According to The End of Erasures: Updating  Test Security Laws and Policies for Computerized Testing,numerous states have recently increased their use of computerized assessments while only a few have updated their laws to account for the new cheating risks that this testing format poses.

The report also said that there are differences in state test administration manuals in terms of specificity and direction on how to apply existing test security policies to the computer-based format in the 16 U.S. states that required at least one computer-based assessment. Recent ACT research found out that only Delaware and Oregon had test security laws specific to computer administered tests.

ACT senior vice president of research, Wayne Camara, urges states to create and adopt clear and comprehensive regulations that would reflect the changing role of technology in assessments. While there is a potential to minimize many security risks, administering assessments digitally can also cause other types of risks to emerge.

The practices done to engage in test fraud and to identify it are very sophisticated for computer-based assessments. This computer-based format offers the opportunity for a far greater level of test security than paper administration; however, this format also poses a different set of risks for unauthorized access and distribution of test materials.

Below are some recommendations that the ACT report provided so states can update their statutes, regulations, and policy manuals to adapt their paper-and-pencil test security policies to computerized tests. This outlines only a few main areas on which state policymakers must focus should they want to adopt the best practices for computerized assessments.

• Control the access to the tests, such as individual student log-in codes.
• Limit the time length of testing windows so as to minimize opportunities for hacking and other illegal sharing of test questions and answers.
• Carefully consider the layout of student workstations, including visual barriers.
• Provide test administration manuals that organize all test security information in one section, for easier finding and understanding of all related policies and important detail for following them.

 

Computerized testing has already been done by several states and it is constantly expanding. Thousands of students successfully took a digital version of the ACT college readiness assessment just this past spring, the very first computer-based administration of a national undergraduate college admission exam. We can expect that the digital version of the ACT will be officially released in spring 2015 in invited states and school districts, along with expanded release for statewide and districtwide testing in spring 2016.