Dear Associate,

One of the most interesting stories this week comes from the San Francisco Chronicle. The writer, Regan McMahon, contends that because cheating has become so common in schools, "perhaps it's time to make curbing cheating part of the public policy."

Clearly many teachers are frustrated with the lack of clear consequences when a student is found cheating. Some teachers are hassled by parents and even administrators when they attempt to enforce even minor consequences for cheating.

Regan ends the article with this statement "With ample evidence showing that honor codes and academic integrity policies work, why don't school districts mandate them? Maybe it's because we parents have not insisted it be on the public policy agenda. In the post-Enron era, can we afford not to?"

Do you believe that having a public policy related to cheating would benefit schools? Please respond to this email and tell me what you think.

Be sure to read these recent posts in the Dennis on Data Forensics Blog: 1) The incident of the pilfered test booklet, 2) Tracking your test booklets using RFID, 3) Chipping children: paranoia or panacea?

Best regards,

Don Sorensen
Vice President, Marketing
Caveon Test Security
don.sorensen@caveon.com
801.592.3396

1 > It’s time to deal with students who cheat - San Francisco Chronicle

Yet despite the prevalence of academic cheating - ranging from copying homework to plagiarizing off the Internet to purloining test answers - and the concern that without ethics you get Enron, there are no statewide or school-district wide academic integrity standards. Perhaps it’s time to make curbing cheating part of the public policy agenda.

2 > Exam cheating goes high tech, but its causes are nothing new - Los Angeles Times

Schools increasingly are turning to test-security firms that use computer software capable of picking out anomalies in multiple-choice exams and identifying plagiarized material. Many more, such as New Roads, are also assuming responsibility for helping students to navigate the minefield of moral and ethical behavior with character-building curricula and ethics workshops.

3 > Auckland University can’t bust exam-selling ring - tvnz.co.nz

Auckland University has cracked an exam-selling ring, but says it’s powerless to do anything about it.A new website run by students is buying up old exam scripts, and then on-selling them at a profit.Staff have now been warned answers to previous exam questions are circulating, and to be aware of this when they’re setting tests.

4 > Stopping the Inadvertent Cheater | NetworkWorld.com Community

In the certification industry there are exam candidates that know they’re cheating and exam candidates that DON’T know they’re cheating. Both types of cheaters are equally damaging to the industry, but one type of cheater, the “inadvertent cheater”, would opt to avoid braindumps if they only knew what those braindumps consisted of and the consequences of using them. We’re hoping that you will help us spread the word so that the unsuspecting exam candidates out there will understand the ins and outs of the study materials they use.

5 > Top 20 Most Braindumped Certification Vendors | NetworkWorld.com Community

Would it surprise you to know that a majority of the braindump sites primarily distribute Microsoft and Cisco braindumps? Nah, that’s too obvious. Would it be a shock to know that Oracle, Citrix, and Sun are in spots 3, 4, & 5, respectively? Well maybe, but hopefully the information provided below will shed a little light on the seriousness that is plaguing the I.T. industry.

6 > Cheating mafia charges Rs 5,000 to crack your exam - CNN-IBN India

The cheating mafia operates from 400 schools across the district. If you’ve dropped out of school they’ll enroll you in one of the 400 schools and arrange for an admit card. No birth certificate is required either for they can easily get a fake one. Most importantly, the cheating mafia will make sure you pass. For Rs 5,000, uninterrupted access to guide books is given while writing the exam. Even if the invigilator finds out, it is all right, for they are all on the mafia’s payroll.

7 > Army Sets Way Ahead for Correspondence Course Testing

Course testing will remain as open-book exams, and the tests will still be in a multiple-choice format, but Soldiers will begin to notice significant changes in May and June. These changes will align the Army’s ACCP with the best practices in the commercial sector and meet or exceed American Council on Education standards.Additional initiatives aimed at resolving the ACCP on-line testing vulnerabilities include:

8 > ISU faculty member finds test answers for sale on eBay - Indiana- TribStar.com

Carolyn Burns, a nursing faculty member at Indiana State University, was stunned when she learned that test questions and answers she might use on her nursing exams were for sale on eBay.

9 > A twisted tale of cheating

It was like something out of a spy novel. A University of Windsor student discipline case from the 2006-07 school year stood out above all the rest for its boldness and espionage-like flavour. In March 2006, a professor in the Odette School of Business discovered he had one too many completed exam booklets.