Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog had a range of reactions to rising reports of cheating, including at Harvard, where dozens of students were forced to withdraw after “collaborating” on a take-home final exam. Parents report cheating has become easier now that some teachers use test questions from Internet sites that students can often track down and see the questions in advance. Here is a sampling:
Cindy: I'm appalled at the attitude of parents and students that using someone else's work or that passing along or receiving old tests is perfectly fine. I'm saddened by the attitude and work ethic of teachers who don't work harder to create authentic assessments that are notoriously tough to sidestep with strategies of cheating.
Anonymous: The self-righteousness with which these students and parents assert a "right" to cheat has its origin in the anti-authoritarian movement of the 1960s, and the ongoing secularization of our culture by the education establishment and the mass media. Rights and responsibilities once recognized as equal and essential elements of democracy are no longer.
Deborah: A "take-home" final exam? Really? And they are "shocked" that half the class cheated? Give me a break. As to copying information verbatim from the Internet, that's no different from copying verbatim from books when one had to do research the old-fashioned way. We need to teach reading and critical thinking skills and, at the same time, come down like a hammer on cheaters. After a few students are expelled for cheating, it would be curtailed.
Professor: I give a take-home final exam in all of my classes. I also expect students to incorporate outside sources and submit their papers through a plagiarism detection software program. Do student collaborate with each other? Probably. But studies have shown that is how people learn from each other. By requiring students to complete their essays outside of class, I can demand a high-quality final product that demonstrates mastery of the material as well as critical thinking.
Grob: Once again, we find a way to demonize children and parents when they take advantage of a cavernous loophole created by a lazy teacher. First of all, we are dealing primarily with children. Children can't be expected to act like adults. Seems like a simple enough lesson, doesn't it?
Motherof2: My son attends a high-performing high school in north Fulton. Cheating takes place regularly, and the teachers are well aware of it. Some teachers take measures to curtail cheating, and others simply do not. Every student does not cheat, even though they know they can get away with it in some classes. The students who cheat are boosting their GPAs in an effort to get into UGA and Georgia Tech, rarely top-tier schools outside the state. I'm not sure how they plan to stay in these colleges once they arrive; perhaps they will buckle down.
Real: Everyone involved bears responsibility for the cheating. Teachers need several tests if they teach different sections of the same subject each day. Students who take the test first and then "collaborate" with other students are not only cheating, but hurting themselves if the other students score better. Parents need to teach ethics to their children — something that is sorely lacking in the age of the Internet.
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