This morning, the District of Columbia Fire Department officials advised the College of Southern Maryland that they are reviewing the college's testing center where the Pearson VUE National Registry Emergency Medical Technician (NREMT) is administered. Today is the first the college has been officially advised of this investigation. We are very concerned about these allegations and college officials are cooperating fully with officials.
We are unaware of any reports of testing irregularities other than a single incident that our testing staff reported to Pearson VUE in December 2008. We cooperated with Pearson VUE in following up on that incident.
The college's relationship with Pearson VUE, the test administrator, is solely to provide the location site for Pearson VUE's computerized tests. No college staff has access to the test itself nor to the scoring or the test results.
The college has strict testing protocol and procedures to ensure the integrity of its test-taking process. Two forms of photo identification are required of all test-takers prior to taking the exams, and the students are carefully monitored throughout their test-taking.
The college is conducting its own internal review as well as cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation.
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