Cheating now OK in Minnesota school district
by Leigh Pomeroy
(Updated Monday, May 19, 2014, 11:30 AM CDT)
The revelation in an article anecdoted below that cheating was now going to go unpunished in a nearby school district struck my wife and me as a sad state of affairs given the endemic cheating we find among college students at the large midwestern university where we teach. College cheating has not only become accepted but de rigueur for many students whose only goal in academia is to get the highest grade for the least amount of work.
My wife, who teaches a full load or writing courses each semester, spends much of her time ferreting out and dealing with cheaters. This takes away energy and time from delivering course materials and working with the students who do not cheat.
In my own experience I've found that roughly 5-10 percent of every class cheats or attempts to cheat, depending upon the type of course, grading method and discipline. While this is still a small minority numbers-wise, it should be enough to be considered a scandal. Is 5-10 percent of a population breaking the law acceptable? (And I don't mean just driving 70 in a 65-miles-per-hour zone.)
Perhaps the real crime is that the university administration looks the other way. Their goal is to bring as many students as possible in and push them all out with degrees within four or five years, true learning and preparation for life beyond college be damned.
In this current era of higher education where administrations have become bloated with desk jockeys whose primary job is to make work for others and where administrators of questionable competency are rewarded, one would think they could at least back up professors who are trying to instill the concept of integrity in their students. But no, professors who find cheating must defend themselves from angry students and sometimes angry parents, and prove to uncaring administrators that there is such a thing as academic integrity.
Academic cheating may not be the worst of crimes, but high school and college education should be the place where young citizens cement their ethical goals for the rest of their lives. If we look the other way at cheating in academia, does this mean that we're establishing dubious ground rules for our political and financial systems — both rife with dishonesty — and other institutions that we should trust as well?
If anyone has an answer, please let me know.
(Updated Monday, May 19, 2014, 11:30 AM CDT)
The revelation in an article anecdoted below that cheating was now going to go unpunished in a nearby school district struck my wife and me as a sad state of affairs given the endemic cheating we find among college students at the large midwestern university where we teach. College cheating has not only become accepted but de rigueur for many students whose only goal in academia is to get the highest grade for the least amount of work.
My wife, who teaches a full load or writing courses each semester, spends much of her time ferreting out and dealing with cheaters. This takes away energy and time from delivering course materials and working with the students who do not cheat.
In my own experience I've found that roughly 5-10 percent of every class cheats or attempts to cheat, depending upon the type of course, grading method and discipline. While this is still a small minority numbers-wise, it should be enough to be considered a scandal. Is 5-10 percent of a population breaking the law acceptable? (And I don't mean just driving 70 in a 65-miles-per-hour zone.)
Perhaps the real crime is that the university administration looks the other way. Their goal is to bring as many students as possible in and push them all out with degrees within four or five years, true learning and preparation for life beyond college be damned.
In this current era of higher education where administrations have become bloated with desk jockeys whose primary job is to make work for others and where administrators of questionable competency are rewarded, one would think they could at least back up professors who are trying to instill the concept of integrity in their students. But no, professors who find cheating must defend themselves from angry students and sometimes angry parents, and prove to uncaring administrators that there is such a thing as academic integrity.
Academic cheating may not be the worst of crimes, but high school and college education should be the place where young citizens cement their ethical goals for the rest of their lives. If we look the other way at cheating in academia, does this mean that we're establishing dubious ground rules for our political and financial systems — both rife with dishonesty — and other institutions that we should trust as well?
If anyone has an answer, please let me know.
LSH schools revamping grading model: Students won’t be graded down for late work, cheating
By Amanda Dyslin
Mankato Free Press, Edition 05/15/2014
LE SUEUR — Pending School Board approval, the Le Sueur-Henderson Middle/High School will be adopting a whole new grading and assessment model that focuses on what students are actually learning....
Also under the model, cheating on assignments or tests and attendance issues will not affect grades [emphasis mine]; students working on group projects each will receive individual scores; all teachers will use the same grading scale; and knowledge assessment (tests) will account for 90 percent of a student’s grade, while 10 percent will include daily work and quizzes....NOTE: This article is not available online except to Free Press subscribers.
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1 Comments:
Trust is vital, keep fighting the good fight.
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