Portfolios, demonstrations, exhibitions, displays, and video attestations all challenge traditional test theory, which is focused on individuals in isolation. However, teachers are expected to work collaboratively and resolve problems within a social context. Instead of limiting collaboration when evaluating a teacher's site-based portfolio,…

College administrators may use state and federal law and disciplinary policy to prevent selling and/or purchasing prefabricated term papers. The federal government may enjoin term-paper companies' activities involving use of the mails for fraudulent purposes. States may enjoin sale of term papers violating education or criminal codes. (MSE)

With a recent court decision, defamation joins plagiarism, copyright infringement, and scientific fraud as grounds for litigation against academic reporters, universities, and other research institutions. Research institutions should maintain high research standards and learn about defamation law, and may need to adopt policies to ensure accurate…

Practical and effective methods for detecting copying of multiple-choice test responses have been available for many years. These methods have been used routinely by large admissions and licensing testing programs. However, these methods are seldom applied in the areas of standardized or classroom testing in schools or colleges, and knowledge…

When multiple-choice answer sheets are printed in the latent-image format, students may be required to select alternatives until they identify the correct one. This provides immediate feedback and permits use of more complicated test formats, but it also introduces novel ways to cheat and may engender substantial anxiety in test-takers unless…

Cohen and Hyman's response contains several misunderstandings of the original article by Mehrens and Kaminski. One frequently wishes to make inferences to a domain from a test, but teaching a specific performance and testing for that performance does not allow for a domain inference. (SLD)

Methods for detecting copying of multiple-choice test responses are reviewed and compared with respect to their effectiveness and the practicality of their application for groups of varying sizes. Reasons why effective detection methods are seldom applied in standardized and classroom testing are discussed. (SLD)

A survey conducted in nine international schools in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and Germany and two U.S. schools shows that cheating is widespread in middle-level schools. The most common means of cheating involve copying, plagiarism, and crib sheets. Many teachers either overlook possible transgressions or fail to spell out consequences. Schools…

An alternative to traditional solutions to academic cheating is proposed which provides a systematic institutional strategy stressing academic and professional integrity, encourages students to actively ensure academic integrity, and administers swift and fair punishment to violators. Implications are drawn for dental education and development of…

A legal approach to due process in cases of college student cheating is outlined. Issues discussed include severity of the misconduct, need for informal vs. formal procedures, the due process paradigm as reflected in relevant court litigation, and steps in application of the paradigm (preliminary steps, notice and hearing procedures).(MSE)

A Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to enforcing an admissions rule was taken in one master's degree program in lieu of punishing students for infraction. Prevention became possible only after TQM techniques revealed the causes of rule violation. Follow-up shows no new rule infractions for several academic terms. (MSE)

As colleges and universities increasingly seek for-profit corporate sponsors for their research programs, collaboration may be complicated by differential missions leading to potential conflicts of interest. Ethical issues include corporate influence on research topics, secrecy and publication restrictions, patent ownership, unfavorable…

As states have pushed to adopt high-stakes assessments, critics say the number of cheating incidents among educators has risen dramatically. Tying improvements to cash bonuses has not helped. Stretching rules to show improvement can become the norm, if superintendents don't promulgate zero-tolerance cheating policies. (MLH)

Discussion of scientific misconduct, particularly plagiarism, explores the legal issues and compares the processes by which the Office of Research Integrity and the National Science Foundation conduct investigations and evaluate misconduct allegations. Relationships between allegations of plagiarism, copyright infringement, and theft of…

This article argues that, to be effective and ethical organizations, colleges and universities should develop and implement codes of conduct and staff training programs in business ethics and fraud prevention, which are most logically managed by the internal audit department of the institution. (MSE)