Résumé Lies and Test Cheating Examined in Week’s Education News

Sep 8th, 2009 • Posted in: News

Cell phones increasingly a tool for cheating, says report, and the right of authorities to search phones is becoming an emerging constitutional issue

VARIOUS DATELINES
Several aspects of cheating were highlighted in the media last week. Among them:

• Desperate in the wake of a failing economy, more job seekers appear willing to stretch the truth on their résumés, according to a report from CBS News. As a result, more firms are requesting in-depth background checks from security firms and similar organizations. One expert interviewed for the CBS piece said that 96 percent of companies now do background checks, up from 66 percent just 10 years ago.
• A recent survey conducted by a group called Common Sense Media found that 35 percent of teens use their cell phone to cheat. According to a summary of the survey in HigherEdMorning.com, 26 percent store information on their cell phones and crib from it during tests, 25 percent text their friends asking for answers, and 17 percent take pictures of a test and send it to their friends. A quarter of the teens surveyed said they did not see such actions as cheating, according to the report. Rather, they viewed such practices as “helping.”
• The Mississippi ACLU filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last week, claiming that authorities who searched the cell phone of a middle school student acted improperly. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the school bans cell phone use by students and lets teachers and coaches confiscate the devices. A larger issue of national significance is whether the school district had the right to search the phone in the first place. District policy allows the administration to search phones for evidence of cheating or gang-related activity. The student in question was expelled after school officials said they found gang-related photos, according to the Chronicle, which notes that mobile phones have created a new body of case law regarding search and seizure — a collection of precedent that observers say is not only rapidly changing but inconsistent.

Sources: CBS News, Sep. 3 — San Francisco Chronicle, Sep. 2 — HigherEdMorning.com, Sep. 1.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Aug. 24 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 17 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 10 — Related Newsline story, May 4 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 20.

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One Response »

1. Ethics Newsline® » News » Education at Issue in Array of Ethics Stories on September 14th, 2009 at 6:07 pm:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, Sep. 8 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 24 — Related Newsline story, Aug. 10 [...]

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