Different Cheating Methods Used by Teachers

As the stakes over standardized testing increase— including, most recently, taking student progress on tests into consideration in teachers’ performance reviews, the incidences of cheating by educators has also risen.

The staff of Normandy Crossing Elementary in Galena Park ISD outside Houston eagerly awaited the results of state achievement tests in the spring of 2010.

When the results came back many scores were too good to be true. After an investigation by the Galena Park Independent School District, the principal, assistant principal, and three teachers resigned over test tampering. They were accused of distributing study guides and “tubing” the tests.

Tubing Squeezing a test booklet, without breaking its paper seal, to form an open tube so that questions inside could be seen and used in the guide.

At a charter school in Springfield, Mass., the principal told teachers to look over students’ shoulders and point out wrong answers as they took the 2009 state tests, according to a state investigation. The state revoked the charter for the school, Robert M. Hughes Academy, in May.charter school

Principals and teachers giving students extra time to complete exams or allowing them to “make up” portions of exams that they failed to complete.

In Georgia, 191 schools were investigated in 2009 after computer scanners detected erasures in reading and math tests which suggested that educators had erased students’ answers and penciled in correct responses.

Teachers have written the answer to a question on the blackboard.

Teachers have given a thumbs-up or thumbs-down signal depending on whether students answered correctly.

In Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, fifth graders were taking their state math exam in April 2011, while Corrine Demolli stood behind them and told them to “check” their answers.This caused stressed students to quickly erase and change their answers.

To avoid expressly giving answers, some teachers have resorted to codes. At a California elementary school, the phrase "toilet paper" meant a student should subtract or "wipe away" a number in a math problem. In other states, a teacher would cross her arms if a student marked the wrong answer.

Days before the 2008 state writing test, students at the rural Jefferson County Middle/High School in Florida were hurried to the cafeteria for a surprise practice test. When the test was given days later, many students found it easy because their practice writing prompts were nearly identical to those on the test, according to state documents.

Some cheating is impossible to detect, because it often involves only a brief conversation between teacher and student. It's "a fairly simple operation. All one has to do is lean close and whisper," says Christine DiDonna, coordinator and school counselor at Groveland Elementary in Florida.