Posted 04/25/2019

Good Morning NCTA,

The NCTA Governing Board, Executive Committee and Legal Team are pleased to share the attached letter recently sent to the United State Congress advocating again for necessary test security revisions in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (P.L. 110-315)(HEOA).

As we have previously discussed, current law provides that institutions must use one of the following methods to verify the identity of a student who participates in an online distance education course: (1) secure log-in and passcode; (2) proctored examinations; or (3) new or other technologies and practices that are effective in verifying student identity.

We, the National College Testing Association, continue to be specifically concerned with the inclusion of “(1) secure log-in and passcode” as an acceptable identity verification approach.

The NCTA has advocated for the inclusion of the following (in red) to Part H-Program Integrity, Section 496 (20 U.S.C. 1099b amendment to paragraph 5, ii.):

(ii) the agency or association requires an institution that offers distance education or correspondence education to have processes through which the institution establishes that the student who  registers  in  a  distance  education or correspondence education course or program is the same student  who  participates  in  and completes the program and receives the academic credit.  Identity verification processes should follow multifactor authentication, and may include proctored examinations, or a combination of verification of government-issued identification document, secure login and password, and biometric authentication.

As always, I greatly appreciate the passion, persistence and above all, professionalism of this great organization.



Sincerely and with best regards,

Jarret M. Dyer | President
National College Testing Association