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October 23, 2003Come on, man--at least cheat smartly!
For your consideration, the first three lines out of an article in today’s Boston Herald:
“The Lawrence school superintendent who failed an English test his teachers had to take is off the hook. Superintendent Wilfredo T. Laboy finally passed the Communication and Literacy Skills Test, reportedly with flying colors. Laboy told Lawrence Mayor Michael J. Sullivan by phone Monday that he received a 100 percent passing grade on the written portion of the test that had given him so much trouble in his previous three tries.”
Curious, that. He failed the test the first three times, and aced it on the fourth try? You’ll have to forgive my skepticism.
I had a student one year who managed an 85% on the semester final. As that number was between four and five times higher than his quiz/test average hitherto that moment, I was a little concerned. My concern only grew when his score and individual answers matched those of the girl who had been sitting next to him. I couldn’t discount the exam, as I hadn’t acted on my cheating hunches during the test, but the student’s grade still wasn’t high enough to pass.
My former student’s cheating ultimately didn’t do him any good, but Superintendent Laboy profits much from this inexplicably sudden and supreme command of English—he gets to keep his job (a job that has included, one should know, putting teachers who failed the same exact test on unpaid leave while his failing butt kept drawing a salary). It all seems mighty peculiar…
Posted by patrick at October 23, 2003 02:30 AM
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