Cheating

MANIFESTO

Two incidents of cheating on standardized tests have been in the news recently, one in Connecticut:

A reading teacher accused of helping mastermind massive cheating on the 2011 Connecticut Mastery Test at Waterbury's Hopeville Elementary School submitted retirement papers Friday.

Of course, the principal is up to her eyebrows in this also; we'll see how long she lasts.

The truth of the matter is that when (especially urban) schools are held to impossible standards, things like this are bound to occur. Sometimes the workaround works, and sometimes it doesn't.

And in a demonstration of life imitating art (cf. "Suits"),

Samuel Eshaghoff, a 19-year-old sophomore at Emory University, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly accepting money to take the SAT for six Long Island high school students. Testing officials said it was an isolated event, but school officials and prosecutors disagree, and a continuing investigation is focusing on other schools and students.

Local Long Island officials have begun discussing ways to combat future violations of the system, including a requirement that all students sit for the exam at their own school, where impersonation would be a near impossibility.

I'm always amused by inanity like this.

Local officials and school administrators alike have agreed that the standardized testing system is flawed, and that students, pressured by extreme competition in college admissions, are increasingly tempted to cheat,

but that's not going to stop them from imposing Draconian standards to ensure that the real Joe Smith takes the SAT.

The days of the implanted computer chip aren't far away.