As a parent of a junior in high school of a high honor roll student all was going well. I thought my ward was all set for one of the top colleges in the nation. Then this crazy stuff happened. My daughter was accused of academic integrity along with a bunch of her classmates
She had in her possession the mid term from a previous year that happened to be the same mid term that was going to be administered the next day. She went and reported it after the exam. However, the school accused the bunch of kids of prior awareness and here we are, dealing with that mess.
Normally i do not venture out into forums but when trying to look for help I came across this great forum. I need to some guidance on what options I have to get my ward out of this mess. Also how does this affect my wards college prospects. A appeal to the school superintendent failed. next is the appeal to the education board, that i have no hope.
My ward has fantastic scores on SAT, and the overall GPA is stellar except for this grade that will be a C.
I am not sure why the school will not re-administer the test except that it is more work for the teacher.
So much for paying school taxes every year. Apparently the same test was administered every year for the past several years.
How did she get the old test?
Nevertheless, reusing old tests is bad practice by teachers, since they get revealed in non dishonest ways (e.g. older sibling had the same class) as well as enabling ways to cheat.
“She had in her possession the midterm from the previous year”
So did she obtain it for the purpose of cheating or did someone place it in her backpack?
“She went and reported it after the exam.”
Did she feel guilty? Or she didn’t know it had been planted on her?
Sounds like she got caught cheating. I think the best thing you can do is sit back and let the punishment fall where it may. You cheat. You get caught. You get punished. Life moves on. You learn from your mistakes. You do better the next time. I would imagine it is tough to watch, especially since you have an otherwise good kid who works hard.
But if you “get her out of this mess” it will teach her nothing.
You pay taxes so the school district can teach your kids and make sure the rules are administered fairly to everyone. You don’t pay taxes so admins will bail your kid out when they cheat.
Kids who cheat and get bailed out become adults who cheat and try to get bailed out.
A student was working on a problem in the library and my ward asked the student to send the problem so she can work at home. The student emailed the entire mid-term. How the other student got it, I had no idea, but this paper found its way to the email inbox of the entire class.
After the last appeal runs it course, move on. It is probably more important that there is no notice in her permanent file that she cheated on an exam. Even with one C, she should qualify for many fine colleges and universities.
There are a lot of schools that will still accept her with only one C. She has high grades. she will be okay. This event is a learning opportunity.
I think you may need to get more information before you decide what you’d like to do, but it doesn’t look good. If the teacher made prior tests available as a study aid (which this one clearly does not because of the re-use practice), then there would be no problem.
If the prior (and also current) test is readily available from older siblings and friends who took the class in prior years and it’s known that the teacher re-uses tests, your daughter used the test with the explicit purpose of finding out what exactly would be on the test. That is cheating. Having said that, it’s unfair that students with the right older “connections” can easily get an (unfair) advantage of those without them or who are scrupulously honest. Shame on the teacher. He/she should be testing students in the subject, not in their moral integrity. This, however, doesn’t change the fact that what your daughter did was wrong.
From my vantage point, it looks like your daughter did the wrong thing, realized it and tried to correct it (good for her), but wishes that having owned up to her mistake would negate the consequences. That’s not the way life works, unfortunately. Sorry is often not enough. My advice would be for her to be as responsible and respectful as possible, to acknowledge that she made a mistake of judgment, learned a lesson, and accepts the consequences. It probably goes without saying that she should do everything possible to make sure that’s the only blemish on her record. This won’t be the last time she makes a mistake (although hopefully the last time she makes THIS one), and learning how to accept and address mistakes is a terribly important life skill and one that distinguishes those of character from the rest. I’d enforce the idea that she made a bad choice, but it doesn’t mean she’s a bad person. (In our constant “praise” culture, it’s hard for some kids to recognize the difference.)
If, by chance, this is an AP class (or possibly one with an SAT subject test), she might be well-advised to take the test at the end of the year and to knock it out of the park. She could at least explain that although she got a C for the class, she mastered the material.
Good luck. These are the hardest parenting moments, but the ones where you can actually make the biggest difference in who your kid grows up to be.
Thanks for your reassuring words. One thing I want to make clear is my ward has no intent to cheat. My ward has an average of 97 from her freshman year except for this one. She had her eyes on Cornell, MIT, Berkeley and the similar colleges. But with all A+ in all courses and a potential B or C on this one she is open to questioning. There were about 30 kids in class and a about 20 got accused even though about 25 had the papers.
@crazystuff , what explanation does she give for having the prior test? Will she get a C for the year, the marking period, or just this test? And will all 20 kids who were accused get a C for the same year/term/test?
And a bit of unsolicited advice… no matter how perfect the grades, standardized test scores etc., please recognize that the schools you listed are reaches for every unhooked applicant. The schools can fill up many times over with applicants with perfect or near perfect stats, great recommendations etc… Sure, it is worth a shot to apply to some top schools, but be sure to come up with a realistic list of reach, match, and safety schools that are affordable and that the student likes.
Not sure if it helps any, but I was in a somewhat similar situation in HS. During math mid-terms, our teacher allowed those who were done early with the exam to chat softly as long as we didn’t distract other students and didn’t discuss math. My friend and I were done early and started talking in our native language. The teacher walked over and only then I realized my friend forgot to turn in her test before talking to me. The teacher gave us both F’s. No amount of pleading to compare the tests moved him - he demonstratively threw them both out. I ended up with B for a semester. However, I think my high SAT and AP Calculus scores gave college admins the right idea of my math aptitude, so it didn’t hurt me in the admission process.
they all got a 0 on the mid-term.