Happened in our school and someone (parent?) sent an anonymous note of what is happening. No names, just that the tests are leaking and that are going around. The teacher changed the tests and I do not remember anyone getting punished.
In our school it was a current test. The same class had different sections, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Someone must have run out at lunch to copy the test or perhaps did it with pencil and paper or just passed the morning test around at lunch for the afternoon section. I don’t remember.
We also witnessed cheaters getting in to schools that the honest ones, with lower grades, did not get into.
I think it is essential to tell someone what is going on, possibly without naming names or classes, and choosing the recipient carefully. My daughter did this and there were no repercussions, but she wasn’t afraid of them either.
I think this should be a huge issue in an assembly of some sort, or seminar, and, again, that education and trust should come before punishment.
So the school is having students make copies? Office helpers? I hope these students aren’t getting volunteer hours for this!
Which teacher(s?) are doing this or allowing this to happen? Or do the teachers have the office staff make the copies, and they in turn are letting the students do it?
This is our thirteenth year of having children in the local high school. Cheating is rampant, now more than ever. What is appalling is that very often teachers know it’s happening and choose to do nothing. One reason is that now their compensation is tied to student performance. Another is that it’s too much hassle, sometimes hard to prove, and they also figure the kid will get his comeuppance someday without their help. So yes, your honest kid may suffer in the short term for his honesty, though he wins morally. My kids suffered a lot watching peers get ahead dishonestly.
And frankly, I don’t think it’s always true that cheaters hurt themselves much, though that’s a lovely thought that can make us honest folks feel better about it. Certainly the lazy kid who cheats regularly will be cheated out of knowledge he should have. But that’s the sort of person who won’t succeed regardless. However, the smart and motivated kid who occasionally cheats in certain classes in order to get an advantage in a tough and demanding high school may end up helping himself become valedictorian or earn a scholarship. We’ve seen it happen. The failure to actually learn some trivial facts for an unimportant high school test–facts he’d have forgotten in a few months anyway–will not come back to bite him in any tangible way. (Personally, I believe there will be spiritual consequences though.) That said, a person who lacks a conscience that has been trained to see cheating as very wrong will likely not even experience any guilt over it. In some cultures cheating does not carry the same weight as it does here (it may be seen as a necessary thing for a good life), and I think our generation sees cheating as far worse a sin than does the current generation.
My 8th grader just came home with a cheating story yesterday–a kid is making money doing on-line math homework that is used for extra credit. Several kids are paying him $5 per lesson to log in with their passwords and do the work for them so they can collect the points. He bragged to my D about his “business.”
She told him she was going to steal his customers by charging only $4 
Or she would tell the teacher. He said, “If you tell on me, you won’t won’t be alive to remember what happened. . .” I told her not to tell, but to ignore it. (I’m sure his threat was just a joke–this was all in a joking text exchange with D.) I don’t think it is a big deal since this is middle school, and it involves extra credit, and not tests, and doesn’t involve my kid. I think the kids involved are average/below average students who do poorly on tests, so they are hurting themselves by not practicing math.
In OP’s case, I would either ignore it, or I would somehow get a message to the office to notify the teacher that new tests are needed since the old ones are getting around. Don’t sign your name, and don’t mention any kids’ names.
My kids have been in a couple situations that I worried about retaliation. A drug dealer in the high school was flashing thousands of dollars and bragging to my S about how he helped his parents buy a house! S really wanted to turn him in, but I figured this guy had connections with dangerous people, so I told him to keep quiet. I figured if it was so obvious to S, the kid would get caught soon enough. Another was an incident that happened in our neighborhood. I called our POA guy about it, and he busted the high school kids-- Unfortunately, they later retaliated by vandalizing the guy’s house/yard. I felt bad about that. They were caught and had to pay for damage in the end.
Reporting anonymously spares all this worry about retribution.
Short. 1. Cheating is rampant. 2. Someone is getting hold of test copies. 3. Please don’t make me report this further.
Don’t assume you’re completely anon on email. It depends. I’d mail a note.
Anyone can report the cheating anonymously via a note delineating what is going on to an administrator. This seems like a simple solution. Not email but a typed note to the Principal-not to the teacher-who could ignore the note.
The way I see it, with this knowledge and doing nothing about it, you are letting these kids “beat up” or take advantage of your kid. Momma bears don’t like when that happens. They will have an advantage in something and if nothing else, it is stressing yours by carrying the burden that it is going on. There are times to let them work things out and times to step in. Step in. I don’t think it is good for your kid to see you letting people walk all over her (and you). If you think saying something could have repercussions, for goodness sake, get an anonymous message in there. Have a friend with no ties to school leave a voicemail on the teacher’s school line (if they have one), the general voice line, or the principal’s line, or send an anonymous email as mentioned. Short and sweet - “Hello, there is rampant cheating in so and so’s class, tests getting obtained and copied for other students, thought someone should know.” You don’t have to tell her you did it if you don’t want, just tell your student you believe it will get taken care of if you want to keep her out of it. After the call, it will be taken care of. I would want to know if it was happening in my classroom.
Pretty sure that any given teacher already knows. Those too lazy to make new tests year after year, or who do not take even basic measures to avoid leaking tests before use, should expect cheaters to find them. (Just ask the College Board.)
Can people please stop calling the teacher lazy?
No one said the tests were reused. And even if they were, no one has ANY IDEA what is going on in the schools. It’s entirely possible that they have to use stock tests.
Sheesh
Romani, we appreciate your sentiment, but you are young and idealistic. After sending 3 kids through the public school, it’s hard for me to give teachers a pass when cheating is that rampant. If they honestly don’t notice either during the test or when grading, then they’re stupid or inept. (Shopping online during tests is not the way to properly proctor.) If they do notice and do nothing about it, then they lack character and integrity. If they facilitate cheating such as by giving tests to students to photocopy or reusing the same tests, then they are lazy.
The issue of why it is possible isn’t that relevant here. The point is that it is happening. And, it is easy to have it stopped-- if that is the desire. It isn’t hard to figure out how to get it to stop. As noted above, any anonymous note, voice message, etc to the Principal will stop it with nobody ever knowing why, how or who. I do wonder if there is some other intention when I read these threads because there have been quite a few of them lately. The easy solution seems obvious to me. I can’t imagine it hasn’t occurred to the OPs of these threads. Is there any other intention that would make this obvious solution unsatisfactory? That is the part I can’t figure out about these threads (there have been quite a few recently).
Well, not exactly. It just means that the retribution may be directed to the wrong person. Because the cheaters will target somebody–the person who they think is most likely to have revealed the cheating.
I want to emphasize that I don’t like what I am saying here. I guess the way I would put it is that the burden of being targeted as the snitch is too big a burden for a middle school kid to bear, and so I’d be very, very careful about what to do in this situation.
My S1 had a classmate who basically cheated his way through their academically demanding HS. He went to an Ivy League college, went down in flames after one semester and ended up at our state flagship. So yes, it does catch up with them, even though that’s cold comfort for OP’s daughter now.
Not sure. I believe its a peer group of sorts. My older daughter told her that if they try this in HS the penalties are steeper…getting kicked out of NHS, suspension, etc. Apparently her senior class #1 lost his #1 spot for cheating and got kicked out of NHS…so there’s that.
@blueskies2day - last night she told us that if it gets out, it most surely would be traced back to her. Apparently the student doing the copying of the most recent test (there have been others) is the YOUNGER brother of another 8th grader. He’s a 6th grader. This 6th grader knows my daughter knows what he’s been doing. He even remarked that his brother was going to be mad when he didn’t give him the test, because it was the second time. Yay to my daughter, she’s the reason it didn’t happen, she turned the test back into the office or wherever, before he had a chance. Obviously there are a lot of problems with this scenario, least of which is integrity with these particular children. I told my daughter to stay as far from this as possible. Don’t interfere. I may at some point contact the school anon, not sure yet. I know she’d be blacklisted for the next 4 years; is it really worth it? I don’t mean to sound selfish. I truly am conflicted.
@atomom - wow, that is crazy. I thought this was bad, your story is worse! Lol
@thegfg - I don’t really think the teachers are lazy (especially this particular one - he’s known for being tough but fair, and the kids really do learn from him, and FWIW, i think he makes up his own tests), but I would say that they are overworked and underpaid and who can blame them for a shortcut now and then? Unfortunately we’ve almost brought this on ourselves, all of us wanting our kids to be perfect and get into a #1 college, etc. We need to relax, not everyone can be #1. Still and all, there is a breakdown somewhere and i think teachers and students need to be held accountable. I would like to believe that karma will come back to bite the students in the end.
Appreciate all the replies, they are very helpful.
@lostaccount - unfortunately, the kids involved with the copying know she knows. So I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to connect the dots if it gets reported. If she were an adult it may be a different story. I don’t think she has full knowledge of what the ramifications could be. Should that stop the truth from coming out? Of course not, but I would be a fool and remiss if I thought there would be a happy ending with no fallout to my daughter. I didn’t realize when I originally posted that a) she’s intercepted the copying more than once (the way she did it was quite subtle, she didn’t make a big deal out of it) and b) that the kid doing the copying knows she intercepted. Right now its no big deal because nobody is in trouble but the minute it came out, they would know exactly where it came from. So, while I want to continue to teach my daughter to do the right thing, I also need to teach her some self-preservation, cause the world out there is not all roses. That’s the part that stinks. You hate to have to teach your children that part of life, but it is necessary. I do thank you for your suggestions. If I could be certain she would not be involved I would go right to the administration.
@Bestfriendsgirl - yes, that is what I am hoping will happen! In the meantime, I told my D that she can be proud of every A she earns, because they are honest As. She’s just disgusted with all of the kids involved, lol!
Just a few examples of what I’ve encountered:
Had a professor who basically called OUR (the new incoming) class a bunch of cheaters and that he was giving out a new test because the last class had passed the exam around. We didn’t appreciate his accusations to say the least.Just because it happened last class is no reflection on us.
Instead he created a new test which was incredibly difficult. He wasn’t punishing the offenders–they had already passed the class–he was punishing innocent students who were trying to get through school. Misplaced anger.
Another professor (a favorite of everyone) was upfront about information that was going to be on the exam. His philosophy was come to every lecture, read the book and study–you’ll get an A. Skip class, read the book and study
you’ll probably get a B, and you are on your own after that as to what grade you get. He would gleefully announce “This is an exam question! Remember this! Write this down!” And then teach why that tidbit of info was important to the subject. Important tidbits were exam worthy–the rest is interesting. Learned a lot in that class that I remember to this day. I don’t see any reason to keep what info will be on an exam a secret. He changed exams and question wording, question order, regularly even among the same lecture hall. You may be taking exam A, B, C or D.
In middle school there was a math teacher (who we avoided like the plague) who gave multiple choice exams. Nobody had to show any work. Same test year to year. Now there is a good example of how cheating starts because of laziness on part of the teacher. Pathetic.
Bottom line: Wish I had a good answer. I hate myself for saying this but my inclination is go with self-preservation and just let it go. Having the reputation as a snitch can be more far reaching over the next four years than one class.
When I was writing exams, I would use the same questions, but make sneaky small changes in the facts. I admit that I never caught anybody cheating as a result.