[quote]
With respect to preventing future problems, two relatively easy possibilities:
Logging of all grade changes within a teacher’s grade file (assignment, student, date, time, orig grade, new grade, IP address of the computer) all kept on a separate server, and analysis software that looks for problems and provides written reports (not delivered electronically) to teachers periodically identifying any changed grades.
Stronger authentication required to change grades, such as challenge questions (what was the model of the car your family had while you were in elementary school, what was your maternal grandfather’s first name,…)
[quote]
</p>
<p>The first thing is defiantly not an easy fix, and the second won’t help the problem at all. Can you imagine the administrative nightmare of running a separate server for grades and then printing out change logs for all teachers? The second suggestion wouldn’t work because the software that fishes for passwords would be able to find that information.</p>
<p>Really, schools generally use pre-canned online software as as their grade books (my school used infinite campus). The fault lies with these companies for not offering solutions against this kind of stuff. Any company selling this kind of software knows that a technically savvy kid will be able to get passwords off of a teachers computer. There are programs on the internet that fish for passwords that you can put on a flash drive.</p>
<p>A simple way around this is to offer passwords that change every minute. The teacher would have a small device with a screen on it (kinda like a pager), that displays a number, that number changes every minute following an algorithm. The grade system uses the same algorithm for the teachers password. Yes, this technology already exists and is used by some businesses. It is also frequently used in tandem with a password. The only way for the student to get into the grade book would be to steal that device and steal the password. Also, think of all the money the company can make by charging people for lost devices. If the device was lost and there was a log in to their account, you know that someone who was not supposed to be there was there.</p>
<p>That’s just horrible! Imagine if you went to that school and had just sent out your midyear reports for colleges and then you find out that your grades were changed from good grades to failing grades! I really hope they fix everything and that the teachers keep separate grade records from the schools records so everything can be fixed.</p>
<p>The Wash Post article pretty much captured everything…parents’ frustration about lax in security, worries about potential impact on next year’s senior class college acceptances, concern about student integrity and dismay with how little information was shared. MCPS Collette stated that they had no idea if there were similar incidences in other MCPS schools or if the cheating occurred prior to this academic year–and they had no plans to investigate unless credible evidence surfaced. He also underscored the difficulty of preventing and detecting this kind of cheating but heightened security measures are being researched. Infomation about the involved students is confidential although a criminal investigation is preceding. The meeting was well attended, but not terribly useful.</p>
<p>rphmom - thanks for your insight. I did read the W. Post article, as well as other coverage, but I was curious about how parents at Churchill feel about the whole situation and how MCPS is handling it. I have a feeling that cheating, overall, is probably more widespread than we realize and that this incident is just an outgrowth of that trend. It just makes me wonder whether the culprit is too much pressure from parents, kids who lack integrity or school systems that don’t adequately punish offenders, or perhaps it is a combination of all three. Just a sad situation when the actions of a few have stained the reputation of a fine school. Hope the situation calms down as the school year winds down.</p>
<p>This is why teachers at my school always keep their grades in the computer AND in a paper logbook that they guard with their lives.</p>
<p>To the guy who called it a prank–if your kid came home crying because her gpa went from a 4.0 to a 3.5 and got rejected from her dream school, would it still be just a prank?</p>
<p>I go to Winston Churchill and this is hardly the only cheating scandal here. Apart from the rampant cheating on tests, a couple of years ago there were students who tried to change the grades in the logbook. </p>
<p>For this incident, a friend of mine was asked if he wanted his grades changed and he apparently thought they were joking. Also last year, someone apparently broke into the system but didn’t change anything. He was suspended though.</p>
<p>Regarding hard copies, the school ought to be archiving the records. Not to say they shouldn’t have a backup of their own, but teachers should expect that the school keeps some history too.</p>
<p>It’s hard to generalize parent’s feeling because there are so many differing opinions. Aside from concern over security, integrity and impact on college acceptances, there were divided opinions over the measure of punishment deserved by the culprits. Although not stated, we believe these students have probably been expelled…so are criminal charges warranted for minors in this case? In our own household, we are divided on this. </p>
<p>Some parents also feel Churchill has been unfairly singled out in the local and national media. Would this story be so big if it weren’t a Montgomery county school with a reputation for rich Jewish kids? IDK. Now we have a reputation for rich Jewish kids who cheat. Unfortunately, none of the students who must have known about the cheating stepped forward to report it. I find that to be most disappointing…</p>
<p>^ Wait what? I know we have a reputation as a rich school, the “rich Jewish” thing is news to me. Also not everyone who goes to Churchill is rich. I’m certainly quite poor and so are some people I know.</p>
<p>I think the school’s attitude to cheating deserves some blame too. I know kids who plagiarized multiple times (off of CliffsNotes and each other) and they were let go with a slap on the hand - the county’s policy of 0% for that assignment wasn’t enforced as far as I know. I know kids who cheated by copying code in a Programming class - they were let off with a warning. Students caught cheating on tests in my AP Bio class were given a warning, that’s about it.</p>
<p>rphmom - I’m a little taken aback by your “rich Jewish kids” remarks. I would guess Churchill is about 10% Jewish - are you saying all of the 8 kids who engineered this are Jewish? My understanding is that at least 1 or 2 of the 8 were not from the US and went back to their home country to escape prosecution - what country were they from? I never considered Churchill to be a haven for “rich” kids to begin with - upper middle class, sure, but the truly wealthy Potomac residents are attending private schools - not Churchill. Why the “rich, Jewish kids” comment? That seems uncalled for.</p>
<p>rphmom, I honestly dont understand how you can blame it on the “rich Jewish kids” when the person who initiated the cheating was in fact Indian. It seems extremely ignorant to blame this whole ordeal on one ethnic or economic group. The fact that this was a big deal was because students from a blue ribbon school cheated, not because it is a school full of rich Jewish kids.</p>
<p>^ Ya exactly. Churchill has a reputation for being a “rich kid” school because it’s located in Potomac - one of the more affluent areas in the nation, but that doesn’t mean only Potomac students attend WC or that all of Potomac is incredibly wealthy. And like rockvillemom said, the truly rich kids go to places like Georgetown Prep.</p>
<p>I used to work with someone whose house backed onto Churchill HS and she always described her neighborhood as “the slums of Potomac.” The surrounding neighborhood consists of 1960s-era split levels. It would look very middle class to most of you. The Potomac zip code does a lot for property values. People will pay a lot for a house in that area because of the perceived quality of the schools – and from there the pressure to achieve kicks in.</p>
<p>I haven’t heard one peep in the media about the race or ethnicity of the students involved – just that three of them withdrew before the school could discipline them. I have also heard that at least one left the country after the story broke.</p>
<p>Well, I live very near to Churchill, and I think the school certainly has a reputation for lots of rich kids–probably the richest public school in a pretty rich county. There are lots of fancy cars in the parking lot. While it’s true that the area immediately around Churchill has (relatively) modest homes, it draws on extremely wealthy areas of Potomac, and quite a few of those kids don’t go to private school.
I have not heard anything about this scandal involving Jewish kids specifically, although there may be more Jewish kids per capita at Churchill than at other county public schools.</p>
<p>Rockville mom and others—so sorry I did not mean to offend or to imply the nationality of the kids involved. I have no information or interest on the identity of the students. </p>
<p>I was stating Churchill’s demographics and reputation —upper middle class and a good percentage of Jewish students. I have heard about 30%. In the same way another high school in this area is known for a high percentage of Asian students. It is not my intention to malign any one group, but I have heard parents describe Churchill with the same words I used, over the 10 years that my children have attended. I certainly agree that many folks in the Churchill district are not wealthy and yes, the wealthiest probably attend private schools. But there exists a general perception that CH kids are wealthy and spoiled (deserved or not) and that this is one of the reasons the story received more attention than usual.</p>
<p>Again, sorry if I offended anyone. I’ll be more careful in my posts in the future.</p>
<p>Ok - I appreciate your posting a clarification. I understand the frustration that the actions of a small number of students have sullied the reputation of an entire school, I just don’t want to see the situation made worse by implying that a particular minority group was in some way responsible. Your comment, “Now we have a reputation for rich Jewish kids who cheat” was pretty inflammatory. Thank you for your apology.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think if you take out the word “Jewish” and put in “entitled” you’d have an accurate statement of how this is being viewed in Montgomery County.</p>
<p>And that’s fine - viewing the group as “entitled, rich kids” is more subjective and I am sure there is some validity to it. Just don’t want to drag the Jewish community of MoCo through the dirt for no valid reason.</p>
<p>I grew up in MontCo and now live elsewhere in Maryland. If it’s any consolation, the story isn’t get much coverage here at all. It probably just feels like it’s all over the news because you’re all living it. Really, hardly a blip to the rest of the world.</p>