Cheaters Find an Adversary in Technology

[groovedaddy]

Mississippi had a problem born of the age of soaring student testing and digital technology. High school students taking the state’s end-of-year exams were using cellphones to text one another the answers.

With more than 100,000 students tested, proctors could not watch everyone — not when some teenagers can text with their phones in their pockets.

So the state called in a company that turns technology against the cheats: it analyzes answer sheets by computer and flags those with so many of the same questions wrong or right that the chances of random agreement are astronomical. Copying is the almost certain explanation.

Since the company, Caveon Test Security, began working for Mississippi in 2006, cheating has declined about 70 percent, said James Mason, director of the State Department of Education’s Office of Student Assessment. “People know that if you cheat there is an extremely high chance you’re going to get caught,” Mr. Mason said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/education/28cheat.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a23

[Xipe Totec]

1. Or, maybe, their ability to detect cheating has gone down by 70% nt

[nykym]

2. It would be a lot cheaper

just to jam cellphones in whatever location.

[jody]

3. Absolutely, effective and very efficient. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Or take their cell phones away

That would be even cheaper.

[fortyfeetunder]

5. Or no cell phones at the test facility.

I agree with you on this one...

[nykym]

7. Yea but it is

infinitely much more fun to watch the puzzled look on their innocent little faces.

[lostnfound]

6. "Copying is the almost certain explanation"...Wrong.

I find fault with this conclusion: "so many of the same questions wrong or right that the chances of random agreement are astronomical. Copying is the almost certain explanation."
Testmakers often given misleading or improperly worded questions, which can also cause a group of students to get the "wrong" answers, and looking at my son's tests produced by some textbook publishers, I've seen many such examples. You can often find questions that would be answered the "correct" way if your level of knowledge was at grade level, and the "wrong" way if your level of knowledge was a few grades higher. For example, in a section labelled "Find the solution X for the following equations" you might find:
X2 - 9 = 16.
A) 7
B) 5
C)25
D) Not enough information is given

Most students would pick "5" but some students might consider that x could be "-5" or the set of -5 and +5.
Similarly, on vocabulary tests, testmakers often include multiple choice answers that are definitions for homonyms or for similar-sounding words.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. They're catching the ones that are not smart enough to...

...text an 'X' for a question in which they have some reasonable doubt, so the recipient answers something random.