There are many dimensions to “cheating” and many ways to measure its harm
I’ve read with horror – as many of us have – story after story about the cheating mess on tests in Atlanta, focusing on 2009 state tests, and in other cities and states.
But then I wonder, what is “cheating”? What does that word mean? As I see it, it’s a way of pretending that a reported test score is valid and that the score actually tells us how the student performed and what that student actually knows on that test. Apparently, these cheating scandals show that scores had been tampered with in various ways and were not valid. Reported scores were too high – and did not actually show what students know and can do. Tragic.
And to this mess, I would add my concerns about state and federal testing policies that allow students, especially students with disabilities and English language learners, to take tests that may not be valid from the get go. These invalid tests include those that have been modified in
