Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014 - 34

Preventing
Digital Cheating
Adaptive tests, secure browsers, and
plagiarism-detecting software are making
it harder for students to cheat the system

By Michelle R.
Davis

hen it comes to curbing student cheating, technology can be both a blessing
and a curse.
The blessing: As new technologies
make assessments more adaptive, students will be less likely to see the same
test questions as their peers. The curse: Students' technological skills
are often ahead of those of educators, putting them in a position to
figure out how to use digital tools to cheat in new and different ways.
Some recent incidents show how this game of cat-and-mouse is
playing out, raising questions about whether cheating will be worse
or better as states and districts move to greater use of online testing
as part of the new common-core assessments, as well as for classroom and district testing unrelated to the new academic standards.
In California, for example, hundreds of state assessments were
flagged for review last school year after students posted photos of
exams or test questions on social-networking sites like Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter. In a Michigan district, a student texted
a photo of an exam answer key to friends, resulting in punishments for the students involved.
Cheating by both students and adults-like the recent scandal in

the Atlanta public schools in which educators are alleged to have
erased students' incorrect answers and replaced them with correct
ones to boost scores-have always been a problem, but high-tech
devices are changing the landscape. Cellphones, pen cameras, and
high-tech manipulation allow students and adults to inappropriately
copy and distribute test questions in very fast and efficient ways.
But new technology has also made it more of a challenge for those
who might try to cheat on assessments.
"There's less opportunity to cheat in a computer-based environment," insisted Sharolyn Sorrels, the director of educational
indicators for the 42,000-student Tulsa, Okla., district, which
recently moved primarily to online testing for state assessments
for grades 6 and up. "I feel much more secure with computer
testing than a paper test," she said.
While several states have tested students online for years, a huge
new crop of districts is moving toward computer-based testing as
the Common Core State Standards requirements kick in. Those
standards call for districts to test students online by the 2014-15
school year. That common-core push for online testing, experts say,
is likely to lead to more online testing in general in schools.

Customizing Test Questions
The nature of adaptive testing, which chooses test questions
for each student based on previous test answers, makes it likely
that each student's exam will be unique, said Brandt Redd, the
chief technology officer for the Smarter Balanced Assessment
Consortium, one of two main coalitions developing common-core
testing. Smarter Balanced's test is adaptive, tapping into a bank

Prevention Steps
Curbing digital cheating takes a combination of low- and high-tech measures.

Collect cellphones from students before
testing begins to thwart photographs being
taken of tests or questions, to prevent texting
others for answers, and to block access to
the Internet.

If a test is given online, make sure students
are using a secure browser that prevents them
from surfing the Internet or accessing apps.

Consider hiring a company that monitors
social-networking sites such as Instagram
or Twitter during testing windows to determine
if test questions or photos of exams have
been posted.

Use adaptive tests. Some experts say that
because adaptive testing means each student's
exam is likely to be different, this method makes
it much more difficult to cheat.

If using online tests in which students
all get the same questions, consider placing
cloth, plastic, or cardboard barriers between
computer monitors so students can't see each
other's screens.

Provide in-depth training for proctors and
do spot checks to make sure they're adhering
to protocol.
SOURCE: Education Week

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>> MARCH 13, 2014

Education Week Issue 25 - Technology Counts 2014

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