Cheaters, helpers alike mar testing

By Emily Richmond

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A Mojave High School teacher didn’t just send her students off to the all-important math proficiency exam and wish them well — she sat down and took the test, too.

Oops. Not allowed.

That was one of 134 incidents of irregularities detailed in the state’s annual assessment of test security in Nevada’s public schools. Of those 134 incidents, 58 of them — 43 percent — involved student cheating.

The majority of incidents of cheating involved the high school proficiency exam, which students must pass to graduate. In addition to students caught using cell phones to text each other answers, there were cases involving more old-fashioned maneuvers, including peeking over the shoulder of the smart kid in the next row.

It’s not clear why the North Las Vegas teacher took the student proficiency exam in March, and the Nevada Education Department is looking into it. But there’s little question that such behavior violates the state’s test security regulations, said Sue Daellenbach, assistant superintendent of assessment and accountability for the Clark County School District. No one other than the students being tested — and especially not teachers or school administrators — is allowed even a glimpse of the actual questions, which are often reused several times before being retired.

Statewide testing irregularities ranged from allegations of cheating to misplaced answer sheets to interruptions by fire drills.

Nevada school employees who handle test materials must undergo annual training and attend refresher workshops during the year. Staff members are encouraged to report all testing irregularities, from minor mishaps to major breaches of state regulations.

Increased vigilance in recent years has resulted in an increase in reported irregularities, said Carol Mason, the state’s test security coordinator.

In the 2008-09 academic year, with more than 300,000 students taking part in multiple assessments statewide, testing irregularities increased 7 percent over the prior school year. The increase is despite fewer students being tested. (In 2007-08, more than 500,000 students took assessments. Last year’s decrease reflects the state’s decision to suspend one of its annual assessments as a time- and cost-saving measure.)

Still, the overall percentage of reported testing mishaps remains relatively low.

There were also instances of teachers providing students with extra help on tests. Several teachers elaborated on the written instructions they were supposed to read aloud, and in a few instances encouraged students to go back and try again on questions they had skipped, which violated guidelines. Such incidents were reported by test proctors, and, in some cases, by the teachers themselves once they realized they had erred.

“It should be an even playing field for everyone,” Daellenbach said. “That’s why you have to stick to the script.”

The increasing demands on schools to show student gains on standardized tests or be penalized is leading to the growing number of incidents of cheating, and of teachers breaking rules in attempts to help students, researchers and educators say.

“Teachers and principals need to keep their bosses happy in order to keep their jobs,” said Don Sorenson, vice president of Caveon Test Security, a Utah-based consulting firm that works with educational institutions as well as business and industry. “There’s no question the pressure has only increased on schools to do well on tests.”

Whereas electronic cheating once meant sneaking in a calculator for a math exam, cell phones and iPods are now the scourge of test security officers.

And as the devices continue to add new applications, students continue to come up with new ways to use them to cheat.

Until last year, many test centers nationwide had yet to ban iPods, because test givers didn’t realize it was possible to store visual images and text along with the expected audio files, Sorenson said.

But there’s also no shortage of low-tech cheating. At Basic High School, a student turned a blank page of scratch paper into a cheat sheet of sorts for the November 2008 math proficiency test, but apparently not for his own benefit. Rather, he copied his answers in extra-large print on both sides of the paper, apparently to make it easier for his friends to see from their own seats. An investigation determined six students in the testing room were in on it.

There were also a handful of cheating incidents involving elementary school students. That didn’t surprise Daellenbach, who said younger students aren’t immune to the anxiety that comes with testing.

“Most kids want to do well, no matter what grade they’re in,” Daellenbach said. “If they feel like they’re struggling, sometimes they make bad choices.”