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Wednesday, March 6, 2013 | 4:32 p.m.
A bill aimed at curbing cheating in Nevada’s high schools had some unusual opponents — educators.
Nevada high school students who are caught cheating three or more times would not be eligible for the state’s Millennium Scholarship program under a bill heard in committee Wednesday.
“I understand that students can make mistakes, but I believe that the bill is fair. …This is simple and to the point,” the bill’s sponsor Assemblyman Harvey Munford, D-Las Vegas, told the Assembly Education Committee.
Maybe too simple. Despite the noble concept, educational officials poked holes in the bill, noting how hard it would to administer.
“We have concerns related to the amount of time and effort which would have to be devoted to the tracking of violations,” said Brian Daw with the Clark County School District.
Cheating includes copying answers, giving answers to another student, copying assignments as original work, allowing others to research or write an assigned paper, and any other violation of the school district’s code of honor. But punishment and record-keeping vary by classroom and by the severity of the offense.
Crystal Abba from the Nevada System of Higher Education said the lack of a cheating appeals process, the difficulty in administering a cheating database and notifying more than 100,000 high school students about the proposed changes to the Millennium Scholarship would present a tremendous challenge to the state’s education system.
“It’s the mechanics of it,” said Mary Pierczynki, a lobbyist for the Nevada Association of School Superintendents.
Some Assembly members had concerns about how school districts would apply a uniform tracking system for cheating and what recourse a student falsely accused of cheating would have.
Committee chairman Assemblyman Elliott Anderson, D-Las Vegas, also noted that the bill only applies the cheating penalty to public high school students, and not private high school and home schooled students who are also eligible for the scholarship. Students currently need a minimum 3.25 GPA when they graduate high school in order to be eligible.
Other lawmakers, however, took issue with education officials saying the challenge was too great.
“Is it really that much more recordkeeping than we’re doing now and is that small amount of work not worth it to nip this problem in the bud?” said Assemblyman Andy Eisen, D-Las Vegas. “I’m concerned about the pushback on the basis of how complex it would be or how much the workload would be.”
Munford said he’s personally seen “flagrant” and rampant cheating in schools. Assemblywoman Heidi Swank, D-Las Vegas, said the problem is so pervasive that she’s taken to devoting the first day of every semester to defining cheating and outlining its penalties in her job as a UNLV professor.
“This is something that even if it is notifying 100,000 people, it is something that we need to take very seriously,” Swank said.
Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno, asked Munford why there should be any tolerance for cheating.
“Everyone should be given a second chance and in this case I am giving them three chances,” Munford said. “After one or two, it should finally sink in and they should realize what they have done and what is in jeopardy or what they could lose.”
The committee took no action on the bill, but like the students Munford proposes to penalize, Anderson said Munford will have a second chance to work on the bill with education officials and other legislators to add some specificity to it.
Overall idea is good but it won't be able to be enforced fairly across the board.
Home school kids are not going to be ratted out by their parents.
I know private schools that lie about attendance, grades and testing so as long as the parent is paying they are not going to tell the state the student cheated.
Should cheaters be rewarded with tax payer money? No, but you don't have a good system for controlling and reporting the cheaters.
Will Teachers be fired for failing?
In an effort to show students that adults in Nevada really mean business about cheating on high-stakes tests in particular and ethics in general, the legistature is considering how many times students can actually be caught cheating and still win the noble student award.
Last count they were at 3, but there is pressure from some sectors for 5 or 8 considering, you know, special circumstances.
I for one am glad they are teaching those kids to stay true to firm ethical standards...aren't you?
Hey Vegaslee: The Millennium Scholarship program is for college. What parent homeschools a college course?
Back in ancient times, when I went to school, the 1960's, students who were caught cheating got suspended. Repeat offenders of cheating faced expulsion. This would be easy for me to say here that this standard should apply today and to the Millennium Scholarship.
However, when it has come to academic honesty, my past in early years proved me to be no angel. I was a discipline problem in high school, but I was not a chronic cheater on written exams. Truthfully, I rarely showed up to class on test days. Periodically, when I was caught and pretty much forced to take a quiz, if the opportunity was there to cheat, sometimes I took full advantage of the opening. Other times, depending on my attitude, I just sat like a "bump on a log" doing nothing until the bell rang to leave the classroom.
These shortcomings changed as I aged. Many people, who knew me early-on, were shocked to discover that years later I became a certified academy instructor and fought long and hard against academic fraud.
But, my methods, as an instructor / teacher were not to fail or expel students from the academy for academic fraud or failing course material. My approaches were to keep teaching it over and over again to these subject students until they successfully understood and comprehended the material, and then passed the course examination.
I'm trying to find a way to properly word my suggestion here on cheating. When I didn't give a damn in high school, I just sat in my chair in the classroom and doodled on the test paper. I made no attempt whatsoever. When I wanted to care, I cheated when I could, because I did not want to fail. Did I make my point?
If one feels compelled to cheat, it is apparent they do not know the material. I think the consequences for cheating should be light, except in cases where laziness was the culprit. With the exception of medical cases, there are no excuses for indolence.
the democrat communist tenured edu-crats want the money BUT they don't want the responsibility that comes with it
how typical of the OUTDATED mandatory edu-crational system passed in 1873 that hogs over $2 Billion dollars of nevada tax money doled out to butt-polishers who park at desks all day
REPEAL all the mandatory education laws in Nevada and supplant it with school choice, vouchers, and education that produces RESULTS
not this lame brained communist "social promotion" legislation bill #21 garbage
the appeals court in Colorado has approved SCHOOL CHOICE WITH TAX SUPPORTED MONEY - including religious schools and the communist democrats are fuming at the gills over it
http://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/appe...
school choice with tax money would ELIMINATE CHEATING that the communist democrat edu-crats won't stop from tax supported so-called education