Cheating for grades

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

Cheating on standardized tests in Nevada schools nearly doubled last year as students relied on phone cameras, text messages and those old standbys - wandering eyes and passed notes.

School administrators say they expect the impulse to cheat will continue growing among high schoolers, as Nevada will again raise the minimum passing score next year on the statewide math proficiency test.

"Kids understand to get out of high school they have to pass those exams, and the pressure is on them at school and at home," said John Barlow, principal of Del Sol High School in Las Vegas. "We have asked every one of our teachers to re-emphasize the honor code. We're hoping we can make kids more aware of the importance of being honest."

Schools did report marked progress in one area, however. For the first time in memory, not one student pulled a fire alarm to disrupt tests in Nevada last year.

The rise in cheating drew a swift response from the state's Education Department. The student honor code adopted by the Legislature in 2005 doesn't go far enough, said Keith Rheault, Nevada's superintendent of public instruction. He wants strong, uniform penalties.

"It should be an automatic two- or three-day suspension for cheating," Rheault said. "If it were better known that there were severe consequences to even attempting it, that might curb some of the temptation."

The 2005 Legislature approved Senate Bill 214, which called for the Nevada Education Department to develop a "Code of Honor" for students. Clark County, along with many of the state's other districts, began distributing the code in student handbooks this year.

While the code defines cheating and plagiarism, it does not specify punishment for violators. Each school district handles its student discipline individually.

Rheault said he plans to raise the subject of mandatory discipline with the Legislature's education committee. The chairman of that committee, Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said Tuesday that he shared Rheault's pique.

"I'm all for hearing Dr. Rheault's suggestions," Raggio said. "I've been arguing for a long time that we need more teeth in these kinds of situations."

The cheating incidents were reported by local school districts to the state education department, which processed more than 400,000 answer sheets during the 2005-06 academic year. The state-mandated exams - given to students in grades 3 through 12 - include the high school proficiency tests and exams used to measure whether schools made adequate yearly progress as required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The number of reported incidents statewide rose 87 percent last year, from 23 the year before to 43, according to the Education Department's annual test security report.

The cheating was part of 144 reported incidents of testing irregularities, which included such things as misplaced answer sheets and tests being administered improperly.

Education officials did see some bright spots. Fewer schools reported mishandled testing materials, and teachers are apparently getting better training before being asked to proctor exams. Also, no one pulled those fire alarms.

But the findings themselves did set off alarms in Clark County, which accounts for more than 70 percent of the state's student enrollment. The number of cheating incidents in the county more than tripled, to 19. Of those, 15 involved the Nevada State High School Proficiency Exam - eight in math and seven in writing and reading.

Students continue to use cell phones and other electronic devices to crib answers. But the good old-fashioned methods - peering over a classmate's shoulder and passing notes to a friend - continued as well.

"Cheating by teenagers making bad choices is not a new phenomenon," said Sue Daellenbach, testing director for the Clark County School District. "The good thing is that teachers are doing their job and watching the students, and reporting misconduct."

The district opened 11 schools in the last academic year, including Arbor View High School, and added about 12,000 students.

"When you have that kind of volume of tests administered, there's bound to be issues," Daellenbach said. "Let's keep perspective that overall, the percentage of problems is very small."

The 43 cheating incidents statewide represented a minuscule amount of the more than 400,000 answer sheets processed by the Education Department.

At Del Sol , two seniors used their cell phones to text-message each other answers on the writing section of the proficiency test. Barlow, the principal, declined to say how the two students were disciplined.

At Green Valley High School, a senior was caught using a calculator on the math section of the proficiency test given in March. "The student was immediately escorted to the assistant principal's and dean's offices and was suspended," according to the Education Department report.

Daellenbach said she shares Rheault's frustration, but the answer isn't mandatory punishments.

"Every case is different," Daellenbach said. "Schools make smart choices about how they discipline students. We don't want to take that autonomy from them."