South Florida student demands SAT score be released after she's accused of cheating

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. - A South Florida student accused of cheating on her SATs held a press conference Wednesday along with her high-profile attorney, Benjamin Crump.

"My name is Kamilah Campbell. I didn't cheat," Campbell said. "I studied to achieve my dreams, and I know to achieve them, I had to be focused and dedicated. And I won't let ETS or anyone take my dreams away from me."

Campbell is still waiting for her SAT scores to be released following a Jan. 1 college deadline.

Last week, the Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School student told Local 10 News about her dreams of attending Florida State University.

But her dream has been threatened after she received a letter from Educational Testing Services saying her October SAT scores were invalid.

Campbell said it is due to a 300-point score increase from March.

"She studied harder than she ever studied before. Focused more than she ever focused before to conquer this test," Crump said. "She made a 1230 on the SAT in October."

"I turned in a letter from my tutor, a letter from my teacher and I wrote a statement myself. I also turned in pictures of the study book I used on my own," Campbell said.

Campbell stood alongside her mother, community members and Crump, asking ETS to release her scores immediately.

"She stayed up late nights, she stayed up early mornings, studying. She received extra tutoring because she set a goal in her head she wanted to reach and she accomplished that goal. She deserves to be honored," the student's mother, Shirley Campbell, said.

An ETS official released a statement regarding the issue, saying, "We cannot discuss specific students' scores. After every test administration, we go to great lengths to make sure that all test scores we report are accurate and valid. In order to do so, we sometimes take additional quality control steps before scores are released."

We do not cancel scores based on a score gain alone; we will only cancel scores after we are confident that there is substantial evidence to do so."

Campbell has created a GoFundMe page, which states that she may now be forced to pay for college without scholarship assistance due to her SAT score being withheld.

The website states that Campbell is "unable to accept money for legal fees," but will spend the funds "at her sole discretion."

4456BSD on January 2nd, 2019 at 20:32 UTC »

From the GoFundMe page:

"Campbell first took the SAT exam on March 10, 2018. But, after her score was disappointing, the Michael M. Krop senior picked herself up, and performed a rigorous 360 to make it better."

Uh, um...

SpunTheOne on January 2nd, 2019 at 20:03 UTC »

"The website states that Campbell is "unable to accept money for legal fees," but will spend the funds "at her sole discretion." - that a little fishy?

AeroJonesy on January 2nd, 2019 at 19:46 UTC »

A 900 puts her in the 23rd percentile, meaning 77% of test takers scored better. A 1230 puts her in the 79th percentile, meaning that 21% of test takers scored better.

That's a huge improvement. But in 2017, the College Board noted that ~6.4% of test takers saw an improvement of over 200 in their scores. A 330 point improvement is an outlier, but it doesn't seem unlikely given that ~1.7 million kids take the test. It's not hard to image a scenario where someone had a very bad test day the first time around, studied, and then had a very good test day. Especially considering how gameable tests like the SAT can be.