Police broaden probe into alleged SAT test leak

(ATTN: UPDATES with arrest of lecturer in paras 3 and 5; CHANGES lead)
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, Jan. 25 (Yonhap) -- Police said Monday they are widening their probe into
the leakage of the U.S. college entrance exam following a series of scams
involving private prep centers in Seoul that receive high tuitions from students
in return for guaranteeing high scores.
Police have questioned four people, including an instructor at a private
institute in Seoul, on suspicion of stealing a copy of the Scholastic Aptitude
Test (SAT) at a high school in Gyeonggi Province near Seoul on Saturday.
They are suspected of cutting out various exam questions and recording others on
calculators that were allowed into the test centers on four different occasions
since last October, police said.
The 36-year-old lecturer, who was identified only by his surname of Jang, told
police that he took the test papers outside the test centers to use them as
instruction material for his students. Jang had been on an ETS blacklist on
suspicion of leaking test papers last year, according to officials.
Jang was placed under arrest Monday evening after the Seoul Central District
Court approved a police request to issue an arrest warrant against him.
The investigation comes on the heels of a similar case last week, when another
lecturer at a private institute was arrested after allegedly obtaining copies of
the SAT test from a Thai student who took the SAT in Bangkok last January and
sent questions to students who were about to take the same test.
The lecturer confessed that he helped two South Korean students in the United
States cheat on the SAT exam by sending the materials via email, taking advantage
of the time difference.
The U.S.-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organizer of SAT tests,
strictly bans the disclosure of all SAT test papers.
"We are looking into the case to see whether the copied exam sheets were handed
over to other students or private institutes," a police official said, asking not
to be named. "In cooperation with officials at ETS, we will expand our
investigation into other private English institutes to find out if there are any
more leak cases."
According to police, two security staff members at ETS headquarters were
dispatched ahead of the Saturday test to probe into possible SAT scam cases and
monitor the security situation at test centers.
In 2007, the ETS canceled the scores of about 900 South Korean students,
admitting some of the questions for the January test were leaked to some of the
students in advance.
ETS Korea said it will intensify its efforts to prevent any possible scams and
cooperate with authorities to crack down on cheating.
"I don't think this incident reflects the thousands of Korean students who are
putting forth their best efforts to prepare for the SAT," Lee Hyeok, public
relations officer at the ETS Korea, said in an emailed response.
"It's too bad that there are always people who try to exploit other people's
efforts. To prevent this, ETS and college board are giving thorough attention to
the security of the SAT exam."
Regarding any possibilities that the test may be canceled, ETS Korea said it will
wait to see how the investigation results.
Some parents of the test takers, however, expressed concern that these scams
could disadvantage South Korean students when they are screened for admission
into prestigious American colleges.
"It's not just shameful news, but also worrisome," said Kim Yeong-suk, whose
17-year-old son is studying at an American high school.
"Once these kinds of things are widely reported in the media, college admission
officials could become prejudiced against Korean students who have acquired high
scores on the test. Then it may get tougher for Korean students to be admitted
into Ivy League schools, even after they get good SAT scores," Kim said.
Going to U.S. universities has become popular among those who are not satisfied
with the level of education offered by Korean universities, as well as those who
cannot get into the most competitive Korean universities.
There are more South Koreans studying at U.S. schools of all levels than foreign
students from any other country, according to U.S. government statistics, which
counted 103,000 South Korean students. In higher education, only India and China,
countries with populations more than 20 times that of South Korea's, send more
students.
In 2008, South Korean households spent 20.9 trillion won (US$18 billion) on
private education to supplement the perceived shortcomings of the public school
system, and the number of private educational institutes has increased nearly
50-fold since 1970, according to the education ministry.
ejkim@yna.co.kr
(END)