Say it isn't So! 50,000 Texas Students Caught Cheating on the State High-Stakes Test?
The No Child Left Behind Act is not the only culprit in creating undue stress and providing warped and convoluted motivation for students and teachers.
States can skewer education in untoward ways, too. Big time!
Is it true that as many as 50,000 Texas students might have been "caught cheating" on the state high-stakes test? Of course this might be far worse than it seems because this alleged cheating was not for the whole plethora of grade level tests, but for specific test that determines if students can graduate!
These would be the students who want to go on to higher education…students who want to enter the job market…students that just want to graduate and go on to positions of trust.
But wait, some of the "evidence" indicates adult complicity, maybe even the application of a "magic pencil" after the students turned in their tests?
Who could be involved in an enterprise like that?
Why "Might have Cheated?"
We might think that the agency (in this case the Texas Education Agency (TEA) responsible for governing and policing this testing would want to uncover wrong doing, and would want to punish the culprits to the fullest extent of the law. We might think so, but no.
But wait, wasn't this the same organization that had to pull back on its scheme to reward "exemplary pilot sites" because of allegations that some of the "high-performing" sites may have been involved in cheating?
What the Statistical Study Found
Check out the investigative study backed by the Dallas Morning New entitled,
"Analysis shows TAKS cheating rampant
State says it's addressed the problem, but News uncovers more than 50,000 cases
05:29 PM CDT on Sunday, June 3, 2007
Link to the study…
Sidebar
There still is a connection to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but in this case the connection is a correlation, not a cause and effect relationship.
The connection is that a big chunk of the "lame horse idea" that became NCLB was already "on the loose" in Texas and stomping manure when the "Washington Outsider" from Texas imported it for domestic consumption.
Of course, when the initiatives that left a bad taste in the mouth of Texas teachers became the "law of the land," teachers' dispositions soured all across our great nation.
What did the study find?
" The analysis – among the first of its kind on this scale – found cases where 30, 50 or even 90 percent of students had suspicious answer patterns that researchers say indicate collusion, either between students or with school staff. Perpetrators go almost entirely undetected and unpunished by state officials.
The study contradicts the Texas Education Agency's stance that cheating on the TAKS is extraordinarily rare and that the agency has done a good job of policing it. Many schools with big cheating problems, including some in North Texas, have officially been cleared by recent state investigations – in most cases simply by proclaiming their innocence on a state questionnaire."
Told you So!
But, the TEA is not going to take specific remedial measures, such as…
- Ordering seating charts of students who take the test
- Determining if Cell phone text messaging was used in some sites
- Ensuring that secure tests were not available "on the market" ahead of time
- Allowing independent observers in schools during the testing, similar to how we assign impartial observers to check on elections in Third World countries.
Other inferences from the study…
" The findings also show that on a high-stakes test like the TAKS – which can determine a school's reputation, a teacher's salary and whether a student walks across the stage on graduation day – some people will seek whatever advantage they can find.
"What we have here in many of the schools, particularly charter schools, is rampant cheating involving many students," said David Harpp, a professor at Montreal's McGill University who studies cheating and reviewed the analysis."
The Upshot
The upshot is that "rather than facing the firing squad," the cheaters, if there were any, will not be "smoked out."
If any cheating occurred, it will have been the perfect crime, not because the criminals were particularly cleaver, but because the agency charged with oversight has a "see no evil, hear no evil, believe no evil" posture.
For any of the cheaters, if they really existed, the statute of limitations for cheating, at least as interpreted by the TEA, seems to be measured in microseconds; or maybe the need to catch cheaters fades (dissolves, disappears) as soon as the test is handed in.
What could be the possible motive for such institutional (bureaucratic) behavior?
The TEA seems to approach the "Cheating Allegation" with the same attitude of the teenage babysitter when asked how the lamp got broken on his or her watch.
Could it be that after the TEA has gone on record, affirming that any cheating is a rare and isolated occurrence and so limited that there is no cause for alarm, that there is cause for alarm?
How do the chances of getting away with cheating on a high-stakes test in other states compare with the relative ease of the operation in Texas. Are other states asleep in the saddle? Do agencies in other states have their hands on the bridle of the dark (cheating) horse?
