Click here for free Lucky for Life tickets. Pacific Kent-area high school caught in test scandal By Linda Shaw Seattle Times staff reporter Students at Kentridge High School near Kent are the latest to be caught in a testing scandal that started when one school gave the Advanced Placement U.S. history exam a day early. Students from that school, which testing officials declined to identify, shared at least one essay question via cyberspace. A few students from Kentridge and at least two schools in the Washington, D.C., area saw the question before they took the test May 11. Now all students who took the AP exam at those three schools must retake the essay part of the test, receive a grade based solely on the multiple-choice section or not get a grade at all.
Students can receive college credit for doing well on the test.
The Educational Testing Service, which administers AP and other exams, is not saying much about the security breach, except to confirm it is looking into it. But officials reported yesterday that so far they think the problem is limited to fewer than 120 students at the three schools. Some students and school officials reported that the essay questions were posted on a Web site managed by Princeton Review, a test-preparation company. The testing service declined to identify the three schools, but officials at Kentridge and St. Andrew's Episcopal School, a private school in Maryland, confirmed that testing-service investigators interviewed their students and have told them their essay answers won't be counted. News reports also identified a third school, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., where some students also saw the question before test day.