A Florida high school senior has hired a high-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump after the College Board failed to validate her SAT results.
Kamilah Campbell, who wants to study dance at Florida State University, hired an SAT tutor, took an online course, and received a Princeton Review preparation book for the standardized test after she was unhappy with her original SAT score of 900. But after retaking the test, the College Board sent her a letter claiming that “anomalies” related to her scores posed concerns about the legitimacy of her scores and therefore her score had been flagged.
“We are writing to you because based on a preliminary review, there appears to be substantial evidence that your scores … are invalid,” the letter said. “Our preliminary concerns are based on substantial agreement between your answers on one or more scored sections of the test and those of other test takers. The anomalies noted above raise concerns about the validity of your scores.”
Campbell said she called the College Board and was told that she had received a score of 1230 out of 1600.
Campbell appeared with Crump at a press conference Wednesday where the pair said her score was not validated because of concerns that she cheated because of the higher score in her second attempt.
“I did not cheat. I studied, and I focused to achieve my dream,” Campbell said. “I worked so hard and did everything I could do.”
Crump said he is requesting the College Board respond to a demand letter within two weeks.
“Instead of celebrating her and celebrating her achievement they are trying to assassinate her character, and we won’t stand for that,” Crump said.
A spokesperson for the College Board, Zach Goldberg, said that scores are flagged for reasons such as test sheets having similar answers, or testing site incidents, among other things. But test results are not flagged for score increases, he said.
Florida State University alumni requested Crump participate in the case, and he is now pushing for her scores to be validated in time for Campbell to join the university’s dance program.
Crump has represented families involved in major civil rights cases, including the family of Trayvon Martin. Martin was a 17-year-old killed in 2012 after Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him in the chest.
