Teachers caught cheating on standardized testing

[Simon_Jester]

Thank you.

I had an experience something like that in my senior year, but that was in a high-end science and technology program. I wrote something... utterly forgettable, I'm pretty sure from what I was doing at the time that it was on stream ecology. But, again, utterly forgettable compared to any number of papers I wrote in college. Still though, it was at least fairly substantial in terms of bulk and research requirements, though I strongly suspect yours were assessed more strictly.

[Serafina]

Thank you.

I had an experience something like that in my senior year, but that was in a high-end science and technology program. I wrote something... utterly forgettable, I'm pretty sure from what I was doing at the time that it was on stream ecology. But, again, utterly forgettable compared to any number of papers I wrote in college. Still though, it was at least fairly substantial in terms of bulk and research requirements, though I strongly suspect yours were assessed more strictly.

Well OF COURSE they're utterly forgettable when compared to college papers. Just like college papers are utterly forgettable when compared to scientific papers. Mind you, calling them "research papers" is not that precise, since most of that research is about gathering sources and not about genuinely new research. Still, it teaches proper citation, structure and such things.

The point i was trying to bring across was that such works require the student to have a certain mastery of the subject, rather than just test knowledge. You can very well have enough knowledge to ace a test, but lack any means of applying that knowledge to a practical project. As i said, you can't write a proper paper about a geology subject without knowing all the relevant stuff about geology - the same goes for psychology, physics, biology, chemistry and whatnot. If you're just doing it with test knowledge, it'll be noticeable and impact your grades (at least when properly done).

[Simon_Jester]

I like to think I'll remember my college papers; some of them were on topics I found genuinely interesting.

But I take your meaning.

[Gurachn]

Standardized testing gets an unfairly bad rap, imo, largely due to poor test design, and inappropriate administration.

Well designed multiple choice test are very resistant to the typical 'gamey' guessing strategies, and are definitely one of the most efficient methods for reliably assessing a wide range of knowledge and procedural ability.
I am definitely not saying that they are appropriate for every subject, or that they should be the sole means of assessment, but when used correctly they are definitely a useful (and often essential) part of the learning process.

Its all very well to talk about the advantages of essays, practical evaluations, and project-based assessment techniques, but the fact is that in many cases, and especially for large scale programs, such methods are economically unfeasible as a primary means of grading students.

[Simon_Jester]

What's problematic is when they* get used so much that it eats a significant fraction of the teacher's time and resources. Getting 140 days to teach students and 20 days to prepare them for the Big Test may not actually teach them more than getting 160 days to teach students.

And, of course, there's the risk of things not appearing on the test when they should, due to honest oversight or mistaken priorities about what belongs on the curriculum. This is especially prevalent in science (where curriculum is often drawn by people who themselves don't know the subject well) and social studies (where it can become politicized).

*(or any other similar form of test that covers most-but-not-all relevant information and tests for relatively "shallow" mastery of the subject)

[Teebs]

Its all very well to talk about the advantages of essays, practical evaluations, and project-based assessment techniques, but the fact is that in many cases, and especially for large scale programs, such methods are economically unfeasible as a primary means of grading students.

I don't see why this would be the case. High school leaving exams in the UK are almost entirely lacking in multiple choice questions and the UK education system seems able to handle it despite covering a far larger number of people than any single US state (am I right that education is organised state by state?).

Either way, if a nation of 60 million can manage it then there is no good reason why it would be unfeasible for a larger nation to handle it.

[Gurachn]

What's problematic is when they* get used so much that it eats a significant fraction of the teacher's time and resources. Getting 140 days to teach students and 20 days to prepare them for the Big Test may not actually teach them more than getting 160 days to teach students....

The disconnect between the assessment procedure (regardless of the form it takes) and the content is one of the biggest flaws I see in many academic programs.
Ideally, a well designed testing program should need no specific preparation to be effective.

Problems occur when the curriculum and assessment systems are done by different teams, often with differing goals and approaches (and often varying degrees of experience/training.)

[eion]

Shouldn't this specific problem be fairly easy to fix though? I imagine the teachers were "correcting" the tests before they turned in the envelope. All you'd have to do is institute a locked ballot box system whereby the students would drop in their tests once they were done.

That doesn't address the larger problem of standardized testing and its deficiencies, but it does take care of this particular issue.

[Gurachn]

Its all very well to talk about the advantages of essays, practical evaluations, and project-based assessment techniques, but the fact is that in many cases, and especially for large scale programs, such methods are economically unfeasible as a primary means of grading students.

I don't see why this would be the case. High school leaving exams in the UK are almost entirely lacking in multiple choice questions and the UK education system seems able to handle it despite covering a far larger number of people than any single US state (am I right that education is organised state by state?).

Either way, if a nation of 60 million can manage it then there is no good reason why it would be unfeasible for a larger nation to handle it.

The educational expectations in the UK are quite different from those in the US.
In my experience, UK academic institutions ascribe much lower face validity to MCQs for their assessment programs, and therefore are much more willing to devote a larger percentage of their budgets to more open ended assessment methods.
As you may imagine, the difference in cost between running a few thousand tests through a card reader, and paying hundreds of qualified people to grade thousands of essays is staggering.

Unfortunately, it's a choice that I'm not sure is necessarily always worth the considerable extra expenditure. While they may give the impression of testing students in a more valid and realistically challenging manner, the fact is the reliability of such tests is often pretty dodgy.
Inter-rater reliability for such large scale testing programs is often so poor, that many universities I am aware of refuse to systematically track it.
The reason for this, is that effective rater training and standardization programs can be extremely difficult and expensive to do properly.
Even in the best of cases, a trained and experienced rater will rarely spend more than a minute or two grading a 300 word essay (they are generally paid by the unit).

I definitely agree that open-ended assesment instruments can be very effective in evaluating a learner's knowledge. Equally important (perhaps moreso for some people) the type of active production they require tends to carry with it a much greater impression of validity, to both test-takers and educators, even if it is illusory.

On the other hand, a well-designed and appropriately applied multiple choice test, while not suitable for every subject area, can provide an often equal amount of insight into a learners knowledge, at a fraction of the cost, and with a generally much higher degree of reliability.

Each approach to testing has its pros and cons. Its a matter of choosing the correct tool to fit a given learning situation.

[Beowulf]

Shouldn't this specific problem be fairly easy to fix though? I imagine the teachers were "correcting" the tests before they turned in the envelope. All you'd have to do is institute a locked ballot box system whereby the students would drop in their tests once they were done.

That doesn't address the larger problem of standardized testing and its deficiencies, but it does take care of this particular issue.

That doesn't solve anything. How are you going to ensure the teacher doesn't still collect the tests before they get dropped into the locked box? There's too many classrooms to have an observer in. You'd have to hire a veritable horde of temps to do so. For elections, it's doable because you don't have any boxes, and you have interested parties on both sides to be observers.

[eion]

That doesn't solve anything. How are you going to ensure the teacher doesn't still collect the tests before they get dropped into the locked box? There's too many classrooms to have an observer in. You'd have to hire a veritable horde of temps to do so. For elections, it's doable because you don't have any boxes, and you have interested parties on both sides to be observers.

"Students, has anyone besides you handled your tests once they were distributed to you?"

"Hey Ms. Walters, just making my randomized audit of a few of the classrooms to make sure you don't have any filled out tests in your possession. Just remember any teacher found with a student's test in their possession faces disciplinary action up to and including termination with possible criminal penalties for fraud against the state. See you at the department meeting later today, Robert brought cupcakes for Sue's birthday."

“Okay, here are the computerized testing assignments. Each of you will be assigned proctor duties in another teacher’s classroom. This way no teacher is administering the test to their own students. These assignments were randomly determined today by the testing authority. Please remember that starting now you may not speak to the teacher of your assigned classroom until we ring the bell at the end of the testing period. Alright everyone: drop your cellphones in the basket when I call your name. You’ll get them back after the testing period.”

You could also do what schools do during SAT time: take the test in the cafeteria. Just have students take the standardized tests in shifts. Plenty of eyes there to watch the students and the teachers.

Also, we are in 2011, and webcams are pretty cheap.

There surely must be lots of ways to fix this particular issue through revised testing procedure.