Dear Associate,

It's great when news stories cover solutions to the problem of cheating -- and that's the case today. The first article tells how schools in the UK are using cell phone detectors to catch students using phones to text message during exams. I researched these devices a couple of years ago and it's good to see them finally being used in testing centers. The second article covers the test security plan being implemented by Camden, New Jersey schools to stop cheating. The changes were prompted due to cheating scandals in 2005.

Will you be attending the AERA/NCME conference? If so we'd love to talk. Jim Impara and John Fremer (both former NCME Presidents) from Caveon will be attending. If you'd like to get a brief overview of our test security services respond to this email and we'll schedule a meeting.

If you're concerned that your test items may be for sale on the Internet you won't want to miss the next Caveon webinar: Heist! Who is Selling Your Exams on the Internet? Christie Zervos and Jamie Mulkey will take an informative look at how tests are pirated, packaged and sold on the web. Click here to register.

Best regards,

Don Sorensen
Vice President, Marketing
Caveon Test Security
801.592.3396

1 > Gotcha! Gadget nails texting cheats
Times Educational Supplement - London,England,UK
...The detectors discreetly alert teachers that a mobile is switched on. Or they make a recorded loudspeaker announcement. “We have detected your mobile phone,” an authoritative voice booms. “Turn off your mobile immediately.” ...

2 > Camden enacts 89 measures to stop cheaters
Cherry Hill Courier Post - Cherry Hill,NJ,USA
...The new guidelines are outlined in a 43-page Corrective Action Plan that the state mandated Camden file to address the testing of its 19,000-student district. ...

3 > Feature: Exam culture spurs many to cheat
Taipei Times - Taipei,Taiwan
...Cheating is more severe here than in the West because Taiwanese students have only their test scores to rely on in the admission process, while admission to Western schools is based on diversified criteria, Lin said....

4 > Cheating can tempt test givers
Baltimore Sun - Baltimore,MD,USA
...As pressure grows for students, teachers and administrators to increase performance on high-stakes standardized tests, so has the temptation to cheat. It led the Maryland State Department of Education to randomly dispatch monitors to 45 schools to ensure security of the annual Maryland State Assessment tests, which end today....

5 > Professors, students have different views on cheating
News Net Nebraska - Lincoln,NE,USA
..."I guess cheating is illegally getting the answers (for a test) or using something that you know are the right answers," Belieu said. The definition of cheating is still very much black and white for many UNL professors, including Dr. Nancy Mitchell. "Cheating is any kind of deception, or a willful intent to not be honest," Mitchell said....

6 > Is cheating on the rise?
Montreal Gazette (subscription) - Montreal,Quebec,Canada
...From Copying and Pasting. From the Internet without giving credit to getting your hands on test questions, research indicates the number of students who cheat is hitting new highs...

7 > Guarding cheating tips
Times of India - New Delhi,India
...For all you know, Bhavnagar University (BU) may soon want a patent on the methods of cheating used by its students in exams! As preposterous as it may sound,BU recently refused to give information sought under the Right to Information Act on copying methods used in exams, stating that it was a "trade secret and intellectual property."...

8 > Exam cheat gets knuckles rapped
The Standard - Hong Kong
...A secondary school student has been ordered to perform 80 hours of community service for cheating in an examination....

Testing Industry News

AERA/NCME Annual Meeting and Exhibition
April 9-13, Chicago, Illinois
The theme of the 2007 AERA Annual Convention is "The World of Educational Quality." This theme can be interpreted in a number of ways and points to both an expanded range of inquiry and an intensified focus on the meaning of quality in education research and practice. NCME Information.