Elf mistress Heloise entered Elvin’s office (Head of Section K) quickly. “For the eighth week in a row, the reject rate from Section K is three times the rate from the previous twelve months,” she said, handing the weekly quality report to Elvin. She continued, “I was so impressed when your section scored higher on [...]

In 1965, Gordon Moore of Intel observed that transistor densities were doubling roughly every 2 years. Since then the exponential nature of faster, smaller and more powerful computational units has continued. Initially, the observation was a remarkable statement of trends. Later, it became an expectation. And, it is now considered an unrelenting challenge for high [...]

Being an election year, the security of voting machines is coming under intense scrutiny. The article states, “With the presidential race in full swing, some U.S. states have found critical flaws in the accuracy and security of their electronic voting machines, forcing officials to scramble to return to the paper ballots they abandoned after the [...]

The number one security concern of testing professionals is exam theft and piracy, according to a survey that Caveon conducted at NOCA in 2005. We asked the question: “Which of the following are security concerns for you? (Please check as many as apply).” One hundred participants responded in the following manner: Concern Number Responding Proxy [...]

Beginning New Year’s Day 2008, lottery ticket retailers in Ontario will have a new set of rules to follow if they will continue selling lottery tickets. “Most of the changes are the result of Ontario ombudsman Andre Marin and his scathing investigation of the province’s lottery corporation.” http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jEvfDbJoJ7C3KoaNxekmT8DuUDNA The previous set of rules allowed lottery [...]

Cisco now “requires all exam takers to provide digital photos and digital signatures” when candidates are admitted to take a test. http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/edu/2007/1217ed1.html?zb&rc=mgmt Cisco states, “This new layer of identity authentication will help to ensure candidate identity and result in increased assurance that individuals are presenting accurate certification records in the marketplace.” In my opinion, it [...]

As more and more online courses are developed and offered, instructors of online courses need to consider the potential for cheating on the assessments. The following article describes some measures being implemented by FGCU (Florida Gulf Coast University): http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readarticle.asp?articleid=16460&z=3&p= One of the measures is to track IP addresses and determine if more than one test [...]

A senior from Manatee High School passed the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) in ten minutes by using a “secret pattern” after flunking the test three times. His score was invalidated. Apparently the test score was not invalidated because he used a pattern. Carla Frazier told the news, “FCAT rules do not prohibit students completing [...]

A teacher, Carla Hammersley, in Michigan resigned recently for allegedly “violating administrative procedures” during this year’s administration of the MEAP (Michigan Education Assessment Program). She denies any wrong doing, but felt that resignation was her only real option. One option offered by the superintendent was three days suspension without pay and a letter of misconduct [...]