Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, October 11, 2013

New standardized tests boast less risk of cheating - by students and teachers | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC

New standardized tests boast less risk of cheating - by students and teachers | Pass / Fail | 89.3 KPCC:

New standardized tests boast less risk of cheating - by students and teachers

Students test-taking.

knittymarie/Flickr (cc by-nc-nd)

Students taking a test.
Despite a long list of rules and security measures, every year California officials investigate dozens of complaints of cheating on standardized tests - but a new test out this spring promises to do away with a lot of the more common problems.
For more than a decade, California students haven taken annual standardized tests the same way: they bubbled answers in pencil on Scantron sheets. Those answer sheets stayed on their desks the entire time they took the test.
With increasing pressure on teachers for students to do well, some couldn't help but give hints as they walked around the classroom. Others used erasers to fix wrong answers. Last school year, students were caught taking pictures of the tests with their cellphones to share with others.
But this year's computer test gets rid of those answer sheets and booklets. Tests will be given on computer - and officials can monitor when a student is logging in and out of