The Government Accountability Office has advised the US Secretary of Education (PDF) that in the past two school years, 40 states detected potential cheating on standardized exams given to public school students, 33 states confirmed at least one instance of cheating, and 32 canceled or invalidated the results for individual students, schools, or districts because of cheating.
The GAO collected data from the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years by administering an online survey. Every state responded to the survey, and the Department of Education has since released a report from a symposium earlier this year that describes what it considers the best practices in test security. In the survey, the majority of states had indicated they would find such a report helpful.
The Department of Education has provided states with more than $2 billion over the last 11 years to develop and administer standardized math and reading tests, as well as science tests. Standardized testing has been in the news more as the Obama administration encourages states to tie teacher evaluations to student growth and as high-profile cheating scandals in Atlanta and a few other cities come to light.
For the future, the GAO study warns all 50 states that as online exams become more common, new security and cheating risks will likely pop up, including threats from program hackers and those who gain unauthorized access to networks and test score databases.
