FBI Raids Former SAT Exec Manual Alfaro’s Home; Alfaro Posts on LinkedIn Next Day
On August 26, 2016, Reuters reported that the FBI raided the home of former College Board exec Manuel Alfaro, in connection with a leak of over 400 SAT test items to Reuters earlier the same month.
According to Reuters, the FBI “seized computers and other material” from Alfaro’s residence.
Alfaro has been publicly posting his concerns about the redesigned SAT in detail for months on LinkedIn, and he continues to post on LinkedIn the day following the raid, August 27, 2016.
Below is Alfaro’s August 27th post, in full, which he begins with a bold declaration:
Shining a Spotlight on the Dark Corners of the College Board: SAT has a Critical Technical Flaw
Manuel Alfaro
August 27, 2016
The FBI raided my home yesterday at the request of the College Board. It appears that Coleman wants to raise the stakes. Challenge accepted!Note: Whenever “SAT” is used below, it refers to the “redesigned SAT.”The SAT test specifications require that, for items in context, 10% are Heavy (more than 60 words), 50% are Medium (40-60 words), and 40% are Light (less than 40 words). On its website, the College Board states that the SAT Practice forms were constructed using the same specifications as the SAT Operational forms. The College Board, however, did not use these specifications to build the SAT forms. And we found out about this after the SAT forms were built.On January 2015, I received a high priority email from Sherri Miller requesting a report of the item distribution across the three categories (Heavy, Medium, Light)—she needed to provide confirmation, that night if possible, to Cyndie Schmeiser that the SAT forms were built to specifications. After analyzing the form metadata, I let her know that all the forms had about 45% Heavy items. “Wow,” she replied, “We had changed that to 10% heavy in the specs given the timing studies. How did we get to 45% of them being heavy?”Months earlier, at a meeting with the SAT’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), the committee recommended that the SAT specifications be changedFBI Raids Former SAT Exec Manual Alfaro’s Home; Alfaro Posts on LinkedIn Next Day | deutsch29
