The Freehold Regional High School District was forced to void entrance exams given to 700 students last weekend for its prestigious magnet school program after copies of the test were provided to some students, according to Superintendent Charles Sampson.
Sampson accused a test preparation company of deliberately helping some students who hired the firm to cheat by providing test questions in advance, calling it “illegal” and “serious.”
But the owner of that test prep firm, EXL Prep of Middletown, said he obtained the test online along with other preparation materials and did not know it was the exact test that students would see on exam day.
“I didn’t know which or what test Freehold was going to use.I am assuming that it is incumbent upon them to use a secure test," said John Napoli, EXL owner, who said his firm prepared 100 students who later took the Freehold Regional exam. "I went online to an entity and bought a test as a subset of what we use to prepare kids. I bought that test and other preparation materials in anticipation of preparing our students, not knowing that Freehold had intended to use it.”
He said Freehold Regional should do a better job of securing its tests and, perhaps, change them up from year to year: "I don’t think they should use the same test each year. These tests are important, the schools offer a really great opportunity for students in Monmouth County."
Sampson's letter informing parentsstated:
FRHSD was informed that a local test preparation company had provided the actual test that was administered as a study guide/preparatory test to the students who signed up for their private services. In looking into the allegations further, the District received additional information confirming that the exam had been compromised.
Sampson urged parents to take action while he said the district is reviewing its legal options.
“What I hope is that every single parent who invested money in the test prep site demand their money back,” Sampson said. “I think it was deliberate in the sense that they were going to give these kids an unfair advantage on these test results. We are going to take action on that, we will pursue every avenue possible.”
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The test was administered in person to 700 eighth-grade students on Friday, Sampson said. He said it was one portion of the test that is given to all students who apply to one of the district’s 12 magnet programs.
While each test has different elements, all of them include this portion that measures student cognitive abilities and thought process.
“These are supposed to be secure tests that only the schools have access to,” Sampson said Tuesday, just hours after informing parents that the test results were nullified. “It is apparent that a number of students who attended a particular test prep site were given access to the test itself.”
The magnet schools are spread across all six FRHSD campuses, which are Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Marlboro, Howell, Manalapan and Colts Neck high schools. They range from plant and botanical sciencesat Freehold Township High School to Howell High School's performing arts academy.
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Each high school has at least one of the magnet programs, which include about 1,500 students, Sampson said. The district has a total enrollment of 10,500.
“We are sick to our stomachs over it. This was hundreds of work hours to administer this during COVID,” Sampson said about the issue. “We are putting another plan of action together that we think is going to be fair to the students applying for the program. Wewill work around this. We are not locked into anything, we are looking at a number of different scenarios.”
But Napoli defended his company, saying they did nothing wrong and should not be blamed when the test was so availableonline.
“The Freehold district is taking the position that there was something that was done that was untoward, when all I did was go online and buy a test and did not expect it to be that test," he said. "There was no barrier to my buying the test.”
EXL Prep sent its own letter to parents of its clients on Tuesday explaining the situation.
It said, in part:
We had a job to do, so did the FRHSD.
We cannot speak to what the FRHSD did to protect the integrity of their platform and provide a secure test for your students. We can speak to what we did.
To help prepare our students we purchase practice materials on-line. Lucky or not, it seems that we purchased and had our students practice from the exact test that was used by FRHSD this year. The test is calledCogAT Form 7 Student Level 13/14, Grade 7/8 –a simple Google search yields many results.
That was how the FRHSD test was compromised.
The MCVSD changes their test every year to protect their platform and provide a secure test. We expected the FRHSD would do the same. Perhaps it is time that they motivate and adapt.
We are sorry for the complications this event has caused. We were hired to prepare our students as well as possible. We supplied them with a wide variety of practice materials, never expecting that a subset of those materials would be the actual exam.
The FRHSD chose to use an unsecured test as a determinant for entry into their school.
We did our job. We prepared our students.
“Since the email was sent out, from there my phone started ringing and from within those conversations they said it was similar if not exactly the same test,” Napoli said.
But Sampson criticized test prep firms, saying many often seek to do what will make the most money, even if it is not ethical.
“This is very unfortunate,” he said. “We have had nothing but problems with these test prep sites, they seem to be willing to do anything in order to improve these student scores. That is why we are taking this so seriously. We may even next year design something in a way that they can’t even create a test prep place for it. We want to take them out of the equation.”
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experiencewho covers education and Monmouth County for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of two books, including "Killing Journalism" on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson universities. Reachhim at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
