The End of a Saga (I hope)
Well, the cheating thing has blown over. I think. But let me tell you, there was quite the storm over it all. Things were quiet over the long weekend after I gave the lecture to three of my classes. Then it seemed that all hell broke loose.
I had parents trying to contact me to complain. I had two guidance counselors contact me about irate parents who had complained through them. I had students writing me notes of various types. These included:
Apologies and admissions of guilt, with explanation of pressure to succeed, how my class is their most challenging one, etc.
Admission of guilt and half-hearted apology, but claim that they thought the punishment of a zero was unfair.
Admission of hearing what to study, but feeling it was unfair because they had studied really hard on their own, and suggested they would have done ok even if they hadn't been tipped off about what to study.
Complaining about the process, admitting being told what to study, but justifying it as the natural thing for any student to do.
Apologizing and claiming that they didn't know it was wrong to be told what to study (this from a student who answered an impossibly difficult question correctly, so I strongly suspect the shared info was more than "look at the sidebars closely." Might as well call it the apology-for something-less-heinous-than-the-crime-I-committed note.)
Challenging my claim they cheated, saying I had no evidence they cheated, they had studied really hard, etc. etc. (This from a so-so student who had almost all of the impossibly difficult questions correct. Consequently, unless divinely directed to think otherwise, I will go to my grave suspecting they cheated, and saddened by the gall evident in a student who is caught red handed, yet insults my intelligence by claiming innocence.)
That about runs the gamut of responses. I felt chastened by some of the interactions/notes. After all, it is possible that some innocent students got caught looking guilty, but really were not. So I decided to give a replacement quiz to anyone who felt their punishment was unfair or that they had been unjustly accused. I also apologized profusely to anyone who I had wrongly accused. I told them the quiz would be a difficult one, but if they had studied hard enough to do ok on the first (i.e., answered questions legitimately) then they should do ok on the second.
Enter the principal. I got a note in my mailbox to go see him. Uh-oh. Sure enough, an angry parent had called him directly to complain, instead of first trying to reason with me, or even get my side of the story. The principal told me what he had heard, which sounded preposterous, and asked me for my side. I tried to explain my rationale. To make a long story short, he suggested I drop the quiz entirely for everyone. He said unless I had hard evidence of cheating, like witnessing it happen, I couldn't give a student a zero. I won't say more here, except to add that I submitted to his decision, he told me he thought my intentions were noble, and not to worry about it too much. (Ask me more about this sometime, and I can fill in some details better left unsaid here.)
So that about ends it. I made some comments about lessons to be learned from the whole experience (what cheating includes, that I don't tolerate it, etc.) then told students I had dropped the quiz in fairness to everyone. Through the experience, I pretty much learned never to give the same tests to different classes ever again. Sad that it has to come to that, but that's how it stands these days with America's teenagers. And I also know firsthand that there is violent reaction to being accused of cheating--understandable if you are not guilty, less so if you are. But despite some students getting off the hook, I think/hope some of them have been properly chastened, and turned at the reproof.
Others are more hardened sinners, in need of more help than I can give them. It's probably a good thing to be reminded of that. It's also a relief. Guess I can't save the world on my own. It'll have to be done by someone else.
I had parents trying to contact me to complain. I had two guidance counselors contact me about irate parents who had complained through them. I had students writing me notes of various types. These included:
Apologies and admissions of guilt, with explanation of pressure to succeed, how my class is their most challenging one, etc.
Admission of guilt and half-hearted apology, but claim that they thought the punishment of a zero was unfair.
Admission of hearing what to study, but feeling it was unfair because they had studied really hard on their own, and suggested they would have done ok even if they hadn't been tipped off about what to study.
Complaining about the process, admitting being told what to study, but justifying it as the natural thing for any student to do.
Apologizing and claiming that they didn't know it was wrong to be told what to study (this from a student who answered an impossibly difficult question correctly, so I strongly suspect the shared info was more than "look at the sidebars closely." Might as well call it the apology-for something-less-heinous-than-the-crime-I-committed note.)
Challenging my claim they cheated, saying I had no evidence they cheated, they had studied really hard, etc. etc. (This from a so-so student who had almost all of the impossibly difficult questions correct. Consequently, unless divinely directed to think otherwise, I will go to my grave suspecting they cheated, and saddened by the gall evident in a student who is caught red handed, yet insults my intelligence by claiming innocence.)
That about runs the gamut of responses. I felt chastened by some of the interactions/notes. After all, it is possible that some innocent students got caught looking guilty, but really were not. So I decided to give a replacement quiz to anyone who felt their punishment was unfair or that they had been unjustly accused. I also apologized profusely to anyone who I had wrongly accused. I told them the quiz would be a difficult one, but if they had studied hard enough to do ok on the first (i.e., answered questions legitimately) then they should do ok on the second.
Enter the principal. I got a note in my mailbox to go see him. Uh-oh. Sure enough, an angry parent had called him directly to complain, instead of first trying to reason with me, or even get my side of the story. The principal told me what he had heard, which sounded preposterous, and asked me for my side. I tried to explain my rationale. To make a long story short, he suggested I drop the quiz entirely for everyone. He said unless I had hard evidence of cheating, like witnessing it happen, I couldn't give a student a zero. I won't say more here, except to add that I submitted to his decision, he told me he thought my intentions were noble, and not to worry about it too much. (Ask me more about this sometime, and I can fill in some details better left unsaid here.)
So that about ends it. I made some comments about lessons to be learned from the whole experience (what cheating includes, that I don't tolerate it, etc.) then told students I had dropped the quiz in fairness to everyone. Through the experience, I pretty much learned never to give the same tests to different classes ever again. Sad that it has to come to that, but that's how it stands these days with America's teenagers. And I also know firsthand that there is violent reaction to being accused of cheating--understandable if you are not guilty, less so if you are. But despite some students getting off the hook, I think/hope some of them have been properly chastened, and turned at the reproof.
Others are more hardened sinners, in need of more help than I can give them. It's probably a good thing to be reminded of that. It's also a relief. Guess I can't save the world on my own. It'll have to be done by someone else.
posted by redsoxwinthisyear at 8:34 PM
6 Comments:
Saga, indeed. It does raise interesting questions as to what constitutes cheating.
Your case was intentionally extreme to try and isolate the cheaters- as almost no one would have studied the charts on their own- but what about normal tests? If a student overhears someone say "make sure you study chapter 7", what is the student to do?
Anyway, you're lucky to be alive after incurring the wrath of parents who will stop at nothing to get their kids into the best colleges.
Well, I hope you can keep up with the extra work of extra tests and stuff...
I differentiate--and have tried to make this clear to my students--between general information that I give them about a test or quiz, and specific info about a test that I did not mention in class, but is passed on because a student happens to have a friend who took the same test earlier in the day. Thus, I would not consider "study chapter 7 really hard" to be cheating, because if I did not say it in class then I certainly could have, because the test is on chapter 7 and 8, and I would hope they study both equally as hard.
However, "the teacher said to study chapter 7 and 8 really hard, but all you really need to know is chapter 7 and the five parts of the Compromise of 1850 mentioned in Chapter 8" would be providing specific knowledge not available to all students, would give some of them an unfair advantage, and would be cheating.
Now, to combat this kind of information spreading among some, I give different tests, one that emphasizes chapter 8, another that emphasizes chapter 7, etc. (Actually a variation of this, but it's the same idea.) I think--and hope--that it will only take one or two tests for a student who thinks they are getting assistance about what to study, then is blindsided by a test that they are totally unprepared for, to stop trusting their "helpful" friend, who is now less helpful than they once were.
I sympathize with students who may have overheard specific knowledge, but did not seek it out. It presents quite the ethical dilemma. What do you do? Pretend to ignore it? Try to study just as you would have normally (a near impossible task, I think, once the forbidden fruit is tasted)? But even they will learn that the word on the street about a test is not necessarily accurate, so they might as well study as they normally would.
Okay- now that you have negotiated this minefield, it's time to move on with a complete tell-all of your latest vice of choice: LYING and DECEIVING poor innocent friends that you had made a strange and shocking life choice that made said friend think there was a hole torn in the universe...
Whaaaaa?
I agree with with LJ-WHAAAAAA?
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