State rolls out anti-cheating measures for TAKS

Even as the TAKS could be on its way out, state education officials announced Monday that measures will be put in place next year to curb cheating on the standardized test. The anti-cheating measures come after allegations of cheating and concerns over students not graduating because they failed the test — and we can't help but think that those problems go hand in hand. "As the stakes surrounding testing have become higher, some have questioned whether we are doing all we can to prevent cheating on our tests and to prosecute those who betray our students and schools in this way," state Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley said in a statement.

The allegations of cheating on the TAKS have been circulating for the past two and a half years or so. In 2006, a Utah-based testing security firm was brought in to examine test scores and found 700 schools statewide that might have had irregularities in their scores; eventually, all but 16 of those campuses were cleared. However, according to a report by The Dallas Morning News earlier this month, many of the schools were removed from the list "simply by proclaiming their innocence on a state questionnaire." The Morning News' investigation found more than 50,000 students' test scores that showed evidence of cheating — and though that's a small percentage of students, the possible cheaters were concentrated in the 11th grade, when students must past the TAKS to earn their high school diplomas. "The evidence of substantial cheating is beyond any reasonable doubt," George Wesolowsky, a professor at McMaster University in Canada and an expert on standardized test cheating, told the Morning News.

The report also found that cheating is more than three times as common in Dallas and Houston as in the state's other large urban school districts. In Houston, the Morning News found strong evidence of TAKS cheating at Forest Brook High in the troubled North Forest school district; at Worthing High; and at Sam Houston High, one of three schools HISD is considering closing because of continued bad academic performance. Even with that evidence, state education officials insist the actual instances of cheating on the TAKS are few and far between — and the new anti-cheating measures are being put in place to improve public perception of the often-criticized test.

Among the measures are an honor pledge students will be asked to sign next year, shuffling the order of questions on sections of the TAKS to discourage students taking answers from other students' test forms, new methods to identify irregularities in scores and threatening schools with lower performance ratings if cheating is found on their campuses. According to the Chronicle, Neeley is expected to announce penalties and sanctions against officials and schools linked to TAKS cheating later this week.