As school cheating scandals continue to make headlines, the need for secure testing measures has never been greater. Despite the debate over standardized tests, these assessments provide invaluable  information on student growth, and with developing technology may become safer than ever before.

Experts assert that technology is changing tests, making them less vulnerable to forgery or tampering. Computerized Adaptive Testing or CAT improves accuracy of assessment and claim to eradicate the possibility of cheating. By using algorithms to choose test items based on individuals students’ answers, no two students take the same CAT test. While educators can look at past forms to understand what will be on the test, and to impart this information to students, they cannot know exactly what the test will ask.
 

CAT limits teachers’ ability to erase incorrect answers, and students’ ability to share questions. It also accommodates for students with handicaps through text to speech, text magnifications, and speech to text options – a service which formerly teachers provided, making it easier to inappropriately administer. CAT also saves schools money that would be spent on surveillance, to inhibit cheating.  Additionally, CAT is proven to have greater reliability for students, takes less time to complete than paper-based tests, and improves the quality of assessments.
 

“Experts will debate the merits of accountability policies for years to come,” said Huffington Post authors Joshua Bleiberg, center coordinator for the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings and Darrell West, vice president of Governance Studies and the founding director for the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. “Assessment policy involves a series of tradeoffs including the relationship between teacher evaluation and cheating. The debate though, should not derail improves to existing systems. CAT is secure, cheap, and accurate, and every student and teacher deserves those benefits.”
 

Has your school adopted CAT? How do you insure tests are free from falsification?
Comment below.

 

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