With cheating and grading being up for discussion now in Wake County, let's look to the situation at Panther Creek High School.
As noted in today's article, Wake County school officials said that five Panther Creek juniors were implicated in up to three incidents of cheating, including distributing copies of an exam. Students and parents say some of the students cited for cheating had been among the top 10 percent in academic rank in the junior class.
In terms of consequences, at least one student was removed from the National Honor Society. A student who distributed a test to several classmates received a short-term suspension and several students received detention as an in-school suspension.
Students also faced academic consequences such as having to take an alternative exam or do an alternative assignment.
Comments
Thank. Freaking. Goodness.
Thu, 05/03/2012 - 14:21 — gdetlaffThank. Freaking. Goodness. Finally, SOMEONE addresses the problem!
These students are so desensitized to cheating today, and it's digusting. I recently graduated from Panther Creek High School, and I KNOW for a fact that at least half of the top ten percent of my graduating class made it there because they cheated on about half the work they did.
For every parent out there who thinks their little angels wouldn't possibly cheat on homework, quizzes, or tests - think again. The teachers and administration do absolutely nothing about it. I get that teachers today catch a lot of blame for things that are the parents and kids fault (on that note - maybe we shouldnt blame the teachers! If it's the parents that clearly failed to teach their children basic ethics...) but at the same time, there are SO MANY easy ways to prevent cheating. I had a teacher who was told by a student in a different class that someone had kept one of her tests and it had been distributed over the weekend, and how hard would it really have been to come up with a couple of extra questions?
When did it become socially acceptable to make it to the top by cheating on everything?
Cheating is beyond the pale
Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:47 — RWTCheating should always have severe consequences, especially when carried out by students who are excelling in school. They need to learn that cheating to gain access to an institution beyond their intellectual capabilities will bite them in the end. Well, hopefully it would. I suppose one could always go on to defraud the public of billions of dollars.
And the parent comment!
Thu, 05/03/2012 - 09:55 — openmindCan someone please explain to me how the parent quoted in the article honestly blamed the teacher in this case. "The teachers need to do a better job of securing the exam." Please tell me she was joking. Yes it should have been secured, but to specifically call out the teacher, how about the action of the student. Too many times the parents blame the teacher, I think it is time we also take a look at what the student is doing. Behaviors begin somewhere, why not point directly at the parent and doing things in the home.
Behavior and grading
Thu, 05/03/2012 - 07:51 — garnergradSo these kids caught cheating cannot have this behavior reflected in their grades. They get an "alternative exam", rather than a zero on the test they cheated on. Their transcripts will have an "A" with an asterisk somewhere to reflect the cheating. (They know exactly the content the teacher is looking for because they have the test. The alternate exam will have all the same content on it.)
I think we went way off course in education when we decided mastery of content is the only thing that matters. What matters is learning the behaviors that make learning possible. Mastery doesn't exist in a vacuum. Behavior is what makes a difference in learning and in life, and the changes to the grading policy just sweep behavior under the rug. And we act shocked when students get caught cheating because they think it's all about the A.
I'm all for consequences, but these kids still deserve the F for cheating.