In January, on the first day of the Computer Science 106A: Program Methodology course at Stanford University, Eric Roberts, the professor, began with his customary admonition: Cheat, and you will be caught. And, he added: Cheat, and your classmates will suffer. More weight will be given to the final exam when calculating the final grade.
These are not idle threats in a department where it may be easy to cheat (cut, paste some code, voila!) but it is just as easy to detect cheating. (It is the computer science department, after all). Jay de la Torre, a senior, was caught and has been suspended this quarter as part of his punishment. Mr. de la Torre was taking the computer science class for a second time in his junior year when he cheated. After he was disciplined, he resigned from his position as student body vice president in November, The Stanford Daily reported.
via The Temptation to Cheat in Computer Science Classes at Stanford – Bay Area Blog – NYTimes.com.
One in five Georgia public schools faces accusations of tampering with student answers on last spring’s state standardized tests, officials said Wednesday, throwing the state’s main academic measure into turmoil.
The Atlanta district is home to 58 of the 191 schools statewide that are likely to undergo investigations into potential cheating. Another 178 schools will probably see new test security mandates, such as stepped-up monitoring during testing.
via Suspicious test scores widespread in state | ajc.com.
March 4th, 2010 in
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A NEW hand-held device launched by a Cirencester company to help detect high-tech exam cheats could be used to combat the use of mobile phones in schools and changing rooms.
When David Spurr launched the Mobysafe scanner, which detects mobile phones using 2G and 3G to access the internet, it was targetted at leisure centres to enable them to monitor anyone trying to take inappropriate pictures or videos on phones and similar devices.
via Scanner aims to scupper cheats (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard).
Some high-ranking Georgia lawmakers sounded a note of caution this week despite the push by top education officials to make cheating on tests a crime. Teachers also came out against the proposal, adding an air of uncertainty to an effort kick-started last week when state officials announced 191 schools — 10 percent of Georgia’s public elementary and middle schools — will be investigated for possible cheating on state tests.
via Some wary of a test-cheat law | ajc.com.
March 4th, 2010 in
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The Texas Education Agency is investigating allegations that staff at a Houston ISD elementary school had access to a secure TAKS test and perhaps shared an essay topic with students before the writing exam, which is scheduled for today.
The investigation centers on Jefferson Elementary, but in case the test question got shared with other HISD campuses, the TEA has issued a new secret essay topic for all elementary schools in the district, said agency spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe.
via State investigating alleged leak of TAKS test in HISD | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.
March 4th, 2010 in
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In an interview Tuesday with NPR, Ravitch cited one of the major components of NCLB, standardized testing, and said it “lowered the standards” in schools across the nation. While certainly setting a standard for student achievement is important, Ravitch says NCLB’s strategy has encouraged cheating, “It turns out as a result of putting so much emphasis on the test scores, there’s a lot of cheating going on, there’s a lot of gaming the system. Instead of raising standards it’s actually lowered standards because many states have ‘dumbed down’ their tests or changed the scoring of their tests to say that more kids are passing than actually are.”
via No Child Left Behind Advocate Shifts Position.
March 4th, 2010 in
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State lawmakers warned earlier this week that they will watch the panel closely, citing fears it could be influenced in its findings. Atlanta school officials, meanwhile, have tried to assure parents that educators remain focused as their students prepare to take critical state tests starting April 20.
“The most important thing is the facts,” said Gary Price, a partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers and the panel's chairman. “The Atlanta school board commissioned an independent party to do the investigation. It's the right thing to do on many levels, especially for the 50,000 [students] who attend Atlanta public schools.”
via Panel announced to oversee Atlanta test cheating probe | ajc.com.
Even states that have weathered widespread cheating scandals do not necessarily follow up with regular statistical monitoring. In 2005, after an investigation by The Dallas Morning News pointed to extensive cheating in Texas, the state hired Caveon Test Security, a Utah company that improves testing procedures, to conduct what the company calls “forensics analyses” of answer forms. But the company was not retained to do yearly monitoring, said John Fremer, Caveon’s president.Caveon’s forensics analyses use several methods of detecting cheating, screening not only for erasures but improbable increases or decreases in scores, individual students whose performance swings widely from year to year, patterns where multiple students share the same wrong answers and other anomalies.
via Experts Say Schools Need to Screen for Cheating – NYTimes.com.
March 4th, 2010 in
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One staff member at a Springfield charter school told state education investigators he felt so pressured by his principal last spring to improve MCAS scores that, in order to keep his job, he helped one student write an essay for the test.
Another staff member said he was fired after he accused the principal of encouraging cheating, while another staff member observed a colleague pull some students away from watching a movie so they could fix answers on their tests.
via Springfield charter school staff admits helping on MCAS – The Boston Globe.
South Korean police are investigating a local cram school suspected of using paper cutters and electronic devices to copy questions from the leading U.S. college entrance SAT exam and passing them to students.
The probe, widened on Monday, is one of several in South Korea in the past few years where law enforcement officials in the education-obsessed country have gone after cram schools thought to have stolen standardised test material.
via S. Korean police probe college exam cheating ring.