Educators who cheat on tests could face criminal charges

This from H-L:

The Senate Education Committee unanimously passed a bill to make it a crime for educators to cheat on any state tests. The measure now goes to the full Senate.

Senate Bill 64 would make it unlawful for educators to allow students to see test questions prior to the test, copy any test booklets, provide guidance or answer keys during the test, or correct student answers afterwards.

Any charges could be reported to a prosecuting attorney or the attorney general for investigation. Punishment would include fines of up to $1,000 and an investigation by the Education Professional Standards Board.

The bill comes in the wake of a cheating scandal in Perry County in 2010 on the ACT test. Recently, the standards board suspended the educational certificates of two employees implicated in the matter.

Cheating is already against state education rules, but there are no criminal charges attached.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/13/2025994/educators-who-cheat-on-tests-could.html#wgt=rcntnews#storylink=cpy

Texas Students Caught Cheating

Hundreds Affected At 'Exemplary' High School

This from The Huffington Post:

Hundreds of high school seniors in Texas were caught cheating on their final exams last month. Now, officials at the southeast Houston Clear Creek Independent School District are investigating how around 200 students at Clear Lake High School acquired test answers before the exam in December.

 

Educators at Clear Lake realized that about a third of the exams had identical answers. As a result, administrators nulled all 600 tests, and offered the students two options: take the test again or have their final grade calculated without a final exam grade.

 

"We're committed to determine how the test was accessed, how it was distributed, what we can do as a school, as a school district, to ensure our internal processes to make sure that this doesn't happen again," Clear Creek ISD spokesperson Elaina Polson told KTRK.

 

The test was administered over several days. The test on the second day was a different version from the first, but school officials said some students gave answers that corresponded to questions on the test from the day before, KTRK reports.

 

In a letter to parents and students, Principal Debra Dixon wrote that students will receive an "incomplete" grade until they make a decision on whether to skip or retake the exam, Your Houston News reports. Clear Lake High School was rated "Exemplary" in 2009 and 2010...