<p>Totally agree Igloooo! Cheating->more security->more cheating…a vicious circle. The honor system does work, if everyone values it and passes that value along.</p>
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<p>I know “average” people who live in a society where corruption is rampant who wouldn’t think twice about handing out some money; the same ones when they live in one where there’s less petty corruption wouldn’t dream of doing anything like this. There will be a small number of people who will always try to cheat and a small percentage who never will. Most of us go with the flow. So the honor system stops to work as more and more violate it and pass that value along. </p>
<p>While I’m not advocating any specific measure because I’m not up to speed on the cost, logistics, or practicality, our direction should be towards more rigorous enforcement rather than less. More importantly, when an infraction is detected, the response should lean more to the side of heavy-handed than a slap on the wrist. What these kids are stealing is a lot more than a couple of hundred points - it’s the integrity of the system, and that’s the crime they should be punished for.</p>
<p>Since it appears almost certain these kids were very well off and have the means to mitigate the effect of the punishment, it wouldn’t hurt to be more severe than warranted.</p>
<p>Could (or should) ETS do more to ferret out cheating? Probably, yes. But then, one ought to wonder why, despite fully knowing that there is an entire industry determined to get access to past tests at all cost, they see no real issue to readminister the same test for the third time in less than 18 months to international students. </p>
<p>International students have now reported that a test given to a few students in July 2010 and November 2010 was given again this weekend. People in India, China, and Korea as well as their US relatives must have jumped a couple of feet high!</p>
<p>Truly pathetic!</p>
<p><<fingerprints and=“” digital=“” photos?=“” there=“” are=“” about=“” 4-5=“” millions=“” test=“” takers=“” a=“” year.=“” what=“” do=“” we=“” with=“” 5=“” million=“” new=“” fingerprints=“” photos=“” every=“” year?=“” i=“” like=“” the=“” honor=“” system.=“” students=“” expected=“” to=“” be=“” honest.=“” they=“” are.=“” how=“” many=“” of=“” testers=“” you=“” think=“” cheaters?=“” 5,000?=“” not=“” counting=“” petty=“” ones=“” desperate=“” gain=“” 10-20=“” point=“” advantage.=“” 0.1%.=“” want=“” create=“” massive=“” id=“” checking=“” system=“” catch=“” that?=“”>></fingerprints></p>
<p>This is the word right here. There are good reasons not turn everything we do in life into airport security theater.</p>
<p>^^^ yea, and we know how reliable THAT is, lol…</p>
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<p>Full body scanners at every test site? Take away all containers of liquids larger then 3 ounces? No sharp objects allowed like #2 pencils? (All tests to be taken in crayon)</p>
<p>I actually like the Munich subway system best. It was completely on the honor system no turnstiles, but they did spot checks and you were fined if you were caught without a ticket.</p>
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<p>There are public transportation systems in the US that do that. It is not really an honor system, in that random ticket checks are supposed to be frequent enough that the citations given if one does not buy tickets will cost more (over the long term) than buying the tickets.</p>
<p>mathmom,
Technically that is not an honor system.</p>
<p>An honor system depends upon an pledge to perform a certain way/follow a code among members of a community. It is enforced by methods agreed upon by the community, usually involving members reporting violations of the code, and groups within the community reviewing the possible violations and deciding the consequences based on the honor code. It is rarely tied to economic goals, but to practices and veracity of these, in the interest pf preserving a community and the integrity of behaviors inside it.</p>
<p>Without a pledge by each test-taker, administrator, and the ETS, the SAT, etc is not a system based on an Honor Code. To make this more like one, each test-taker might sign, before taking the test, a pledge that he/she is the person whose name is on the test, he is not answering based on memorized answers or recording questions for purpose of future tests, and not referring to outside material or communicating with other test-takers during the test to answer the questions, etc.<br>
The proctors would also sign pledges that they are carefully vetting the identity of the the test-takers and all of their activities during the test, with a promise to question irregularities and report them to the ETS/CB.
These two sets of pledges would contain consequences for violations by both parties, i.e. telling the colleges and high schools, cancelling all scores, prohibiting test-takesr from taking tests for another 5 years, and prohibiting proctors from administering tests ever again.</p>
<p>To me, the abstract version of an “honor system” (desired in above posts) has been proven to be ineffective in the standardized tests. To make it more effective, it would need to be laid out more systematically, incenting the parties to avoid certain behaviors with full knowledge o the consequences to violations and poor monitoring. BTW, this type of system would allow the test-takers to feel comfortable reporting cheating by test-takers, as well as lax monitoring by proctors, and require the proctors to try hard to prevent and report violations and irregularities.</p>
<p>Of course, I would prefer this to happen “naturally”, without such a systematic approach.</p>
<p>But I believe that the lack of a true community with common goals in this case makes it much more unlikely to happen. It is important to set up a clear contract within these parties at this point to clean up the behaviors.</p>
<p>I also think that college applications should include pledges of honesty by the applicants, and all parties who contribute to them, include the CB. These scores must be vouched for by the CB. If CB has to sign a pledge as to their veracity, perhaps the CB will implement more techniques to prevent and ferret out cheating and poor proctoring.</p>
<p>performersmom- the other part to most honor codes is that anyone that witnesses cheating is required to report it.</p>
<p>It would be very simple for the testing businesses to notify colleges when a cheater is caught. They choose instead to simply cancel the scores. The testing businesses say, themselves, that it is a small percentage of students. I can’t think of a bigger deterrent than announcing to colleges and making test takers sign a quick release that states if they cheat, the colleges will be notified. We’re taking about a small contingent of less than honorable students. No reason to punish those that don’t cheat.</p>
<p>momofthreeboys- I believe the issue is actually proving that the students have cheated. From what I have read, CB does not actually state that the scores are being cancelled because of cheating, they cancel the scores because of “testing irregularities”. That term could mean anything from being sick in the middle of the exam, having your cell phone ring during the exam, or blatant cheating. By doing it that way, CB avoids lawsuits, and decreases costs, I am sure.
I am not saying it is right or fair, but that is what I am getting from everything I am reading about this.</p>
<p>I agree it’s not quite an honor system, but I don’t know if there’s a technical word for it. 
It depends on trusting most people being honorable in any event. I got checked often enough to know how it worked, but probably not more than a few times a year in the course of a daily commute.</p>
<p>You’ll never convince me that it would be that difficult to have a reason code for a cancelled score. The bottom line is testing services don’t want to “get in the middle” of this when clearly it’s squarely on their shoulders. The have their cake and eat it too attitude.</p>
<p>I’m thinking about the Harvard student whose parents paid something like $25K to Ivywise to package her for admissions. Ivywise got her a brokered book deal–apparently she was in fact a talented writer, but in this kind of deal the publisher puts together a team to produce the books–and she then plagiarized at least one other author quite extensively to complete it while a freshman at Harvard. The book was with drawn from publication. AFAIK she was not punished at all. She graduated from Harvard and went to a top law school. </p>
<p>I find it interesting that people are baying for the blood of these comparatively ineffectual cheaters, while I don’t recall the same reaction to her much more successful cheating. Apparently Harvard did not consider plagiarizing a novel to be a sufficient reason to expel her. Perhaps it’s because the SATs are so universal an experience.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>That was the Kaavya Viswanathan/Kat Cohen connection.</p>
<p>[Summer</a> Associate of the Day: Kaavya Viswanathan (Aka the Alleged Harvard Plagiarist) Above the Law: A Legal Web Site ? News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law School, Law Suits, Judges and Courts](<a href=“http://abovethelaw.com/2010/05/summer-associate-of-the-day-kaavya-viswanathanaka-the-alleged-harvard-plagiarist/]Summer”>Summer Associate of the Day: Kaavya Viswanathan (Aka the Alleged Harvard Plagiarist) - Above the Law)</p>
<p>Unfortunately, her parents suffered a tragic early demise: </p>
<p>[Kaavya</a> Viswanathan Harvard Author’s Parents Die In Plane Crash](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost)</p>
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<p>Does anyone know where she is now? She scored a summer clerkship at Sullivan & Cromwell but I have not seen anything about where she went after that.</p>
<p>I am a biased soul. In my book, a driven first generation like her is an isolated case that will die out given time. US mellows them. Great Neck case is main stream, suburban america. To me, fraud there seems more problematic. Time won’t cure it.</p>
<p>Still, I do find it highly ironic that she is in the LAW profession!!</p>
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<p>It is not difficult in a technical sense, but they are probably scared of the lawsuit that will occur if someone is marked as a “cheater” when s/he actually did not cheat.</p>