‘They said it was invalid’ | ACT cancels Forsyth County 4.0 student’s score

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A 4.0 student told Atlanta News First he’s battling to get into colleges after the American College Testing (ACT) officials canceled his scores based on their research.

Atlanta News First spoke to Jack Racki and his mom Tabitha Racki about how this is now impacting his future and why they are invalidating his scores.

“I’m like a solid student you know, I have a 4.0 I do my job,” Jack Racki said.

Jack Racki said he attends Lambert High School in the Forsyth County School District and has been thriving academically but now the ACT is questioning his scores.

“You’re saying that I’m going to see through all those people plus the proctor that’s consistently walking around the exam room.”

After hours of studying with a tutor, Jack finally headed back to the ACT exam room for the third time on Feb. 22 of this year.

He scored 28 out of 36.

Five months before that he scored a 20 and now his mom Tabitha says, “They said it was invalid.”

Jack said the ACT officials told him they believe his answers were too similar to someone sitting five rows in front of him and historical research published shows test preparation can increase test scores but does not usually result in large score increases like his.

“It’s just really unfortunate because I put in all this time all of these tutoring hours.”

Jack says he dedicated five hours a week to studying and his parents paid thousands of dollars for tutoring.

Now he’s applying to colleges with a previous score from July that wasn’t canceled, but it wasn’t his highest either.

“For some schools, it will mean if I get in or not.”

We reached out to the ACT and they said:

“ACT does not comment on the situations of individual test-takers. However, we are confident in our score review and arbitration processes, which respect the interest of examinees while maintaining fairness and integrity in the testing program for all.

Additionally, research published and summarized publicly by ACT as well as other organizations shows that, generally, test preparation can increase test scores, but does not usually result in large score increases.”--ACT

Jack and his mom tried to push back but were unsuccessful.

“It’s not worth anything and that’s sad because we do everything that they asked, submitting the transcripts, the copies of his tutoring stuff and they just don’t acknowledge it…it’s awful,” Tabitha said.

Jack said he asked the ACT to meet with the test proctor who was in the exam room to prove Jack wasn’t looking at someone’s answers and he said the ACT responded by saying, “One testing staff member cannot keep their eyes on the eyes of twenty-six examinees throughout the three hours of timed testing.”

Jack said he is trying to get into the University of Tennessee and hopes 26 points will be enough.

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