Spanish teacher takes necessary steps to reduce cheating

by Stacy Cruz
Staff Writer

Costa Spanish teacher Felise Shapiro has taken the necessary action to discourage students from cheating between periods, creating a fair experience for all of her students. Other teachers should implement similar policies to create an increasingly honest classroom environment.

According to some Costa teachers, tests that take place later in the day tend to have higher average scores than tests taken earlier in the day. According to Shapiro, the difference in grades in her classes is a direct effect of her earlier period students relaying test or quiz questions and answers to students in later periods. To cease the cheating, Shapiro has decided to create different tests and quizzes for every one of her periods. By creating different tests, not simply alternate versions, Shapiro’s students will no longer be able to share test and quiz information, preventing inter-period cheating altogether.

Shapiro’s action against the cheating will serve to create a fair experience for her students. The students in her later periods will no longer be at an advantage due to the timing of their classes. They will have the same test and quiz experience as early period students, completely unaware of the test questions. Shapiro’s students will be forced to truly prepare for the material that will be on tests and quizzes, instead of relying on information from other students.

According to Shapiro, another step she took to combat the cheating was a talk on values, respect and integrity with her classes. In having these talks, Shapiro hopes that her students will reconsider their actions in sharing test and quiz material and understand the gravity of cheating. Shapiro took a necessary and important step in teaching her students to place value in morality and honesty over a test or quiz grade. This step alone may not be enough to dissuade students from sharing test and quiz information with their friends and classmates, but it does establish what Costa teachers expect of their students.

According to Shapiro, students most likely feel the need to cheat due to the pressure from other classes. Students are exposed to stress and pressure constantly to the point where some students value their grades over their integrity and hard work. Teachers need this open-ended communication with students in order to properly understand the pressure they are faced with and create a plan to combat cheating with them.

The AP Biology classes have two different versions of each test, meaning they each have the same questions but in different orders. According to AP Biology teacher Danny Sponaugle, having two different tests for each of the periods would make it difficult to properly weigh the tests for the class. The two tests would have to be made at the same difficulty level for each period, but with completely different questions.

A future solution Sponaugle hopes for is to have students take a 60 question tests on the computer. The computer would be inputted with 80 questions of equal difficulty and would then randomly select 60 questions of the 80 for each individual student. This method would also prevent inter-period cheating and would provide a fair testing experience for every student, no matter the period.The computer test also does not produce extra work for teachers that wish to make different tests for all of their periods.

While creating different tests and quizzes for periods provides extra work for teachers, it is the only effective way to prevent students from cheating. It also promotes a harder work ethic in students to study all of the material instead of what they are told is on the tests and quizzes. With various tests and quizzes, students will be forced to learn the material thoroughly.