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| April 21, 2005 |
| Dear Associate, |
Recently my son Aaron took the ACT assessment. This was his first college entrance exam experience. For a couple of months he and a friend attended a prep class each Monday after school. When the day of the test arrived my son's friend was so stressed out he backed out and didn't take the test; a very strange decision considering he could easily retest. I was reminded how "high-stakes" these tests are (and how irrational teenagers can be).
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| Speaking of high-stakes, many articles I've read lately have to do with teacher cheating incidents related to NCLB. Myron Lieberman, a former high-school teacher and author of "Public Schools: an Autopsy," described some of the ways teachers can "cheat": |
- Poor students were excluded or discouraged from taking the tests.
- Teachers assigned tests as homework or taught test items in class.
- Test security was minimal or even nonexistent.
- Students were allowed more time than prescribed by test regulations.
- Unrealistic, highly improbable improvements from test to test were not audited or investigated.
- Teachers and administrators were not punished for flagrant violations of test procedures.
- Test results were reported in ways that exaggerated achievement levels.
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It's clear that the pressures of NCLB are causing a few otherwise upstanding teachers and administrators to cash in their integrity for a quick trip to the head of the class. |
Best regards,
Don Sorensen
Caveon Test Security |
1 > More pupils than ever cheat at school exams
Independent - UK
...Record numbers of pupils are cheating in exams and hundreds are being helped by their teachers. Figures from the exam boards show 3,600 teenagers were caught breaking the rules last year, a 9 per cent rise on the previous year, with many of the offences blamed on schools' anxiety to preserve their rankings in exam league tables....
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2 > Climate of cheating hinders education
Aberdeen American News - Aberdeen,SD,USA
...The No Child Left Behind Act has inspired school districts throughout the country to find ways to raise their assessment test scores. They cheat.... |
3 > Waianae Students To Retake Standards Tests
Hawaii Channel.com - Honolulu,HI,USA
...A probe into suspected cheating on the state standards test at Wai'anae Intermediate School is over. The Department of Education said 1,100 seventh- and eighth-graders will have to retake portions of the reading test because of a security breach... |
4 > Technology offers perks for cheaters
The Daily Tar Heel - USA
...Colleges nationwide are grappling with a way to reconcile two equally pressing dilemmas: how to keep students competitive in the 21st-century economy and how to prevent cutting-edge technologies from being exploited for academic dishonesty.... |
5 > Mobile Phones Fuelling Boom in Exam Cheating
Scotsman - UK
...There has been a sharp rise in the number of teenagers caught cheating in exams, with a major increase in offences linked to mobile phones, figures showed today. More than 2,500 students lost marks for breaking the rules in last year’s GCSEs and A-Levels – a 9% increase from 2003, the Times Educational Supplement reported... |
6 > Clicking away at cheating
Bloomington Pantagraph - Bloomington,IL,USA
...As students have become more creative, colleges and universities in Central Illinois and across the country are finding new ways to prevent technology-enhanced cheating:... |
7 > Academic Senate cracks down on cheating
ASU Web Devil - Tempe,AZ,USA
...Students who rely on cheating or plagiarism may soon find it harder to accomplish without getting caught. The ASU Academic Senate recently approved a series of measures designed to proactively combat cheating. ...
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| Testing Industry News |
2005 NOCA Academy: Seminar III - Forensic Psychometrics
Jack Killorin, Senior Security Advisor, Thomson Prometric
Russell Smith, Psychometrician, Thomson Prometric
May 25th, 2005, 1:00 p.m.—3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Compromising intellectual property is a primary concern for testing programs. However, studies by Thomson Prometric psychometricians yield surprising data indicating that the actual impact on item and form performance may have limited impact on the performance of a testing program. This presentation will focus on those findings and on using psychometric analysis to measure impact and to identify patterns of fraud and misconduct. |
Performance testing Council meets May 18 – 20, 2005, Chicago, IL
http://www.performancetest.org/summitinfo.html |
Catalyst Test Improvement Services offers testing programs psychometric editing, item pool expansion and test refurbishing services at affordable prices.
For more information visit: http://www.catalyst-test.com |
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