Hank Sanders , The New York Times; Five Charged in Cheating Scandal That Helped Over 200 ‘Unqualified’ Texas Teachers
"More than 200 “unqualified teachers” in Texas were able to get jobs or promotions at schools across the state under a board scheme in which impersonators were paid to take more than 400 certification exams for them, prosecutors said this week."
Alyson Klein , Education Week via GovTech; Students Weigh Ethics of Using AI for College Applications
"About a third of high school seniors who applied to college in the 2023-24 school year acknowledged using an AI tool for help in writing admissions essays, according to research released this month by foundry10, an organization focused on improving learning.
About half of those students — or roughly one in six students overall — used AI the way Makena did, to brainstorm essay topics or polish their spelling and grammar. And about 6 percent of students overall—including some of Makena's classmates, she said — relied on AI to write the final drafts of their essays instead of doing most of the writing themselves.
Meanwhile, nearly a quarter of students admitted to Harvard University's class of 2027 paid a private admissions consultant for help with their applications.
The use of outside help, in other words, is rampant in college admissions, opening up a host of questions about ethics, norms, and equal opportunity.
Top among them: Which — if any — of these students cheated in the admissions process?
For now, the answer is murky."
"To Maurice Schweitzer, a University of Pennsylvania professor, it seemed logical to team up with Francesca Gino, a rising star at Harvard Business School. They were both fascinated by the unseemly side of human behavior — misleading, cheating, lying in order to profit — and together, they published eight studies over nearly a decade.
Now, Schweitzer wonders if he was the one being deceived."
JACQUELINE GANUN , NPR; Accounting giant Ernst & Young admits its employees cheated on ethics exams
Ernst & Young, one of the top accounting firms in the world, is being fined $100 million by federal regulators after admitting its employees cheated on their ethics exams.
For years, the firm's auditors had cheated to pass key exams that are needed for certified public accountant licenses, the Securities and Exchange Commission found. Ernst & Young also had internal reports about the cheating but didn't disclose the wrongdoing to regulators during the investigation.
"It's simply outrageous that the very professionals responsible for catching cheating by clients cheated on ethics exams of all things," Gurbir S. Grewal, director of the SEC's Enforcement Division, said in a release.
The fine is the largest penalty ever imposed by the SEC on an audit firm.
The CPA, or certified public accountant, licenses are needed by auditors to evaluate the financial statements of companies and ensure they are complying with laws.
However, the SEC says that a "significant number" of Ernst & Young audit professionals specifically cheated on the ethics component of the CPA exams that were required for their accounting jobs."
Jaclyn Peiser, The Washington Post ; A professor found his exam questions posted online. He’s suing the students responsible for copyright infringement.
"Now, Berkovitz is suing the unknown students from the Orange, Calif., university for copyright infringement. In a lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the professor alleges the students “infringed Berkovitz’s exclusive right to reproduce, make copies, distribute, or create derivative works by publishing the Midterm Exam and Final Exam on the Course Hero website without Berkovitz’s permission.”"
, Toronto Star; Law Society of Ontario cancels upcoming bar exams after content allegedly leaked to some candidates
"The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has cancelled upcoming bar exams slated to begin Tuesday after examination content was allegedly “improperly accessed” by some candidates.
More than 1,000 candidates were set to write the online examinations, which were scheduled from March 8 to 11 and March 22 to 25, the LSO said in a statement issued Saturday.
“This decision has been made as a result of information the Law Society has received which strongly indicates that examination content has been improperly accessed by some candidates, compromising the integrity of the upcoming examination period,” the LSO said.
The breach also affects candidates who had already written the exam."
"Cheating and ethical lapses are pervasive, from soccer stars evading taxes and state-sanctioned doping in the Olympics, to companies giving lip-service to social responsibility while gouging customers, Stern said Nov. 18 at a forum about business ethics and leadership hosted by Columbia Business School... “It’s too easy,” he said. “Every company has a head of corporate responsibility, you form a foundation, you give all your employees Friday off to do charity, blah, blah, blah. Then you fix prices at a business association meeting.” He took aim at Facebook, which said it has misreported how many people view its ads, and allowed the spread of fake news on its platform. The directors of venture-capital backed companies need to speak up, he said. “Where are the boards?” he said."
"Course Hero has in the past banned users for repeatedly violating its honor code -- which states, “[Don’t] use Course Hero materials or tutors to complete assignments when instructed not to use outside help” -- and its terms of service, though Mork did not say how many times users can violate those policies. The company also uses technology that detects and blocks students from posting content that has previously been removed in response to a DMCA takedown request. The technology doesn’t detect copyright violations before the material is posted, however. In Gollin’s case, for example, each page of the homework assignment was marked with copyright language."
"What struck most people first was why the Romolo Capranica primary school in Amatrice had been destroyed. After all, the city paid more than €700,000 in 2013 to renovate the structure, including high-tech anti-seismic features that are supposed to be in place in any public building. But when investigators looked up the building code records, the seals and stamps that proved compliance were apparently faked and fudged. In essence, the documents meant to ensure anti-seismic protection measures were installed in a primary school in an earthquake zone had been faked. The school fell because someone had cheated the system. And now, Italy’s chief anti-Mafia prosecutor, Franco Roberti, is warning that, if left to its own devices, the mob will strike again and infiltrate the eventual rebuilding contracts in the area."
"Business is booming right under colleges’ noses. It’s not just papers and assignments anymore. Now it’s the whole course."
"The move follows a report by NBC’s “Today” show early this month that found Penny Arcade brand coin-counting machines it tested at various TD Bank branches were cheating customers by up to 15 percent. After counting the coins, the machines spit out a receipt redeemable at the teller window. Toronto-based TD Bank, with U.S. headquarters in Cherry Hill, N.J., quickly removed the machines from service... On Tuesday, TD Bank was sued on behalf of hundreds of thousands of customers allegedly shortchanged by the machines. The suit, filed in state court in Manhattan by Jeffrey Feinman, claims Mr. Feinman put in $26 worth of coins but got a receipt for $25.44. A second time he deposited $31 and received $30.05, the suit claimed. TD Bank declined comment on pending litigation, which charges the bank with fraud, negligence, breach of contract and false advertising."
