It's not that asians do well, it's that they are cheaters

[antares]

From a supposed teacher who works in Silicon Valley.

Sooooo (thinly veiled) biased. I don't know much about actual cheating statistics, just that clicking through the blog the author is reallllly biased and prejudiced and maybe borderline (soft) racist

educationrealist.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/asian-immigrants-and-what-no-one-mentions-aloud/?relatedposts_exclude=3908

[Conuly]

It isn't much of a surprise if the majority of high schoolers who cheat are at prestigious schools. When you tell kids that a test is really very important, and that they can do well on tests because they are smart (but if they don't, I guess they aren't) and good grades mean good colleges mean a good job mean a good life - well, yeah. If the test is that important, why NOT try to win at all costs? Losing is awful! In contrast, I can't see that much pressure being put on the kids in the average or remedial classes. And if they do cheat, does anybody really care? Wow, they managed to cheat their way into a passing grade in the dummy math class. Whoop-de-doo. There could be absolutely rampant cheating in those classes, but nobody is looking in that direction.

And if a high-achieving, prestigious school is 45% or 70% or 95% Asian (though when "Asian" includes groups as disparate as Chinese, Pakistanis, Koreans, and Iranians, you have to wonder what common cultural features they all have), it's hard to be shocked if 45% or 70% or 95% of the cheaters are Asian.

Some of the students at majority-white schools say a particular form of cheating "would never fly" at their school? Well, maybe that means there isn't any cheating there, or maybe it means there is but it uses different methods, or maybe it means that honest students are often unaware of how much dishonesty is going on among their classmates. (And, correspondingly, dishonest students might assume all their classmates do the same things they do.)

[2xx1xy1JD]

Good point that cheating is most likely to take place among students who actually care about their marks. To a certain extent, it will be found any time that the stakes are high enough, and an opportunity presents itself.

There was a highly publicized cheating scandal at the University of Toronto law school several years ago. The law school is less Asian than the other faculties.

OTOH, cheating is far more difficult in other faculties. In medicine, for example, you are evaluated on performance. Cheaters or frauds tend to be revealed pretty soon.

Yes, the article is racist. If you are going to make claims like that, don't refer to stereotypes. Use actual evidence - which I suspect is non-existent.

[antares]

It's all speculation, there's no statistics are hard evidence posted. All speculation, 'anecdotes' stereotypes, confirmation bias. And I am one to think that SOME stereotypes may be rooted in some truth. However by definition stereotypes are not an indicator of an ACTUAL fact, ACTUAL average, ACTUAL phenomena, but a PERCEPTION towards a phenomena. Advancing an argument using stereotypes is stupid. Better to use actual statistical facts, if any.

What a fucking coward. He's a teacher in Silicon Valley, keeping his blog completely anonymous. I could understand why, which is also why I think he's a coward. Scroll through his blog if anyone wants to see why. He's one of those "race realist" "reactionary" groupies part of that same sphere that many blogs in "Quiverfull of Misogyny" fall into.

Reposted in case no one feels like clicking on the link:

To continue my thoughts on college admissions and Asians:

Many people, reading of the clear discrimination against Asians, become all righteous, thinking of those poor, hardworking Asians. Come to America, work hard, and look how the system screws them.

But that reaction ignores the stereotype.

The stereotype, delicately put: first and second generation Chinese, Korean, and Indian Americans, as well as nationals from these countries, often fail to embody the sterling academic credentials they include with their applications, and do not live up to the expectations these universities have for top tier students.

Less delicately put: They cheat. And when they don’t cheat, they game tests in a way utterly incomprehensible to the Western mind, leading to test scores with absolutely zero link to underlying ability. Or both. Or maybe it’s all cheating, and we just don’t know it. Either way, the resumes are functional fraud.

Is it true for every single recent Chinese, Korean, or Indian immigrant? Of course not. I know far more recent Asian immigrants than most people, a fair number of whom effortlessly exceed their academic records, with style points to boot. That doesn’t make the stereotype any less relevant. Or less accurate, as stereotypes go.

There are two aspects to this story. First is the behavior of recent Asian immigrants who live in America. That part is largely anecdotal, because reporters are, as always, reluctant to be specific about race. Second, the behavior of Asians back in their native countries. Here, reporters are happy to describe behavior in great detail, because hey, it’s not race, it’s culture. Moreover, colleges have done a reasonable amount of research documenting the prevalence of cheating and “cultural differences†in Asian immigrant college students.

This piece will focus on recent Asian immigrants and cheating. I have been working on various aspects of Asians and college admissions for over six weeks now, and tried to figure out the best way to organize the chunks. Nothing ever seemed completely right, and I’ve got some several thousand words in addition to this one that may take me months to organize. I hope at some point to put together a piece on Asian nationals and cheating, but the one that’s hardest of all is the second part of the stereotype, the one that says okay, so they don’t always cheat—maybe—but even if they don’t, their test scores don’t match what we consider reality.

I will include a number of reported stories that back up my own experiences, as well as excerpt from School of Dreams, by Edward Humes, the story of a few years at Whitney High, a selective California public high school that is almost entirely Asian (as early as 1987, it was 45% Asian). Note again that this behavior is of recent Asian immigrants, kids who either came here very young or were born to recent immigrants. Humes’ book specifices this, and the aforementioned Wall Street Journal article also specifies that the troubles are with recent immigrants.

And so, cheating.

Cheating is a big problem in American high schools, and doom and gloom stories like this emphasize that high-achiever cheating is on the rise. Well, Asian immigration is on the rise, too, and Asian schoolkids are a huge percentage of high achieving kids. Is there any correlation, or is it rude to ask?

Teachers will tell you that high achiever cheating has a distinctly demographic tilt, which you can find in the stories if you look for it. Scratch the surface of any cheating story and odds are well above average the school or the class in question is disproportionately Asian. Journalists carefully scrub cheating stories of any racial references—unless it’s rich whites. In fact, it’s obvious that the SAT scandal was first thought to be “white†kids, which is why the reports contained names. Then it turned out they are mostly Iranian Jews, first or second generation immigrant. Oops. Which is not to say that impersonation is the typical cheating profile for Eastern and Southern Asians. (Cheating by high ability black and Hispanic students is virtually unknown, both in my own experience and a complete dearth of reported stories. The major cheating scandals involving black and Hispanic students is done on behalf of the lowest performers, usually by teachers, usually being ordered to do so by administrators.)

Researchers categorize cheating in three ways: impersonation, collaboration, and prior knowledge.

First, and least likely for Asians in this country, is impersonation, the method used by the Great Neck SAT scandal and the Clarence Mumford case. Cheaters need lots of money, an imposter who can guarantee results, and an anonymous setting. The Mumford case was so extensive, I think, because teacher testing is anonymous and a passing score, as opposed to a high score, was the only thing needed. That, coupled with a whole bunch of existing teachers who couldn’t pass the test. While impersonation is common in China and India, the ETS/College Board spot maybe 200 cases of impersonation a year in the US—at least, they only admit to that many. According to this story, impersonation used to be an issue among college athletes, which makes sense (and would therefore involve low-ability blacks more than Asians).

Next formal cheating category is “collaborationâ€, which means that students engaged in the work—test usually, homework almost always—are getting answers from other students also doing the work at that time. We don’t call this “copying†anymore, because getting answers almost always involves the consent and, well, collaboration of the person who has the answers.

Collaboration stories that hit the news usually involve Advanced Placement tests. “Chaos cheatingâ€, as I call it, is nicely illustrated by the Mills High School story, in which the entire school’s AP scores were invalidated. While the first article only mentions one student with an Asian name, the student site protesting the decision has each student signing in by name, and the names are so Asian it’s funny, making it almost unnecessary to confirm that Mills is 60% Asian. The followup story has a revealing picture , and try playing “spot the white kid†with this video on the story.

Chaos cheating starts with a school screwup. The school doesn’t enforce security, sits the kids too close together, in circles or facing each other, directly against the rules. I know: what the hell does that have to do with the kids? They aren’t arranging this. At best, some kids are taking advantage of something that they had no control over.

Except.

From 2008 to 2013, I taught an AP US History survey course at two different SAT academies, for kids from around 20 schools, most of them 50% or higher Asian. I’ve been hearing from my APUSH students about exactly this scenario. I dismissed the first tale, thinking it absurd—any teacher knows how to proctor, particularly at the school in question, which had a long history of AP testing. Then I heard the story several more times from different kids, different schools, different review classes, always involving “Asian†schools or a heavily Asian testing population. I checked it against my white tutoring students, from a wide range of high schools, and the only ones who know of it also went to “Asian†schools. My Asian middle school students don’t know of it. The few Asian students I found who’d never seen it attended majority white or majority Hispanic schools—and they knew exactly what I was talking about, but told me that “wouldn’t fly†at their school.

The kids who know of it tell me some variation of this: the testers rush into the room as chaotically as possible, pull chairs close together, sit next to a buddy, whine like crazy when the proctor tries to impose seating order. The proctor sighs, exhorts them not to cheat, and pretty much turns over control of the class to the students. At that point, the kids can quietly discuss answers, text a buddy for help, and basically “collaborate†in any way needed.

Now, any decent, experienced proctor would never allow this. And yet, the “chaos cheating†stories that make the news all involve schools with a long history of high-achieving students taking all sorts of AP tests. The lax administration simply doesn’t make sense. But several major cheating stories of this nature on the AP have made the news in the past five or six years, in addition to the recent Mills High School story above. Here it is occurring at Skyline High School in Oakland, a majority minority school whose 22% Asian population likely comprises the bulk of the AP testers. Skyline’s cheating was limited to specific students, although it’s clear that the cheating couldn’t have occurred without incompetent or compliant proctors.

Another cheating scandal that involved both chaos cheating and texting occurred in Orange County, in which students were “allowed to talk, consult study aids, send text messages to friends and leave the room in groups during the exam†and we are supposed to believe that this was due to inexperienced proctoring in a high-achieving school in a wealthy district. I originally thought it was a primarily white student body. But back in 2008, Trebuco High freshmen through juniors were about 9% Asian, and CST scores reveal them to be a high achieving bunch. So about 150 Asians were juniors and seniors, figure perhaps a third of the AP testers were Asian. That’s plenty to create a chaos cheating situation. Ten students acknowledged cheating by texting, race omitted.

(AP Stats is a common cheating test. I mentioned this to a colleague, a third generation Japanese American, and he snorted, “Of course. That’s the math test for Asians who aren’t good at math.†and I suspect that this is, in fact, a good bit of the reason.)

The Mills students tried to sue. While the effort failed, the decision includes detailed descriptions of Mills, Skyline, and Trebuco testing procedures. It’s very hard to believe that Mills and Trebuco, in particular, were so blatantly incompetent.

I found one example involving the SAT, with the same seating violations and inattentive proctoring at a private school in Brooklyn, which surely should know better. When I first found Packer Collegiate Institute, I also intended to use it as a counterexample, of a case when chaos cheating involved a primarily white population, since the school is only 7% Asian. And it may–except the population is for K-12, and there’s no way to determine what age the Asians are. Are they all kindergartners? All high schoolers? Please note this article on Packer’s growing profile and resulting identity changes, paying particular attention to the increased competition, increased emphasis on college admissions, and changed atmosphere. The article doesn’t say “Asian student population has increasedâ€, but given the school is in Brooklyn, which has seen a tremendous increase in Asian population, I do wonder what percentage of the testers are Asian.

We move from AP tests to every day classes and those ruthlessly consistent straight As that comprise a good bit of the Asian academic dominance, and there, teachers and students both can tell you all about the cheating. Collaborative cheating also includes splitting up homework assignments and texting answers on in-school tests and quizzes. All but one of the schools mentioned in that story are heavily Asian (Piedmont is not). I wrote part of this article at a pizza parlor in the late afternoon, packed full of students from one of the local high schools (80% Asian), openly “collaborating†on homework in late August. And I don’t mean “what’s the answer to question 9″ but “we’re doing the front page, can you guys take the back side?†and then everyone switches answers. When you hear of Asian kids talking about all the hours they spend on homework, take it with a lot of salt. School of Dreams backs up the collaborative cheating on tests and the wasted time on homework.

The third category of cheating is “prior knowledgeâ€â€”students are aware of the specific content of the test before taking it. Again, prior knowledge cheating occurs in every day classes as a way to get As on tests, as well as national tests. Students take advantage of prior knowledge in school by breaking in or in some other way obtaining the tests ahead of time. Students caught in the widespread cheating scandal at Stuyvesant High had both provided answers for their strong tests and received them for their weak tests—and this NY Magazine article makes it clear that cheating at New York City’s top high school is endemic and common. Notice that none of the schools mention the dominant race of the students involved, but the hints are there and all but one of the example schools are over 40% Asian. The North Carolina school, Panther Creek High School, is only 16% Asian, but it’s in a highly educated area, the students involved were all top-tier, and did you notice the mention of parental pressure? Dead giveaway. Some kids use the TA gig—TA for a teacher, get copies of the tests ahead of time (or in some cases change the grades) and either trade or sell.

Then there’s the national high stakes prior knowledge cheating scandals, in which the parties get the actual test information, sometimes from the Korean hagwons who pay testers to take pictures of the test, sometimes from principal whose brother works at a SAT academy that clearly has a large Asian clientele. (Wait–Asian schools in Plano, Texas? No way. Way: 32% Asian. Yeah, surprised me, too.)

(I’ve been talking about my work for a few months, and a friend just came back from taking her acupuncture board tests, shocked. She noticed all the “Asian testers†(no idea what countries) were disappearing into a large conference room, so she meandered down that way and discovered that they were all in a room with rows of laptops, typing ferociously. They weren’t studying. They were entering the questions for later testers.)

Whitney High School’s admission test was, and probably is, highly vulnerable to prior knowledge cheating. Back in the 90s, a test prep company bought a copy of the custom test from McGraw Hill, who created the test. Then later problems occurred with the essay portion. Cheating was so rampant that Whitney now uses CST scores and an essay—and of course, a private tutoring company, one started by an Asian (Brian Tom), and been around for 30 years (you gotta wonder, at least I do, if it was involved in the earlier shenanigans) is happy to tutor kids on the essay and the CST—that is, the California state tests.

In writing this piece, I have steeped myself in cheating articles, and this discovery of CST tutoring still caught me by surprise. White kids also don’t really care about their low-stakes state test scores, whereas Asian kids can tell me exactly what their last state test results were, because their parents get quite annoyed if they aren’t Advanced in every subject. And for that reason, I can’t dismiss the possibility that Asian kids are cheating on their state tests, too. Given that many state tests are given over a six or eight week period, I very much wonder if the tutoring companies aren’t buying copies or pictures of tests off of willing administrators.

Two actual data points to consider: in my first article, I mentioned the increased number of Asians getting high verbal scores on the SAT, during a period when far more recent Asian immigrants and nationals are taking the test. I find this….unlikely, and the fact that it hasn’t been investigated is pretty stunning. I also find it odd that far fewer Asians take the ACT (69,000 in 2012) than take the SAT (192,500 in the same year), when the ACT is taken by more students. Both are suggestive of cheating patterns—although they may also simply reflect the fact that SAT “academies†are better versed in gaming the SAT.

Go to any Asian school and ask the teachers. Ask the kids. And when the kids complain that gosh, everyone thinks we all cheat, ask them why. I do, and the kids always look shamefaced.

As if this whole story weren’t troubling enough, it seems a great deal of the cheating is facilitated by the schools, which are run primarily by white people. It’s not the kids who are arranging the weak proctors, who fold when the kids protest at changing seats. It’s not the kids who are refusing to expel students who’ve cheated on tests. So why is that happening? (Interestingly, the white male Stuyvesant principal was replaced, as a result of the cheating scandal, by an Asian female principal.)

I wonder about payoffs. Given its prevalence in China, Korea, and India and given the cheating history I’ve just outlined, it’s hard not to wonder if the practice isn’t continuing. The parents certainly aren’t in any hurry to assimilate; they view American kids as negative influences. (and when the Asians in question say “Americanâ€, they mean “whitesâ€, as in this pretty horrifying tale of the fraud in Chinese English teaching industry.)

However, there’s also something that I don’t see reported much, but is common knowledge among teachers in Asian schools: many of the parents, who are recent immigrants, are ruthlessly and endlessly demanding. (This story focuses on Japanese parents in their native country, but remember, I’m talking about recent immigrants.) I know teachers who have quit Asian schools because of the 100 or more emails they get daily, demanding that grades be changed reconsidered. I can easily envision a proctor fearing the mountain of crap poured on his head if he held the line and forced kids to change seats, so instead just shrugs and hopes for the best. I’m not excusing it. But I can see it.

So is the cheating enabled by payoffs or fear? Beats me. Is this cheating just as prevalent among high-achieving whites and long-established Asian Americans? Not in my experience, which is not to say that these kids don’t cheat at all. But really rich kids usually have parents who buy their way in, and upper income “American†(and here, I mean all races) kids do not, as a rule, feel the same type of pressure that the recent Asian immigrant kids feel from their parents. Wouldn’t it be cool if reporters actually investigated, though?

As the universities know, these same kids go off to college and cheat some more.

I am not excusing their discrimination. I am attempting to explain it. Some version of this next occurs:

The universities look at the resumes of all Asian kids—recent immigrants, long-established natives, nationals—and know that many of them are fraudulent. They know that many of the kids they accept will not be able to function on their campus, whereas others will be able to get great grades so long as they cheat. They know that many of the students don’t have the inquisitive mind, genuine interest in intellectual pursuits that universities like to see in students (or pretend they do). But the universities want the great, if often fraudulent, stats to puff up their numbers for the rankings systems, to offset the athlete, the legacies (for privates), and the Kashawn Campbells (for publics). And so they try to minimize it, while still getting what they want—an improved profile, out of state fees for four years, instead of just one, while not overloading the campus with too many Asians.

That’s disgusting. But if that’s not bad enough—and it is—here’s the thing: the cheating I describe perpetuates two frauds. The first, of course, benefits the cheaters and their schools at both high school and university level. But the second perpetuates a much larger misconception: People really believe that our top high school students are taking ten-twelve AP courses during their high school year, maintaining 4.5 GPAs, and have the underlying knowledge one would expect from such study. But this almost certainly isn’t true. And once you understand the reality, it’s hard not to wonder about all the “weeding out courses†in organic chemistry and other brutal STEM college courses, the ones that Americans are abandoning in large numbers. The willingness to accept the cheating, to slap it on the wrist if that, is leading to lies that convince a lot of American kids that they aren’t smart enough for tough courses because they don’t cheat and aren’t aware that others are.

No one is going to pay any attention to this problem. Usually, Republicans/conservatives are willing to point out that supposedly racist beliefs are founded in valid stereotypes, and I find it pretty fascinating that they are practically gleeful about the discrimination against Asians, not because they approve, but because of what they see it revealing about Asian superiority, chortling at the need for “affirmative action for whitesâ€, practically spiking the ball in their declarations that whites just aren’t up for the task of competing in a global market. I was originally confused, but have concluded that any reason to razz white liberals for racism is too good to be missed. Plus, reformers jump on the bandwagon because they think the news will help them convince whites that American schools suck. Others, like Charles Murray, are simply bothered by the lack of consistent standards. Liberals just ignore the news.

But at base, the Asian discrimination and the Kashawn Campbell story both reveal that our college admissions system is corrupt, that they are using students to build the metrics they want, rather than finding the students they want. I don’t know what to do about it. Fortunately, though, I just set out to explain why the discrimination happens, not offer any answers.

[Note]

[2xx1xy1JD]

I reread the article. Yes, it's insanely racist.

Cheating will occur whenever you have both pressure to achieve and opportunity to cheat. Period. In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell discusses experiments that were done on cheating, and they found that there aren't really distinct groups of cheaters and non-cheaters. Instead, the degree of cheating depended on context - less opportunity = less cheating.

"Asian superiority" is not a Republican theory. It's a racist theory.

Now, "culture of hard work and focus on education esp. in the STEM fields tends to be associated with success" is a more likely theory. If you believe that, though, it puts the onus on you to actually work harder, regardless of your background. Racists can't stand that, so they have to come up with reasons that they aren't as successful. Some claim that Asians are "naturally" more suited to high STEM achievement, while others (like this guy) claim that it must be that they aren't REALLY that smart but just cheat a lot.

Unfortunately, it's not just fringe racists to buy into this sort of bullshit. Anti-Asian discrimination is rampant in the Ivy League schools.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/thewideang ... ntolerance

It echoes the anti-Jewish discrimination of the past (when universities either had explicit quotas or changed admissions criteria to favor non-Jewish applicants).

Unfortunately, we've had people some up to us, asking about admissions criteria and loudly moaning that their child can't possibly have a chance since University of Toronto has "all the Chinese". We usually respond by saying that no, it's not impossible since dh and his brothers managed to get into the medical and dental schools there. It is, however, necessary to put in a lot of hard work instead of thinking that you are a speshul snowflake who shouldn't have to do what students are every other background are expected to do. [What I haven't yet had the nerve to say is this: If you had half a brain cell, you'd realize that after 13 years in undergrad, med school and residency at U of T, we had a lot of Asian friends. You may be a parent of our kid's friend, or someone who knows our parents, but you don't mean nearly as much to us as our actual friends, whom you are now dissing. Your racism is pissing us off.]

[louisa05]

There is a lot of "cheating" built into our system, honestly. Race is not a factor.

I understand my experiences are anecdotal, but it is my sense that they are becoming a systemic problem with middle to upper class high achieving students.

If you want a concrete example of cheating as a culture in our education system, see the thread about a parent being told she should have done her child's elementary school project. Parents doing the work is becoming the norm on the lower levels, but it doesn't stop there. The school I last taught at (literally all white except for two Latino students) graduated a valedictorian in 2010 who had not done her own homework virtually ever. It was known to everyone that her mother wrote every paper, did every project, and consulted various experts when she could not complete the work. The most reviled moment, by the other students anyway, was when she got a physics professor to solve a difficult extra credit problem for daughter dear to be the only one to get it right.

As an English teacher, I learned very quickly that when a parent was vehemently protesting a grade on an essay or research paper, it was because s/he wrote it.

Yet no one calls that cheating because most school admins simply will not call out a parent.

[2xx1xy1JD]

Yes, it's interesting how he writes that "payoffs" must be involved, but doesn't mention the more obvious factors - if teachers are judged by the achievement of their students (as opposed to say, actual skills learned and improvement over the year), they will have an incentive to increase it by any means possible.

Re parent help: I was the one who started that thread, and my kids go to a private religious school with very few Asian students. So much for that stereotype.

[if we're going with anecdotes instead of evidence, here's mine: Asian parents in the Toronto area are likely to stress achievement, but less likely to directly do the work for the child, esp. if it involves language skills. They are, however, somewhat more likely to send the kids for tutoring and use services like Kumon. The Asian kids in my mom's French classes were not having their parents do their homework.]

[louisa05]

Yes, it's interesting how he writes that "payoffs" must be involved, but doesn't mention the more obvious factors - if teachers are judged by the achievement of their students (as opposed to say, actual skills learned and improvement over the year), they will have an incentive to increase it by any means possible.

Re parent help: I was the one who started that thread, and my kids go to a private religious school with very few Asian students. So much for that stereotype.

[if we're going with anecdotes instead of evidence, here's mine: Asian parents in the Toronto area are likely to stress achievement, but less likely to directly do the work for the child, esp. if it involves language skills. They are, however, somewhat more likely to send the kids for tutoring and use services like Kumon. The Asian kids in my mom's French classes were not having their parents do their homework.]

At both schools I taught full time at, the quickest way to impress admins was to have a classroom full of highly photogenic complicated projects. Never mind teaching skills and concepts. And the younger the kids, the more likely it is that the projects are done by parents in order to be impressive enough. I would guess that was the position your son's teacher was in with admins.

I taught both English and history. I had junior American history. My kids finished the year understanding how to analyze historical events and able to summarize most significant events in American history. Meanwhile, in tenth grade World history, they built medieval castles and quilted the flags of Europe (or their parents did). But when I got them, they could not explain feudalism at all, identify figures like Napoleon, Constantine, Elizabeth I, or name a single factor in the cause of World War I.

I'll let you guess which teacher between the two of us was most praised by both principals we worked under.

[Cleopatra7]

I really think that complex projects should be eliminated from schools, at least in the lower grades, precisely because it's obvious that the parents (usually the mom) do all the work. All teachers are really grading is how talented someone's mother is, and it's not possible for her to do the project in the first place unless she's a SAHM.

[louisa05]

I really think that complex projects should be eliminated from schools, at least in the lower grades, precisely because it's obvious that the parents (usually the mom) do all the work. All teachers are really grading is how talented someone's mother is, and it's not possible for her to do the project in the first place unless she's a SAHM.

That extends into the upper grades. Back when I was forced to assign them, I had high school kids who the FCS teacher assured me could hardly turn on a sewing machine or thread a needle show up with hand sewn items; kids who couldn't draw a stick figure when assigned to draw on a timeline or make a poster in the classroom turn in professional looking drawings, and so on and so forth.

I subbed in a sixth grade classroom this week where kids were completing a project in class (probably so parents would not do it) and needed so much hands on assistance that it was abundantly clear to me that they were not capable of doing what was assigned to them on their own. Educators need to remember that if the majority of students cannot do something without adult help, they are being asked to do something beyond their capabilities and it is unlikely that it is truly a learning experience. :angry-banghead:

[KitCatCadillac]

This made me think about the projects I did growing up. They were absolutely pathetic. Like my report on dolphins, where the diorama consisted of a shoe box with a vaguely dolphin-shaped lump of clay lying on the bottom. I felt so inadequate compared to my classmates' projects. But at least my project was my own, even if it looked like crap.

[Lily]

Poorly written and borderline racist or at least bitter, yes.

Without truth, no.

I live in a very heavily Asian (largely 1st/2nd gen Chinese and Indian; lots of Japanese people but most are 2nd, 3rd, 4th, even 5th gen and most are totally culturally assimilated, for better or worse) area and have seen a lot of this first hand, heard of the rest of it through hush-hush second hand talk.

The cheating of all varieties, from test fixing to parents doing their kids homework, is rampant if not standard any more. It does not go unnoticed by anyone in the academic community, whether or not they will admit it or not. Nor does the fact that many of these students get through Bachelor's level education this way only to fall flat on their face when asked to actually do something rather than cheat at worst or rote memorize disconnected facts at best.

Of course this is not an Asian problem, it's a problem with the American educational system and impacts all of the students to some degree, but it is more heavily concentrated with Asian students and certainly they know how to work the system better than other groups do on average, perhaps borne of necessity out of the intense cultural and parental pressures placed on them.

[Terrie]

Saying cheating is widespread and an issue = true. Saying it's an Asian issue = racist. We had an Eastern European exchange student when I was a kid who was shocked that people weren't (quietly) expected to cheat. It was one of those unspoken assumptions where they came from, to the point where teachers would write tests with the assumption that students would cheat. Really, some of the issues of cheating can be removed by changing the way we teach and test. Worried that some students are doing rote memorization to give them an advantage? Make the test open book and ask for more analysis. But that requires more work, and we want easy answers when it comes to education, not effective solutions.