WASHINGTON — The SATs that went missing from a Loudoun County high school were located at the school Monday after administrators initially said UPS carried the tests out of the building.
On May 2, about 300 students at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia, took the SAT at the school, and the test takers learned last week that the completed exams never arrived to the College Board.
Loudoun County Public Schools says the tests were sent off via UPS, but for some reason, the exams apparently never arrived at their destination. UPS made clear to WTOP that the shipment never entered its system.
Last week, the school said video surveillance showed a UPS employee carrying the box — tracking number in view — containing the exams out of the building.
That turned out not to be the case when all of the tests were located in the school’s shipping area Monday at about 11:30 a.m., says Loudoun County Public School Spokesman Wayde Byard.
“UPS did not lose this, and we apologize profoundly to UPS,” Byard said.
Byard says a mix up occurred when the boxes were moved from the school’s guidance office to the shipping area May 4.
“A box that looked like the one containing the tests, went out the door at 3 p.m. that day. Some time between 9 and 3, the box with the answers some how got on another cart,” Byard says.
Administrators though the box that left the building at 3 p.m. with UPS contained the answers, however, it stayed in the shipping area until it was located during a sweep Monday.
The tests have been secured and will now be shipped off to the College Board.
The students were given the option to retake the test in June, but now can avoid retaking it.
Byard says the school system will conduct an investigation into the loss of the tests and will review how it handles the delivery of tests.
WTOP’s Andrew Mollenbeck and Mike Murillo contributed to this report.
