Dearborn School Board Explores the Issue of Cheating
Dearborn Board of Education, teachers worry that today’s students don’t think cheating is a big deal.
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Academic dishonesty has been around as long as schools have existed, but a report submitted to the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education this month suggests that students everywhere are less likely to think there’s any harm playing fast and loose with the rules.
“If you’ve been looking at the news over the last year you’ve seen a lot of school districts in trouble for problems that they’ve had on tests," explained Supt. Brian Whiston at the board's April 23 meeting, "so we have been trying to focus on academic integrity–not only for our students, but for our staff and for us as a central office."
Whiston explained that information given to board members detailed the district's efforts at eradicating and addressing academic dishonesty.
David Mustonen, the district’s spokesman, said the district doesn’t believe Dearborn schools have a rampant problem with cheating, but it’s something the board is keeping an eye on.
“(The board) asked for the report because they are concerned students might not take the consequences of cheating seriously,” he said. “This is something they want to know more about, and it tied into a video that was made to warn students about doing something in the remainder of the school year that could cause them not to walk for graduation.”
Cheating a 'Major, Growing Problem'
The district’s cheating policy is laid out in the student code of conduct, which is also posted online. Cheating punishments can range from parent meetings and counseling, to detention, school-mandated service requirement and expulsion.
A recent study from Duke University indicated that 75 percent of students surveyed admitted to cheating. That’s in agreement with the research of Dr. Nabeel Abraham, the director of the honors program and an anthropology professor at Henry Ford Community College.
“We should start off with the question, 'Is cheating a problem in society, in our schools, in our colleges (and) in our universities?'” Abraham said during at the Monday night board meeting. “In a quick search of the Internet and other resources indicates that the problem is not only a major one, but is growing.”
Abraham said many forms of cheating are taking place at schools all over the United States.
“In education, the problem is sometimes referred to as academic dishonesty, which often takes the form of plagiarism–that is, presenting someone else’s work as one’s own,” Abraham explained.
“More blatant forms of academic dishonesty include gaining access to test questions or answers prior to or during an exam,” he added. “In 2008, the Center for Academic Integrity found, in a survey of 18,000 high school students, that 70 percent admitted to serious cheating, 60 percent whom had admitted to plagiarism, and more than half had plagiarized work found on the Internet.
Reasons for Cheating
Technology, while arguably essential in today's academic world, is also opening new pathways for cheaters. All over the country, students have photographed tests with their cell phones, texted test answers, purchased term papers online, and plagiarized other’s work. It’s so easy that some students hardly give it a thought.
“Worst of all in my opinion, most of them didn’t see anything wrong with what they did," Abraham said. "I think that’s a serious problem."
There are other factors that seem to spur cheating, however.
Abraham said students are looking for a moral compass in adults, and not finding one. Additionally, students sometimes believe an assignment is irrelevant. And sometimes students inadvertently find themselves in a situation where they don’t know how to properly cite work completed by others.
But the most compelling reason is that young people don’t see, much less face, and negative consequences for dishonest dealings.
If the students don’t think cheating is important, it’s not a view shared by teachers and administrators, said School Board President Mary Lane.
“Many of us have remembered times when we have literally been ready to march (at graduation), then we get a problem–a student has misbehaved, it might be academic, it might be behavioral,” Lane said. “We don’t want to say that students can’t participate, but when there’s serious misconduct, people have to suffer consequences from that.”
Abraham questioned why any adult would not think cheating in school is important.
“It does matter because the students of today will become society’s leaders, corporate officials, bankers, athletes, law enforcement personnel, accountants, doctors, lawyers, airplane pilots, and most importantly, teachers,” he said. “Ultimately, they are going to take over.”
Correction: A previous version of this article suggested that videos being shown to Dearborn Public Schools high school students specifically addressed the issue of cheating. That is incorrect. According to district spokesman David Mustonen, "The video was done to remind seniors not to take part in any type of behavior such as pranks, reckless driving, skipping school, becoming lazy or complacent, or worse yet taking drugs or drinking alcohol. All of these types of behavior could jeopardize their chance to walk at commencements, attend prom, or take part in other activities."
Ali
7:24 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
Cheating has taken a new level in the Dearborn school district. For example, I was told one student at a Dearborn high school would ask the teacher to go to the administrator's office and take exams with tutors that helped "challenged" high schoolers, essentially providing answers to the test. And this worked well as many teachers would not bother to verify whether students were even qualified to have this luxury. The attitude David Mustonen has exhibited about cheating is in line with other teachers in the district, I call it ignorance. School officials need a reality check, because believe it or not, the students are one step ahead when it comes to cheating.
Donna Hay
8:16 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
Students are one step ahead of all of us. I supposed that it would be against someones rights to take their cell phones away - why do they have cell phones in class in the first place? I would venture to guess that at any time during the school day you will find over 50% of the students on Facebook. I am beginning to believe what I have heard many times in the past, the students are running the schools not the administration or the teachers.
Lee Jacobsen
10:58 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
Students are only following the example of their teachers, such as the ones in Atlanta,
173 of them no less, caught cheating on standarized tests on behalf of their students.
All the students are trying to do is learn better cheating methods from their teachers.
If everyone cheats, then at least we have a level playing field, new rules, and can move on from there.
AbuHak
2:43 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
There is no cheating policy in Dearborn Schools and teachers are on their own in developing ways to deal with cheating. The lack of a constant policy leads to inconsistent punishment, if any. Administrators are also at a loss on how to deal with the problem and often shy away from penalizing students or enforcing teacher policies that may be deemed too strict.
AbuHak
2:46 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
DPS also encourages teachers to allow students to re-take tests. So, tell me there is no cheating going on with that policy.
cmg
3:59 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
How can you cheat when you re-take a test that is different from all the others?? It's not like they give them the same test. \Ddid you go to school? You're making the teachers sound pretty stupid.
Kent Gartner
4:00 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
I'm sure the easiest and best solution to this is let them all cheat, make the city look like where the best ever and then when they go to college wonder why our kids are getting thrown out for cheating...... oh wait i'm sorry, Academic Dishonesty because heaven forbid we call it what it is, theft.
Lee Jacobsen
4:47 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
For those parents who go to the orientation sessions, where you get to meet your kid's teacher for ten minutes, often they have class rules or procedures for students to follow..
Common is "students who want to sleep, use the back row."
Also, in many classes, the opportunity to take a test over was common, but the student had to request it within the week. Oh... the mental strain of it all. Making a request!!!
Still other teachers gave 'take home' tests, where you had two days to do the test and then turn it in. Where were these teachers when I went to school in the 60s??
Getting a 4.0 in gym just means showing up and getting dressed. You can watch the others run around and still get an A.
Teachers and administrators are doing this to raise the GPA, to keep the state and federal dollars flowing in.
Eventually parents will 'wise up', and send their kids to schools that tax their kids a little more in the mental dept, like actually giving a report on a subject, orally, in front of the class. One school I know of does that with students once a week. It is not a public school. With our public schools, I would be surprised if students are asked to speak and convey information more than once a year. It is hard to cheat when a student is required to verbally show his mastery of a subject, ie who was Abraham Lincoln, and other greats in American history, Instead, they make little marks on a piece of paper, based on google info from a cell phone.
JerimiahJohnson
9:21 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012
Kids see mom and dad lie on insurance claims, taxes and Bridge Card applications, mortgage applications, residency and any number of other things without worrying about any consequences and they learn that lying and cheating and not keeping your word is OK. It just doesn't get any more basic than that. They learn that if you don't cheat, you're a sucker. The values some of us were raised with aren't the values of a lot of kids being raised today.
Fadia Shatila
10:58 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
agree with you JerimiahJohnson!
Marlo Allen
12:55 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I have a high school student...and the lying and cheating punishment starts at a young age...AT HOME. If they get caught in high school...they have already been doing it for a long time. Parents need to step up and be parents to their children...not their friend.
cmg
4:09 pm on Friday, June 1, 2012
I must be missing something here. You're complaining about cheating and kids taking tests over. Well if you're a good parent and pay attention to your kids they don't have to cheat and take tests over. They will learn to study and do it right the first time! Why are oral reports important? Just because you can memorize something doesn't make you smart. What makes you smart is studying. If you teach your child that it's important to study then they will study, they will learn and they won't retake tests. Plain and simple. Teachers telling kids they have a week to inform them they need to retake a test is a teacher trying to teach your lazy kid responsibility for their actions! What should happen? The parent should email the teacher and say my kid needs to retake the test?? No the kid should own up to their own problem and tell the teacher. It's simple, study and follow the rules. Private schools are not better necessarily then public schools. Those are not REAL teachers. When my son was in 4th grade his friend at DC was in the same grade and learning what my son did in the 2nd grade. Hmm, I should pay for that?? I don't think so. Stop blaming the schools and teachers for your kids problems and pay attention to your kids!!!!!! It's your issue, take the blame. And no, I'm not a teacher. But I support them 100%. As for cell phones in school. My kids go to DPS and they are banned. Ask your kid why they have them out in school. Shame on them and you.
AbuHak
7:11 pm on Sunday, June 3, 2012
Yes, I did attend school and we had no re-take policy because, as any educated person knows, this provides those who choose to retake tests with an unfair advantage in the amount of time they have to prepare for the test as well as allowing them to become more familiar with the types of questions that will be asked on the test. This unfair advantage is equivalent to cheating.
Also, not all teachers have the time available to make 3 or 4 versions of a test to prevent widespread cheating on test day plus an additional version of the test which has all the same concepts, but different questions for the retake. There is also a problem with scheduling retakes with classes that meet at several different times, such as in middle and high school, so questions and answers are not shared between students that meet later in the day.
I'm not blaming the teachers, but the policy of not having a policy which the school board has finally determined to be a problem. Usually the DPS answer is to hire another administrator to work on developing a solution.
Lee Jacobsen
12:33 am on Saturday, June 2, 2012
cmg, first, on test retakes, who said anything about taking a different test? Also, multiple retests were allowed during the same week. My impression , at least from the orientation sessions , was that the same test questions were given, perhaps in a different order. Once you got a grade that was decent, say a 4.0, then no more test retakes were needed.
Regarding private schools, such as Montessori, they are so far ahead of the public schools, especially in the early grades, there is no comparison. Montessori gives you 'weekly' written feedback on your child's progress, and any learning issues are 'nipped in the bud' before they become problems. Students, at least in the Montessori my daughter atttended, (Dearborn Hts ) were expected to give weekly presentations on various topics to the class, in other words, self confidence in speaking before an audience was not an issue by the time you reached the last grade in Montessori, (8th). Field trips, sports, an instructor for every 5-8 students, plus learning at the student's own pace rather than being limited by the slower structured pace of public schools allows kids to enjoy learning and not be 'bored'. The 8th grade books at Montessori that my daughter brought to DHS were the same as their 11th grade. For the first time, she saw students sleeping in class, and the pace of learning was so 'slow'. There is a reason USA kids are only 16th in the world. Year round school and 'merit' compensation would help.