20 Youths Told to Retake SAT or Forfeit Scores : High schools: An inquiry finds that some students in the West Valley and Calabasas may have obtained test answers in advance.

About 20 high school students from the western San Fernando Valley and Calabasas were ordered Tuesday to retake the Scholastic Aptitude Test or have their recent scores canceled.

An investigation found that some youths may have obtained answers in advance, authorities said.

In a letter that the students received Tuesday, the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J., which administers the SAT, advised the teen-agers that some of them may “have had an unfair advantage which raises serious questions regarding the validity of their scores” on tests taken in May and October.

The agency has arranged a retest for Jan. 21 at Occidental College in Los Angeles for students who wish to retake the examination, the letter said. Or they can retake the SAT later or have the scores revoked and get their money back.

Most four-year colleges require that applicants take the SAT, a broad test of verbal and mathematical abilities.

The letter followed two months of investigation and “numerous on-site interviews” by ETS at Calabasas High School, where the test was administered Oct. 10 to about 240 students.

Soon after the exam, Calabasas High School officials received anonymous complaints that some students had acquired answers in a course given by a private tutor named Edwin Gruber, who runs a test-preparation service.

The ETS inquiry included Taft High School in Woodland Hills and perhaps others, although the company would not say.

After the May exam, ETS spokesman Ray Nicosia said, there had been hints of impropriety but not enough evidence to warrant action. The October investigation yielded the information that prompted Tuesday’s letter.

It read: “Students taking Edwin Gruber’s SAT preparation course before the May and October, 1992, test administrations may, inadvertently, have had prior access to test questions in study material they received.”

Gruber, reached by telephone, denied Tuesday that he had furnished answers to any students enrolled in his crash course.

“I run a reputable test-preparation service,” he said. “I never did anything wrong, and if these students are asked to take the test again, I’ll do my best to help them.”

He declined to comment further.

Nicosia would not say how many students had been mailed the letter or which schools besides Calabasas were involved. Taft officials confirmed that ETS called Tuesday to notify them that some of their students would be receiving the letters.

The ETS did not accuse the students of wrongful acts, saying its action “is not, in any way, an indication of improper conduct on your part.”

“As far as we’re concerned, the students haven’t done anything wrong,” said Assistant Principal Steven Rosentsweig of Calabasas High School. “Our students have scored high on SATs every year in the past, and I assume they will continue to score high on SATs every year in the future.”

“We’re certainly not aware of any duplicity” by Calabasas students, said Assistant Supt. Leo Lowe of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, which includes Calabasas High School. “We really feel it’s an issue between ETS and the individual youngster who may have been contacted by the agency over any possible irregularity.”

The letter recommended that students talk with parents and school administrators before deciding what to do.

“If they come ask me, my advice would be that they should retake it,” Taft college counselor Linda Zimring said.

The ETS told students that if they retake the test their new scores “must be reasonably close to your questioned scores.” If they are, Nicosia said, the first set will stand. If they are well below the first scores, the lower ones will count.

He would not say whether his agency is looking into how students might have received the answers in advance. They are supposedly closely guarded.

Nicosia said security violations have occurred in the past and that ETS has successfully sued advance distributors of answers on the grounds of copyright infringement, resulting in “some settlements in excess of six figures.”