, because that is included in school system statistics, but there has to be a way to get that information without automatically broadcasting all scores on every transcript for every college to see, right?
Thanks for any information! Before I approach the head of my school system's guidance department, I want to have as much ammunition as possible.
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DesperateDad
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 02:19 pm |
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| Our district stopped the practice about ten years ago because of perceived issues of privacy laws, which are both federal (FERPA) and state. There could be real privacy issues or perhaps the district was just trying to save money from transposing the scores (school district labor to manually code them into the system). Last edited on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 02:57 pm by DesperateDad
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Deja
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 02:28 pm |
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I definitely think there are privacy issues.
As we used to say in spedland, "he/she who pays owns the results."
Not so when SAT/SAT2/AP/ACT scores are plastered on high school transcripts!
Why would the high schools be saving money in transposing scores? I don't understand that part, unless you mean that GCs don't have to copy scores anywhere else.
I understand that high schools like to know their students' SAT and ACT scores for statistical purposes. Perhaps students could be asked to sign a waiver so that their high schools could see those scores for that purpose only (and for local scholarship consideration?).
(Local scholarship consideration would be a concern, as they often ask for scores. If scores were no longer on transcripts, how would they guard against students' self-reported scores not being inflated?)
My school system is behind the times. For many years, the students' sped classes were plasted on their transcripts, until about four years ago when a more benign coding was initiated for those courses. (I am talking about sped resource classes.)
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WestrnMom
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 05:52 pm |
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Insist on it. It's a violation of his privacy, especially if he decides not to use the SAT scores and sends the ACTs instead. I would contact both the school and the district offices and ask them how you go about having them removed. Schools don't want big, public lawsuits or even a lot of publicity about questionable practices, so you should be able to get them removed if you know who to talk to and how to approach it.
Last edited on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 05:52 pm by WestrnMom
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Shennie
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 06:52 pm |
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| To my knowledge, our high school has never put scores on the transcript. The only thing on it are classes taken, grades received, credits earned and cumulative GPA. Schools can still have all the test score data available to use for whatever they need without putting that information on the student transcript.
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Lupine
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 06:59 pm |
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Shennie wrote: To my knowledge, our high school has never put scores on the transcript. The only thing on it are classes taken, grades received, credits earned and cumulative GPA. Schools can still have all the test score data available to use for whatever they need without putting that information on the student transcript.
You might want to check further. At our high school, if a student gets a transcript, it doesn't have test scores on it, but if they send the transcript to a college, they photocopy on the back of the transcript all of the test scores they have: PSAT, SAT, ACT, SAT II, and AP scores.
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CarolynLawrence
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Posted: Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 08:13 pm |
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DesperateDad wrote: Our district stopped the practice about ten years ago because of perceived issues of privacy laws, which are both federal (FERPA) and state. There could be real privacy issues or perhaps the district was just trying to save money from transposing the scores (school district labor to manually code them into the system).
The cost is one reason why some schools will say they won't or can't take the scores off of transcripts. Many schools these days use software systems that make it difficult and time-consuming to change something for ONE student. Of course, if they change it for ALL students in the software system itself, there isn't any cost. But in many cases, the person who is actually controlling the software system isn't the guidance office, but someone like the registrar or IT they tend to be unhappy about making changes they don't see a need for or that might make it harder for them to pull the reports they need for things like getting school funding or reports for the board.
My sense is that one voice crying in the wilderness won't get much response. to issues like this. Many voices of other parents, however, can raise a ruckus that finally gets action. So, I would bring this issue up with other parents and the PTA and try to get others making the same request.
Last edited on Tue Apr 22nd, 2008 08:15 pm by CarolynLawrence
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outwest
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Posted: Tue Apr 29th, 2008 04:11 pm |
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Our high school also puts the scores on the back of the transcript - all of them. They say it is to save people the money when they apply to colleges as most colleges will accept those in lew of the college board's official ones. Our high school even puts the California State testing on the transcript. They also put good stuff, too. When my D received a copy of her transcript to use when applying to colleges we noticed a section saying, "This student scored nationally on the ATGA test for German." and "This student was one of nine to test out of Freshman English." That was kind of nice!
There is the thought that a student needent try to tweek what the college sees. The scores are part of who they are. Brutal honesty isn't so bad, "Here I am, like it or not." Because of that she didn't sweat too much about it. I do remember her saying she was happy not to have any 1's or 2's on those AP's that they would see.
Privacy goes out the window with college admissions. There isn't any.
Last edited on Tue Apr 29th, 2008 04:20 pm by outwest
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Deja
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Posted: Sun Jun 15th, 2008 10:15 pm |
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Thanks to a poster on CC, I found this info on the College Board website.
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/research/RDGuideUseCBTest020729.pdf
2. FOR INSTITUTIONS,AGENCIES, AND ORGANIZATIONS
2.3 Inform test-takers about why tests are required or recommended, when they are
offered, and how the scores will be used.
2.4 Protect the privacy of test-takers by treating confidentially, in accordance with the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,3 the scores and other information
derived from the tests they take, bearing in mind the additional considerations
involved with electronic transmission and the potential for retransmission.
3. COUNSELING
Counselors should:
3.6 Release the scores and other information derived from a test a student takes only
with the student’s explicit consent, if the student could be identified from the
released information.
***
If students have to have their (supposedly private) scores plastered on their transcripts, then maybe teachers and GCs should have their scores (PRAXIS, etc.) plastered on the School Report Cards that are required by NCLB!
Watch and see how this "voice in the wilderness" is going to get results!
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Lupine
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Posted: Sun Jun 15th, 2008 11:19 pm |
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Deja wrote:
If students have to have their (supposedly private) scores plastered on their transcripts, then maybe teachers and GCs should have their scores (PRAXIS, etc.) plastered on the School Report Cards that are required by NCLB!
Watch and see how this "voice in the wilderness" is going to get results!
Oooh -- I like this concept. On the other hand, given the error-ridden data used on our school report cards, I probably wouldn't believe the teacher data either. (I counted 13 errors on our school's report card a few years ago, and after much discussion with the state Department of Education learned that many of the legisislatively mandated calculations could never possibly result in accurate data when students from multiple grades take a class.
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WestrnMom
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Posted: Sun Jun 15th, 2008 11:23 pm |
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You should be able to insist on getting them removed for privacy reasons.
Last edited on Sun Jun 15th, 2008 11:24 pm by WestrnMom
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Deja
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Posted: Tue Jun 17th, 2008 12:17 am |
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An even more powerful quote to stop this reporting of all scores on transcripts is below. My school system is going to stop the automatic reporting of all scores on transcripts. Honestly, I'm surprised...my system has 74,000 students (11 regular high schools), and this is going to affect a lot of students. I can't believe this hasn't occurred to anyone before now.
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_dow...m_handbook.pdf
SAT Scores on Transcripts
The SAT Program recommends that schools not place
SAT scores on school transcripts that are sent to colleges,
and that students be encouraged to send official score
reports. If a school still decides to send scores on a transcript,
the SAT Program recommends that a school receive
official consent from the student.
This recommendation is consistent with the recommendations
of other College Board programs, such as
PSAT/NMSQT and AP. More importantly, it ensures that
schools are complying with the Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act (FERPA) and will help avoid any possible
conflicts in the case that a school sends SAT scores which a
student did not intend to send to a specific institution.
The information colleges receive with official score reports
is much more than just SAT scores. Colleges receive access
to a student’s essay only if a student sends official scores to
that college; colleges also receive important student information
from the SAT Questionnaire, which is useful in
recruiting, advising, and placement decisions.
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outwest
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Posted: Tue Jun 17th, 2008 04:30 am |
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Of course the college board wants to encourage the removal of scores from the transcripts. They don't get the money for sending them otherwise.
I disagree with this a little. To me, when you apply to college you should be completely honest. If you didn't do so well on a test then you didn't. A college should accept you for who you are, not who you are projecting to be. It also saves so many kids so much money. But, that is just my opinion.
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Deja
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Posted: Tue Jun 17th, 2008 10:43 am |
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It's my understanding that scores on transcripts don't count for official purposes, and that colleges still require the official score report from College Board.
As far as not being completely honest, here's how I look at it. Why should my son and the other students in our school system have to bare their testing histories, when students in other systems in other places don't? There is already way too much variation across the country as it is.
Scores are private information. My school system does not obtain permission before plastering them on transcripts. They are going to stop that practice. I am determined.
And score choice for ACT is completely eliminated when schools put all scores on transcripts. Isn't score choice one of the big selling points for the ACT?
If this gets to the letter to the editor stage, I'm going to suggest that students not report school codes. Then the school system will no longer have accurate scores for their data-gathering (they compile average SAT scores). If my son takes the ACT, he will not report a high school.
Come to think of it, rather than a letter to the editor, I think I might contact the education reporter and see if she is interested in doing an article on this. She could compare the different school systems in my area to see what their practices are. Of course, it might be a steep learning curve for her to understand the issue. I also expect the guidance director of our school system might not understand, because HER alma mater has an average SAT score of 800 (that's CR and M combined). If she was any good, this whole issue would never have even occurred!
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outwest
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Posted: Wed Jun 18th, 2008 06:50 am |
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I do agree with your point 'why should one kid be made to bear all when others are not'. I never thought about it much other then to be surprised that my Ds third SAT2 score (which she took in the Fall AFTER sending her official sat scores) was actually plastered on the back of he midyear report and they saw it anyway. She had taken it in the fall in case she didn't get a good score she wouldn't have to report it. Her college only required two SAT2s, not three. Luckily, she was fine with her score on it, but if it had been poor, like she thought it might, maybe I would have been more annoyed. As it was I just figured there was no hiding anything and maybe that was the right way to do things.
With all the talk about confidentiality, I do not think the schools can release those scores to colleges without permission. They can release the school testing scores as those are part of the high schools transcript, but the SATs are clearly not.
Good luck Deja. Let us know what happens. Be careful not to rile the counselor up, though. They write rec. letters, remember? And if they release Deja's scores on the transcript you have nothing to wory about. his scores were terrific!
As far as the colleges accepting the transcript version of the SAT...most of my Ds schools accepted those as official. We could have saved money not sending them officially.
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Deja
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Posted: Wed Jun 18th, 2008 11:45 am |
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outwest wrote: Be careful not to rile the counselor up, though. They write rec. letters, remember? And if they release Deja's scores on the transcript you have nothing to wory about. his scores were terrific!
As far as the colleges accepting the transcript version of the SAT...most of my Ds schools accepted those as official. We could have saved money not sending them officially.
It's not my son's GC or even any of the ones at the high school -- it's the Guidance Director for the school system (remember, our system has 74,000 students).
So far my son's scores are wonderful...but I don't know yet about the SAT2s and then there are those APs. He will be judged on the quality of his teachers for the AP exams (for the SAT2s, also). I don't understand why AP scores are used in college admissions (I saw that a student must self-report scores on the Common App).
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