The Educational Testing Service (ETS), a company that administers such widely-used tests as the GRE and GMAT, announced last week that it will no longer notify universities when examination conditions are altered for disabled students.
This decision results from a bias lawsuit brought against the ETS by disabled Californian business school applicant Mark Breimhorst.
Breimhorst, who has no hands, claimed that flagging his GMAT exam because he was given 25 percent more time to take the test with a tracking ball violated the American with Disabilities Act. He argued that flagging his exam is discrimination because it may indicate that his score was inflated. Breimhorst filed suit two years ago and won the case.
“I’m certainly in support of the decision,” said Robert Thach, dean of graduate admissions in the school of arts and sciences. “It’s certainly a step forward in the spirit of furthering opportunity.”
He added, however, that “because we receive such a small number of flagged exams I don’t think it will have a significant impact on our graduate community.”
The new policy will go into effect on October 1, 2001. The tests that will be affected include the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Praxis test and the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT).
“I think the new policy is a good one,” said Madonna Riesenmy, adjunct assistant professor of education. “I’ve always believed that the testing industry was too focused on time. Achievement and intelligence is not about speed.”
“We could do a lot more to make standardized testing a more fair and accurate portrayal of people’s ability in general,” Riesenmy added. “As it stands standardized tests don’t really show if a student is prepared for a school like Washington University.”
Currently, the ETS “flags” a student’s test score with an asterisk when that student takes a standardized test with modified conditions for disabilities. In most cases the disabled student has been given extra time. But ETS also flags scores in other instances, such as when a hearing impaired student takes a substitute audio exam.
“A person has a right to privacy,” said Victoria J. Kozak, assistant professor of education of the hearing impaired and director of deaf education and principal at Central Institute for the Deaf. “I look favorably upon not flagging a student’s exam. Some hearing impaired students would score competitively or above non-disabled students. They should only be identified if they choose.”
The SAT and other tests owned by the College Board will not be affected by the lawsuit for the time being. The parties involved in the lawsuit and the College Board have agreed to select a panel of experts to give recommendations on whether or not flagging on the SAT and other College Board owned exams should continue. The panel’s findings will be issued in March 2002.

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