Comments on: How students use cell phones to cheat

By: Public school parent

Public school parent — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:40:54 +0000

High school students are using their cell phones and PDAs to cheat. it is more than just texting each other answers. they acually look up answers on the internet during the test. All the school systems should enforce the no cell phone use during the school day and ALL parents should respect this rule and not expect to text or talk to your child during the day. Most important, when a teacher takes custody of a phone the administration needs to back up the teacher.

By: Reality

Reality — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:56:24 +0000

Mark – give me a break! Your statement that the federal government is controlled by Democrats is true – but only over the last few months. Why must you intentionally mislead the intent of Ray’s comments? Have you taken lessons from republicans/Rush L.?

Everyone knows that NCLB is a Bush/republican idea and was never adequately funded by the ‘then’ republican federal government. Tell the truth, dude – it won’t hurt you.

By: Reality

Reality — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:52:33 +0000

As a high school teacher over the years, todays teenagers seem to have very little regard for ethics/morals. Call it lack of parenting, lack of church influence, whatever – it is what it is.

I often teach an AP class and very few of those ‘good’ kids even give a darn about the AP test to get college credit. They only want an A for the class grade for their gpa – and they do often try to cheat to get that A. Few care at all about actually learning the content/material.

And we wonder why the US is falling faster behind the rest of the world?

How do we change this? The solution is the same to most of societies problems. The solution isn’t the teacher or the school. The solution begins and ends AT HOME!

By: The AJC fails again

The AJC fails again — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:48:37 +0000

Did the AJC ask Crawford Lewis about the reports that his grievance officer, state senator Ronald Ramsey, illegally shut down a grievance hearing where a teacher was about to blow the whistle on a major cheating scandal?

Did the AJC has why Crawford Lewis doesn’t comment when a teacher’s legal rights are allegedly violated, but when an administrator willfully breaks the law, he sends an email to those same teachers whose rights have been violated, asking them to support the lawbreaking administrator?

I guess that would be too much like the AJC doing real reporting.

By: Classroom Teacher

Classroom Teacher — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:18:00 +0000

Catlady,
I too work in a Title 1 school where 83% qualify for free lunch. You couldn’t tell that by all the cell phones that are taken up due to violations of the school handbook. I’m not talking about cheap ones like trac-fone or jitterbug. I’ve always found it astounding that kids come to school, eat for free, then whip out a blackberry or envy. Go figure.

By: jct

jct — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:30:00 +0000

I think cheating is happening more than we all think, even with the supposed high ability students. I attended my nephew’s graduation last month at Camden County High School. The salutorian was caught cheating on her final exams. It was decided that they would only have a valedictorian and no salutorian at the ceremony. It was quite the scandal.

By: catlady

catlady — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:16:03 +0000

At the elementary level I doubt much of this happens. Altho I work in a Title 1 school (70% or more free lunch) quite a few kids who cannot buy their lunch have the use of cell phones. These are 8-10 year olds with NO afterschool activities. I find that astounding.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:51:18 +0000

What an interesting comment Ray since the federal government is entirely controlled by Democrats and, except for the last 7 years, the Georgia government has always been controlled by Democrats. The last two major school funding formulas in Georgia were presented by Democrats (QBE – Joe Frank Harris and A+ Reform by Roy Barnes) I think you should have said a “Democratic philosophy.

I think a failure to adequately fund education and new mandates in education is a bi-partisan effort.

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:05:41 +0000

Drop in the bucket. The big problem? Our schools attempt to exist amidst a Republican philosohpy that doesn not want to generate the funds necessary to keep them alive.

Get what you pay for.

By: HS Teacher, Too

HS Teacher, Too — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:45:31 +0000

Most of what I have encountered is just kids in one class texting kids in later classes particular details. It’s no different than telling them the same information during lunch. I’ve heard of worse — taking photos with the camera so kids can have the actual exam, etc., etc.

Solution is just to use different exams/forms for different classes, putting the problems in different order, etc.

One thing that I always did when I was in the classroom was to make make-up tests different, and typically a different format, from the test the rest of the class took. So, for example, multiple-choice would become short-answer, in addition to the actual questions being changed.