A small study of 100 high school juniors from a mid-Western high school, published in the Mid-Western Educational Researcher, shows, yet again, that cheating is rampant. According to Kenneth Kiewra, professor of educational psychology at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and one of the study’s authors, ‘Students generally understand what constitutes cheating, but they do it anyway. They cheat on tests, homework assignments and when writing reports. In some cases, though, students simply don’t grasp that some dishonest acts are cheating.’
* 89 percent said glancing at someone else’s answers during a test was cheating (87 percent said they’d done that at least once)
* 94 percent said providing answers to someone during a test was cheating (74 percent admitted doing so)
* 47 percent said that providing test questions to a fellow student who had yet to take a test was academically dishonest (nearly 70 percent admitted doing so)
* 23 percent said doing individual homework with a partner was dishonest (91 percent admitted doing so)
* 39 percent said writing a report based on the movie instead of reading the book wasn’t cheating (53 percent admitted doing so)
In England last week, nearly half of its schools refused to administer the national standardized tests. The National Union of Teachers, as well as the National Association of Head Teachers, voted in favor of a boycott. The reason: the importance placed on the tests is forcing teachers to teach to them instead of focussing on a more meaningful and broader curriculum.
If only teachers in the U.S. would do the same….
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If only, indeed. This is what teachers in this country ought to be doing and quite frankly, I am surprised they have not taken an orchestrated well thought out oppositional path on this.
Teachers? Any suggestions? Explanations?
May 16th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
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- teacher says:
Not only should we teachers be doing widespread orchestrated test refusal, we should be having country-wide walkouts over the devastation that is happening to public education due to the fed’s takeover of education from local government. Meaning NCLB (now ESEA) and all the garbage that goes along with it.
Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen because state after state is passing laws, under pressure from the feds, to take away teacher tenure. We speak up against high-stakes testing, institutional drugging of your kids, too much homework, longer school days and years, or anything else Bill Gates and the Feds decide will fix education, we’re gone. As much as many people don’t like teachers’ unions and tenure, there is good reason for teachers to have protections. We can’t stand up for your kids against the system without them.
May 17th, 2010 at 12:01 am
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- FedUpMom says:
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As much as many people don’t like teachers’ unions and tenure, there is good reason for teachers to have protections. We can’t stand up for your kids against the system without them.
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What? Teachers have had unions and tenure for decades, and I don’t see them standing up for our kids against the system. We’ve had a few isolated reports of teachers refusing to give tests, but that’s it.
May 17th, 2010 at 7:00 am
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- Jason says:
Here in Texas there are no teachers unions…it is illegal. If I were to refuse to administer the state test I would lose my certification and my job immediately.
Jason
May 17th, 2010 at 7:26 am
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- FedUpMom says:
Jason how about the Texas State Teachers Association?
http://www.tsta.org/
May 17th, 2010 at 7:59 am
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- Jason says:
In Texas organizations like TSTA and ATPE lack any real power. They are referred to as professional organizations instead of unions. I am a member of one of them, but only for the legal protection and professional development opportunities. If a parent decides to sue me they will help with my legal costs. There is no collective bargaining power. If I refuse to administer the state test there is nothing either of these organizations can do for me, I will lose my job. As much as I like the idea of standing on principle and saying, ‘consequences be damned’ I have bills to pay.
May 17th, 2010 at 10:52 am
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- Sara Bennett says:
Now I know I’m an idealist, but what if someone organized the teachers so that a good percentage of them stayed home on test day or refused to administer the test? At a certain point, not all those protesting teachers can be fired.
In reality, though, it’s a rare teacher who can say ‘consequences be damned.’ The most famous is Carl Chew from Washington state, who did just that two years ago. I wrote about it at the time: http://stophomework.com/seattle-middle-school-teacher-suspended-for-refusing-to-administer-wasl/259
May 17th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
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- DCM5150 says:
It all comes down to money. In CA, if a school / dristrict does not give the test to a certain percentage of the students (and its high, like 95 or 98%) then the district will lost funding, because the feds will withhold money from the state.
Money is power and it is the power held over the districts to do testing. In CA, budgets are already so bad making things worse would be detrimental to all. We just need to do away with the testing requirement.
September 30th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
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- Soontobediscontinued says:
Speaking of MONEY (schools not getting funding if they don’t play by state/fed rules) who pays whom for producing standardized tests? How big a business is it? Where are their psychometrists? What standards are THEY using?
April 5th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
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- ödev says:
If only, indeed. This is what teachers in this country ought to be doing and quite frankly, I am surprised they have not taken an orchestrated well thought out oppositional path on this.
June 15th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
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- Sam D says:
I boycotted the MCAS in Massachusetts this year, and I’m proud. I wrote a polite letter rather than answer the questions, explaining that I believed that it was counterproductive in my education. I hope others will do the same 🙂
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QUESTION #4:
(from Such, Such Were the Joys)
‘That was the pattern of school life a continuous triumph of the strong over the weak. Virtue consisted in winning: it consisted in being bigger, stronger, handsomer, richer, more popular, more elegant, more unscrupulous than other people … Life was hierarchical and whatever happened was right. There were the strong, who deserved to win and always did win, and there were the weak, who deserved to lose and always did lose, everlastingly.’
Has anything changed? Support your answer.
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The hierarchies of school happen on the micro level (the power trips within the individual school), and also on the macro level (the unequal status between schools.)
On the macro level, we will soon have a Supreme Court populated exclusively by graduates of Harvard and Yale law schools. England has a new Prime Minister educated at Eton and Oxford. The finishing schools of the rich and powerful keep doing their job.
On the micro level, Orwell nailed it. School is all about hierarchy, power, and control. Homework is a continual reminder of who has power over whom, and a way for school to exert control, not just over the students in the classroom, but over the entire family at home.
Today, FedUp Mom answers a question she posed four weeks ago in her guest post where she suggested that people read Such, Such Were the Joys by George Orwell. Read her answers to the other questions she posed here, here and here. And, of course, don’t forget to chime in with your own answer.rTable display: table; width: 100%;.rTableRow display: table-row; .rTableHeading background-color: #ddd; display: table-header-group; .rTableCell, .rTableHead display: table-cell; padding: 3px 10px; border: 1px solid #999999; .rTableHeading display: table-header-group; background-color: #ddd; font-weight: bold; .rTableFoot display: table-footer-group; font-weight: bold; background-color: #ddd; .rTableBody display: table-row-group;
