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Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

January 1, 1995, SUNDAY, FINAL EDITION

Lawsuit filed against test preparation firm

A lawsuit has been filed in a federal court to prevent a test preparation firm from continuing to use questions that appear on a national computerized admission test.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court for Maryland, says Kaplan Educational Center unlawfully obtained questions from the Graduate Record Examinations General Test. It cites violation of the federal electronic communications privacy act, copyright laws, breach of contract and fraud, a statement released by ETS said.

Kaplan reportedly sent a number of representatives to take the computerized GRE with the sole purpose to memorize questions, not to earn a score to submit to graduate schools. Kaplan then compiled a list of questions the representatives recalled and presented it to the Educational Testing Service on Dec. 10.

"We are taking this action in order to preserve students' freedom of choice to take a computerized test, an option that more than twice as many will pick this year over last year," said Nancy Cole, president of ETS, one of the plaintiffs.

ETS administers more than 9 million college and graduate school entrance exams in the United States and 180 other countries. The institution plans to test 1 million students by computer beginning in late 1997. More than 300,000 took computer-based examinations this year.

"ETS procedures are more than adequate to deal with typical attempts to break security," Cole said. "Kaplan's illegal action has introduced a new element - a concerted effort on behalf of a well-heeled firm to sabotage computer-based testing."

Copyright 1995 Sun-Sentinel Company

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