Originally published on November 24, 2015
It was 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, and senior Michael Araula was awake and preparing to take the SAT college-entrance exam… again. Two weeks earlier, he had done the same routine only to find that when he arrived at Mission High School, his and about 15–30 other Lowell students’ test-taking location, the test had been cancelled.
High school students piled into Mission High School to take an SAT retake on Oct. 17 after the previous test had been cancelled because the Educational Testing Service did not turn the request form in on time.
On Oct. 3, the national test date, the sign on the school’s front door announced the cancellation and gave no explanation. There had not been any prior cancellation message to the test-takers.
On Oct. 3, the national test date, the sign on the school’s front door announced the cancellation and gave no explanation.
ETS must obtain permits to use schools to administer the College Board’s SAT by faxing request forms to the SFUSD office listing schools they intend to use, according to district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe. ETS had phoned the San Francisco Unified School District office on Oct. 2, the Friday right before the exam, and asked if they could still fax the form in late and secure Mission High School as a testing facility. District workers agreed and waited to receive the faxed permission request form, but none came by the time the office closed for the evening.
The next day, District workers found that ETS had sent in their request form after they had closed, and thus did not give the ETS rights to use Mission High School, Blythe said.
A hasty, handwritten sign was posted on the door to notify test-takers, which was met by students’ mixed responses. “At first, I was relieved I didn’t have to take the test that day,” Araula said. “Then I felt angry because I wasted the entire Saturday by waking up early, and I had to wake up early on another day. It was a win-lose situation.”
The date of the retake was posted several hours later on the College Board’s website. But simply pushing back the test date created a problem for seniors’ college plans. Application deadlines for most colleges, including the University of California, are due in November. Some students were left in the dark about when their scores would arrive. “I just found out my SAT scores were available [on Nov. 2] because they never emailed the make-up test takers,” senior Regina Gomez said.
The College Board allots 20 days after the test date to process scores for release. Instead of receiving SAT scores on Oct. 22, seniors who took the Oct. 17 retake had to wait until Nov. 5 to receive their scores. This date may have been too late for some to see their scores before sending them to colleges.
Instead of receiving SAT scores on Oct. 22, seniors who took the Oct. 17 retake had to wait until Nov. 5 to receive their scores.
These and many other students were thus annoyed by the discrepancy, as was Mission High School principal Eric Guthertz. “ I was not aware that ETS did not follow through on their district application,” he said. “I was frustrated and felt badly for the students.”
ETS has sent in late requests numerous times in the past, according to Blythe. “[ETS] has been late in submitting permits in the past and the Real Estate office has worked with them to accommodate their requests for the sake of students,” she said. “For example, permit applications have been submitted past the deadline and incomplete and the Real Estate office staff has chased after them for the missing information in order to approve their permit.”
Mission’s doors were unlocked and signless for the Oct. 17 retake for students like Araula and Gomez, and the test went along without further complications.
