What Can Be Done to Stop Teacher-led Cheating?

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2012-01-20

A USA Today probe concerning schools found that more than 100 public schools in District of Columbia had high test erasure rates, which could indicate possible cheating practices. This has caused the explosion in school test cheating scandals and led the Obama Administration to create a manual that supposedly will help schools fight teacher-led cheating on standardized tests.

Nonetheless, the policy was not well met by education advocacy groups which stated that the government was "wasting time and money collecting information that is available from state education agencies, such as Georgia, which demonstrated how to do a 'best practice' cheating investigation."

Despite the fact that the move was not well received, perhaps it was the initiative and intention that counted more. Would customized test instead of standardized test reveal more about the education level of students? Would rating teachers based on students' performances led to more cheating? These hard questions would need to be asked and answered as educators seek a better future for the children.