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发帖数: 19398 | 1 Pearson reports PARCC cheating in 6 states
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-test-
In the latest twist on high school cheating, two Maryland 10th-graders
taking a statewide English assessment posted test questions this month on
Twitter.
Where students once passed notes or looked over their shoulder, today they
can use Twitter, Instagram or Facebook to send a test question to a friend.
And as the means of cheating have evolved, so have the efforts to stop them.
The Twitter posters were caught by a testing company trolling social media
with advanced software that works continuously to find key words or phrases.
Maryland first in nation in Advanced Placement
Maryland first in nation in Advanced Placement
Social media have been a factor in cheating on high-stake tests like the SAT
and ACT for years. But the problem is now cropping up with younger students
taking standardized tests, especially with the rollout of an assessment
tied to more rigorous standards known as the Common Core.
"What is new here is that this is happening in K-12," said Bob Schaeffer,
public education director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing,
or FairTest, an organization that works to eliminate the misuses and flaws
of standardized tests.
In Maryland, students used to be tested on their progress in math and
reading with the Maryland School Assessment, a paper-and-pencil test, over
the course of a week or two each spring.
This year, students in Maryland, the District of Columbia and 10 other
states that have adopted the Common Core are taking the new test. A paper
version is available, but many school systems are giving the test online
over the course of a month. Schools with a limited numbers of computers can
give the test when they have the space, rather than at a set time.
With so many variables, the possibility of breaches of test security grows.
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Educational publisher Pearson, which is administering the test known as the
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC,
has found more than 70 instances in six states of students posting testing
materials on a public social media site, according to spokesman Jesse Comart.
Pearson has subcontracted the work to a test security firm that is using
software to search all public social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook and other web pages.
The company caught the two 10th-graders, who are from the same school system
, according to the Maryland State Department of Education. Spokesman Bill
Reinhard declined to identify the school system but said it was not in the
Baltimore area.
The posts of questions were taken down within an hour of being discovered,
Reinhard said. Any disciplinary actions against the students would be
decided by the schools, he said.
Baltimore schools paying millions in additional income
Baltimore schools paying millions in additional income
In one case, a student posted a picture of an essay question, which included
a passage from a piece of literature that was named in the tweet. According
to Reinhard, that tweet was re-tweeted once and twice marked as a favorite
tweet by other users — which increases the chances for others to view the
post on the social media site.
In another case, a student posted a question on a passage that included the
title of the piece of literature it had been taken from. It was re-tweeted
once and marked as a favorite three times, according to Reinhard.
Steven Priester, a senior in Carroll County who is the student member of the
state board of education, said many students put a lot of effort into their
schoolwork and exams. "It is upsetting that we commit earnestly to a test,"
while others apparently don't, he said.
"A student really puts a bad label on students as a whole when they cheat,"
he said.
cComments
Certainly we should have no expectation that Pearson would care a whit about
what the rest of us might think one way or the other about their use of
legally available tools to find instances of where their items are shared on
social media. For me, privacy is a separate, but important, issue for...
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AT 6:39 PM MARCH 26, 2015
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Schools can give the new reading and math test aligned to the Common Core
standards any time during the testing window in March. Millions of students
have already taken the test. A second portion of the test will be given
later in the spring.
The test is being given for the first time to students in grades three
through eight. High-schoolers are taking a 10th-grade English test and
Algebra I, and some are taking an Algebra II test that isn't required.
Revelations that a company was searching student social media accounts
sparked controversy recently in New Jersey, where some parents raised
privacy concerns and worried the company was looking at private information
on students.
PARCC Consortium spokesman David Connerty-Marin said "that is not the case,"
and testing officials defend their actions as needed to maintain the
integrity of the test.
The material in the tests is copyrighted so sharing the information on
social media is a violation of the copyright.
"We are not delving into people's profiles. We are looking for inappropriate
sharing of the intellectual property," said Steve Addicott, vice president
of Caveon, the test security subcontractor.
When a social media post is discovered by the software, the firm tries to
determine where the student lives and notifies state officials. In most
cases, Connerty-Marin said, the student takes down the offending post. In
cases where the person who posted the information cannot be identified,
Connerty-Marin said, the company can ask sites such as Twitter to take down
the post.
Of the testing breaches around the country, some posts have been by adults,
including a teacher who re-tweeted a test item. The teacher is from a state
that isn't using PARCC.
Adam Mendelson, a spokesman for the Maryland State Education Association,
the union representing most of the state's teachers, said that while Pearson
has a right to be concerned about test security, teachers are worried about
being targeted.
"There should be full transparency about what Pearson is monitoring, how
they're monitoring it, and how any data collected is being used," Mendelson
said. "We are also concerned about Pearson collecting and using any data to
encourage disciplinary action against educators."
Ray Leone, the Maryland PTA president, said he doesn't fault Pearson for
monitoring social media, given the potential loss of proprietary information
. He noted that teachers, who monitor testing, can't put every student
through a metal detector to ensure they don't have a cellphone.
"Pearson has every right to be concerned that proctoring isn't done right
and cell phones are in the [room]," Leone said. "I can't imagine having to
kill a test item because your question has been tweeted out."
Creating just one English question can cost as much as $15,000 because of
the levels of research and review required, according to Connerty-Marin.
When the testing company believes the information has been too widely
disseminated, it can invalidate a test question.
Schaeffer, from FairTest, said Pearson may only be finding some instances of
cheating because students also can use closed Facebook pages, email groups
or texts to give their friends advance notice of test questions.
"I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg," Schaeffer said.
PARCC results, which won't be released until next fall, will not be used in
Maryland to hold elementary and middle school students back a grade, but
passing the 10th-grade English test will be required for graduation in the
coming years.
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Also in several years, scores on the test may be used as a portion of a
teacher's job evaluation. |
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