Continuing Lies of Educational Authorities Regarding SAT Grades

Whenever asked to disclose the criteria for classification of Korean SAT (KSAT) grades, the Education Ministry and the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE) repeatedly stressed that they do not tally statistics concerning the test. In the course of acknowledging the dual answers to a physics question, it transpired that they may have lied to the public.

The KICE conceded its prevarication when it explained how it would process the aftermath of the correction. It explained on Christmas Eve that a student’s grade would rise if the student’s scores exceeded the cutoff scores of each class.

KSAT takers demanded the publication of the KICE’s grading criteria. Rumors have it that some students got downgraded to the second with only one wrong answer, while other students who missed one three-point question still remained in the 1st grade.

In response, the ministry and the KICE argued, “The computer does all the jobs. It reads the marked OMR forms and processes students’ scores by itself. We don’t know how to classify them into different grades. We do not have the data, and therefore we cannot disclose the criteria.”

Especially when asked how the organization verified the correctness and accuracy of processing without clearly defined cutoff lines, senior KICE official Lee Myeong-jun publicly answered, “The program is too complicated to explain.”

A briefing on the acknowledgement of dual answers to a question on physics section II, the agency explained that it would upgrade the students previously disadvantaged due to the logical error in the question.

What they also unknowingly acknowledged was that the authorities had clear-cut criteria for different grades.

When the new issue was raised, the ministry alleged, “When the dual-answer matter surfaced, we hurried to tally the criteria for the physics section II only. We needed some standards to help us cope with the problem. But the data were not collected on the other sections.”

Parents demanded yet again the disclosure of the processing criteria, which the ministry rejected. Thus, they will reportedly file a lawsuit seeking a court injunction with an administrative court today.

ceric@donga.com