SAT Cheating: Does the Crime Pay?

What happens when someone is caught cheating on the SAT or ACT test?

Apparently not much, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The testing services don’t notify colleges about cheating incidents and they also don’t inform the students’ high schools. The fraudulent SAT scores are simply canceled. The cheaters are welcome to take the tests again. The test providers defend their policies by saying they don’t want to ruin the cheaters’ college prospects.

Not everybody is happy with the SAT cheating position . “Their position is thoroughly unaccountable and promotes unethical conduct,” said Michael Josephson, president of the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics. “What they’re basically saying is ‘Try it. You have nothing to lose.’ Why not say to someone who robbed a 7-Eleven, ‘Please give back the merchandise or pay for it, but we don’t want you to feel bad about stealing.’ ”

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also write a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.