Officials Investigate Theft of Advanced Placement Exams

Investigators from the Educational Testing Service, the organization charged with administering Advanced Placement exams and the SAT, are looking into the disappearance of five Advanced Placement exams from Chadwick School on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

ETS officials in Princeton, N.J., said five test booklets were discovered missing from a shipment of exams at Chadwick. Spokesman Tom Ewing said it was unclear when or how the booklets were stolen.

He said the tests were counted, numbered and stored in a secure location and that the booklets were not missing until after they arrived at the school.

Chadwick officials were scheduled to administer two rounds of the 31 tests in the exam battery this week, but they canceled plans as a result of the missing tests. Ewing said three more tests are scheduled for next week, but it is unclear whether they will be given.

Chadwick officials would not comment on the incident and referred all calls to ETS.

In May, students across the nation take Advanced Placement exams in hopes of doing well enough to earn college credit.

“We take these types of incidents very seriously for two reasons: 1) they compromise the integrity of the test; 2) almost as important if not more important is the fact that this unfairly gives a disadvantage to all those students who test honestly.”