Oklahoma teacher: 'Everything my kids are doing at home is a cheatable assignment'

"Schools’ large-scale shift to virtual education amid COVID-19 is challenging the system of determining what students actually know and limiting educators’ ability to ensure academic integrity," Oklahoma Watch reports ("Cheat Codes: Students Search For Shortcuts as Virtual Schooling Expands").

Cheating has always been an issue in schools, but there is little getting in the way for students today. Shared answers have become even more accessible as districts have adopted or expanded their use of popular online learning programs like Edgenuity, which delivers the same content to students across the country.

Many schools adopted such virtual programs in a matter of months to adapt to the ongoing public health crisis. Seventy percent of Oklahoma districts had a virtual option at the start of this school year, and 7.5% were exclusively online, according to a state Department of Education survey.

But when students are not inside classrooms, it becomes more difficult to ensure they are actually learning, teachers say.

“Everything my kids are doing at home is a cheatable assignment, which makes that in-class time so incredibly valuable,” said Elanna Dobbs, who teaches English at Edmond Memorial High School.

Is Chickasha cheating?

"Nationwide, there have been many high-profile instances where school officials changed grades to mask failure, obtain federal funding, or avoid greater oversight," the state's largest newspaper editorialized today.

Chickasha Public Schools in Oklahoma may be joining that list. The state Department of Education has asked officials with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to assist in an investigation of alleged misconduct including fraud and tampering with student grade and attendance records at Chickasha. Department officials found “unexpectedly high levels of district personnel logins and grade changes” within the online Self-Paced Learning Center (SPLC) system used at the district. Between October 2017 and January 2018, approximately 5,500 student course grades and 18,800 individual assignment grades were overridden. According to state records, there are only around 2,500 students in the district. It's bad enough when adults behave badly, but far worse when adults potentially sacrifice the education of children in the process.

'Two Tulsa teachers suspended amid cheating allegations'

Andrea Eger has the story.

Tulsa investigation into record-tampering continues

"It has been nine months since teachers complained to Tulsa's Channel 8 saying they'd witnessed improper grade and attendance record changes," KTUL reports.

Were suspicious test scores investigated in Oklahoma?

That's a question Arthur Kane explores over at Oklahoma Watchdog.

Kane's reporting grows out of the Atlanta cheating scandal, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first broke in 2008. The newspaper subsequently found "suspicious test scores" nationwide—including in Oklahoma. In 2012 both U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and teacher union president Randi Weingarten said these suspicious scores were concerning. 

Janet Barresi, who was state superintendent in 2012, looked into the matter and consulted with school administrators. In addition, one would hope the local school districts themselves—especially those where the odds of the results occurring by chance were less than one in 1,000—would want to perform their own investigations so they could clear their names. 

In the end, the main thing for parents and taxpayers is to get some answers. Whether cheating is a huge problem or a mild problem or barely a problem at all, people need to know.

Tulsa investigates allegations of altered attendance records

KTUL has the story.

Oklahoma cheating scandal gets national headlines

Over at HuffPo: "Oklahoma School Cheating Scandal Brings Audit Of Student Transcripts, Most Not Ready To Graduate."

Teacher fraud opens the door to school choice

The Daily Caller has the story.

More cheating?

The state's largest newspaper reports on "testing irregularities" in Hinton.

UPDATE: 15 Hinton high school students have test scores invalidated.

Did Oklahoma principal force teachers to cheat?

One teacher says yes, and resigned in protest.

More cheating?

"Administrators at an Oklahoma City high school forced teachers to falsify enrollment and attendance records so they appeared to satisfy federal grant requirements, according to a teacher who said he recently resigned in protest," Victor Skinner reports.

Is an Oklahoma City principal cheating?

Jerry Bohnen has the story.

Are Oklahoma school districts cheating?

According to a March 25 report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (‘Cheating our children: Suspicious school test scores across the nation’), “suspicious test scores in roughly 200 school districts resemble those that entangled Atlanta in the biggest cheating scandal in American history, an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows."

The newspaper analyzed test results for 69,000 public schools and found high concentrations of suspect math or reading scores in school systems from coast to coast. The findings represent an unprecedented examination of the integrity of school testing.

The analysis doesn’t prove cheating. But it reveals that test scores in hundreds of cities followed a pattern that, in Atlanta, indicated cheating in multiple schools.

Says U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: “These findings are concerning.”

According to the report—which has also attracted the attention of NPR (‘Evidence Builds Of Schools Cheating To Boost Students' Test Scores’) and The Atlantic (‘Investigation Finds Suspicious Achievement in Schools Across the Nation’)—“196 of the nation’s 3,125 largest school districts had enough suspect tests that the odds of the results occurring by chance alone were worse than one in 1,000.” These districts, in the AJC’s analysis, “appear to most resemble the pattern of test score jumps and drops found in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal.” The Oklahoma districts on this list are Choctaw/Nicoma Park, Owasso, Stillwater, and Tulsa.

In addition, the AJC listed 10 Oklahoma districts which “do not match the Atlanta pattern as closely” but which “certainly deserve further examination.” These are: Bartlesville, Broken Arrow, Edmond, Muskogee, Mustang, Norman, Oklahoma City, Sand Springs, Western Heights, and Yukon.

“Some school leaders accused of cheating have attributed steep gains to exemplary teaching,” the AJC notes. “But experts said instruction isn’t likely to move scores to the degree seen in the AJC’s analysis.” Through teaching alone, said James Wollack, a University of Wisconsin-Madison expert in testing and cheating who reviewed the AJC’s work, “it’s going to be pretty tough to have that sort of an impact.”

“I can say with some confidence,” he said, “cheating is something you should be looking at.”

The AJC continues: “Statistical checks for extreme changes in scores are like medical tests, said Gary Phillips, a vice president and chief scientist for the large nonprofit American Institutes for Research, who advised the AJC on its methodology. ‘This is a broad screening,’ he said. ‘If you find something, you’re supposed to go to the doctor and follow up with a more detailed diagnostic process.’”

Many agree. The AJC reports that “a U.S. senator from Georgia and a national teacher union leader on Sunday called for investigations into possible cheating in school districts cited in an investigation into suspicious test scores by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“The indications of the report are troubling, to the point where these systems must follow up and see whether there is in fact impropriety,” said U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

If these districts fail to do so, Isakson said the governors of the states should intervene. And should they drop the ball, “there may be a federal interest ... I don’t think Congress could look the other way.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the two major teachers’ unions, told the AJC that the findings suggest the need for more investigation in many school districts across the country.

“It should go to another level,” she said, such as systematic analysis of erasures on test papers and, if necessary, investigations by law enforcement officers—both of which helped prove widespread cheating in the Atlanta Public Schools.

“If the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s findings are valid, they certainly merit further inquiry, but we must also be cautious about painting with too broad a brush,” says Oklahoma state Superintendent Janet Barresi. “We will be looking closely at these findings, and consulting with state policy-makers and Oklahoma school administrators.”

Tulsa superintendent Keith Ballard, undisturbed by one-in-a-thousand odds, doesn’t think any diagnostic follow-up is necessary. “I am pleased with the growth that our students have shown,” he says, “and don’t see any validity in the story.” Move right along, folks, nothing to see here.

But Beth Johnson, a math teacher at Tulsa’s Hale High School, correctly points out that “if it doesn’t get fully investigated, then some people might leave thinking that it’s going on even if it wasn’t.”

She’s right. And if it is going on, it needs to stop. As the AJC reported, “The newspaper’s analysis suggests that tens of thousands of children may have been harmed by inflated scores that could have precluded tutoring or more drastic administrative actions.”

Over at The American Interest, Walter Russell Mead puts it well:

In the short run, the authorities should come down on the cheaters like a ton of bricks. Students need to see that cheaters don’t prosper. Longer term, the solution is to keep bringing education closer to the grass roots and to give parents more say in how and by whom their children are taught.

Cheating reported in Oklahoma

"It was the year of the test cheating scandal," the Associated Press reported as 2011 drew to a close ('2011 marred by test cheating scandals across US'). "From Atlanta to Philadelphia and Washington to Los Angeles, officials have accused hundreds of educators of changing answers on tests or giving answers to students."

Add Oklahoma to the list. The state's largest newspaper reports today on cheating that recently occurred in Oklahoma. And when asked if the cheating is more widespread than what is reported, an interim assistant state superintendent replied: "Of course."

'2011 marred by test cheating scandals across U.S.'

"It was the year of the test cheating scandal," the Associated Press reports.

Teachers and principals caught cheating on tests

Over at the TIME website we read that at least 178 teachers and principals "have been implicated in what is likely the largest cheating scandal in U.S. history to date." There are some other interesting observations over at Freakonomics.

Scholar says cheating is widespread

More diligence is needed to discourage cheating in schools, Herbert J. Walberg writes. Not only cheating by students, but cheating by teachers and administrators.

Gaming the system

The state's largest newspaper, in a house editorial yesterday, brought attention to a troubling (but not new) situation that exists in some schools. The Oklahoman noted that Cyril school Principal Jason James

said the pressure of testing requirements may cause some educators to cheat or otherwise misrepresent student test scores. He also said educators might find ways to discount some students' scores or put low-performing students in less challenging classes. The end result would make the school look better.

We'll give him credit for honesty. Some teachers and school leaders surely game the system to produce test scores that aren't an accurate representation of student achievement. Students who should be tested aren't or they're classified in such a way that makes scores deceptively high. In recent years, Oklahoma has had instances of teachers changing students' test answers and other states have or are conducting cheating investigations.