Cheating Scandals

During the Fall 2011 Articulation Meeting at the ArizMATYC conference at Estrella Mountain Community College, several attendees brought up the subject of proctored testing. The suggestion was made that the members of the ATF should pass a resolution regarding proctored testing in mathematics courses. The discussion was eventually tabled and moved to next Spring’s ATF meeting.

On the way back from the ATF meeting, I learned of another cheating scandal that had taken place in New Jersey.

In this scandal, a college sophomore was able to stand in for several students and take their SAT for $1500 to $2500 a pop. He was even able to impersonate a female student with a gender neutral name. This student was able to doctor up New York State drivers licenses and gain entry to the proctored testing environment provided by Educational Testing Services.

This is not an isolated incident. At the elementary school level, teachers have been cheating for their students.

Those teachers were probably once cheating students! I wonder if they had access to the wealth of information on Youtube about cheating on tests. Here are the top 5 videos (with an ad before the actual video):

  1. How to Cheat on any Test #1
  2. How to Cheat on any Test #2
  3. How to Cheat on any Test #3
  4. How to Cheat on any Test #4
  5. How To Cheat on any Test Exams NEW Technology SPY KIT for Students

Each of these videos makes it seem that cheating is completely ethical and a reasonable thing to do.

AMATYC’s Innovative Teaching and Learning Committee is currently developing a position statement on Proctored Testing. At the AMATYC conference in Austin on Thursday, November 10, there will be an Input Hearing on this position statement. If you are at the conference, you can attend this hearing, moderated by Mary Beth Orrange, from 7:30 to 8:00 PM.

Perhaps the issue should not be with proctored testing, but with the ethical level of our students. Just food for thought!