Cheating is up — among teachers

Pressure for state-test success driving some to break the rules
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Jennifer Smith Richards
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Answer sheets and test booklets arrive at districts in securely taped boxes, shipped by FedEx or UPS. Packets are shrink-wrapped and are supposed to be stored in a locked room until test time.

But in some districts, teachers got access last school year. Some made copies. Others shared the questions with students ahead of time, or gave answers during the test.

And a few devised nonverbal signals to cue children that their answers were incomplete.

For all the lock-and-key procedures and explicit rules, more teachers cheated on Ohio standardized tests than ever before.

A Dispatch analysis of 28 school districts found that at least 15, including some in Franklin County, had instances of cheating. The state had named 12 districts that were being investigated in March. The other three were among the 16 districts surveyed in Franklin County.

It’s probably because there were more Ohio standardized tests than ever before, state officials say.

And it wasn’t that hard to cheat.

Barbara Oaks did it. While fourth-graders took their reading test last spring, the Coventry schoolteacher thumbed ahead through the math portion. Coventry is a district near Akron.

In the test, she spotted a geometry problem she thought students might have trouble with, so she jotted down a diagram in her notebook.

Oaks said she didn’t know she was cheating.

In Parma, near Cleveland, Winifred Shima took a copy of the test and used it to make a study guide for students that included 45 of the 46 actual test questions.

In Marietta, a veteran teacher photocopied a state test. She said she wanted to help prepare students she’d have in class this school year. Officials there said an investigation showed she’d done the same the year before.

“Did I cheat? No,” said Judy Wray, who retired from her job as an eighth-grade teacher at Marietta Middle School. “Did I do something wrong? Yes. I made one copy and should not have done that.”

Some districts are still investigating. Cincinnati closed three cases and is still sorting through a fourth. One teacher was fired; several kept their jobs. But for the schools where they taught, the consequences were sometimes severe.

Cheating on the tests doesn’t happen very often, the state says. In Ohio, roughly 2 million tests are given each year, and most of that testing happens without incident.

And not all who broke the rules did so on purpose.

A teacher in Whitehall, for example, left test booklets in an unlocked room. In Hamilton, a teacher excitedly discussed questions and answers with students after they had finished the science portion of the graduation test, not thinking about how absent students would have to take the same test as a make-up.

A Worthington teacher started to help a student on a problem, then realized she couldn’t, and stopped. The Education Department didn’t punish any of those districts, although the districts did punish the teachers. Hamilton suspended the science teacher; the rest were reprimanded.

Others, though, probably knew they were breaking the rules. School districts pass out specific instructions and regulations to teachers, and some, including Hamilton, ask teachers to sign a form stating that they understand them.

They risked losing their teaching licenses anyway.

Brian Wirick, a teacher in the East Knox school district in Knox County, used the test to make a “look-alike” study guide for his students.

“Brian wanted to see his students succeed,” said Superintendent John Marschhausen. “The lesson we need to learn is you can’t succeed at any cost.”

Wirick resigned.

Wanting students to do well is a common excuse among teachers who are caught.

“I just kept thinking that every teacher in the state of Ohio is looking at these math problems and their kids will do better and our kids will look like they don’t know anything,” Heather Buchanan, a seventhgrade teacher in Wapakoneta, a city in western Ohio, told the district during its investigation.

Buchanan, one of two Wapakoneta teachers caught breaking testing rules, created a study guide from the actual test, too.

“I love my kids. I just wanted them to have one last chance to practice.”

Wray, the Marietta teacher who photocopied a test, said that teachers cheat more than administrators know. Several more in her school did, she said, and she understands why.

“Did they cheat? Not really,” she said. “They just wanted the kids to do their best.”

…

There’s less of a gray area when it comes to punishment. Although the state won’t provide exact numbers, investigation records from school districts show that most of the teachers found violating test security measures had their teaching licenses suspended — often for several months — by the Education Department.

Punishment from school districts often was harsher.

Of 14 school districts that verified security breaches and had completed their inquiries, six accepted teachers’ resignations or retirements. Only one was fired — Kathie Conlon, a teachers aide in Newcomerstown schools, about 100 miles northeast of Columbus.

Nine teachers were reprimanded but allowed to continue teaching. That was the case for South-Western teacher Lora DeCarlo, who admitted that she helped students with answers during the test.

In Cincinnati schools, one teacher helped students during the test and another let students have extra time to complete the make-up exam. Both were reprimanded.

The district is still investigating whether an entire school, Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School, might have cheated. The testing company flagged the school because there were so many erasures on the answer sheets, raising suspicion of whether someone erased wrong answers and replaced them with the right ones.

Punishment doesn’t apply only to teachers.

As a result of teachers’ actions, many school districts received zeroes for their test scores. If students did well, they’ll get no credit for it. That’s especially important for a highschool student who must pass the state test to receive a diploma.

Researchers who studied the prevalence of cheating in Chicago schools a few years ago suggested statewide standardized testing should be structured more like the SAT, using independent test proctors. That would eliminate any temptation among teachers.

Districts also should publicize the consequences for teachers caught cheating, according to Harvard University professor Brian Jacob and Steven D. Levitt, a professor at the University of Chicago.

There won’t be independent test proctors in Ohio for this year’s tests. In fact, little will change.

Last year, the state blitzed school districts with information about the rules and procedures for testing, and they’ll do it again this year, spokesman J.C. Benton said.

Other than that, the Education Department will rely on the honesty of teachers.

“We don’t anticipate that any more security breaches will happen,” Benton said. “I think people learned from last year’s unfortunate events.”

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