Test Security

What Is Test Fraud?

Test fraud can be broken down into two areas: test cheating and theft. Test cheating is the actual act of an individual or group of individuals who obtain unauthorized exam content prior to a testing event, giving them an unfair advantage because they have prior knowledge of the content to be tested. Examples of cheating can include a person copying the answers from another test taker, a teacher helping a student with the answers during a test, and an individual taking a test on someone else’s behalf (proxy test taking). Test theft is the actual stealing of exam content. This act can occur by memorizing test content and then transcribing it for later use, downloading items from a test delivery system, stealing test booklets, or taking pictures of actual test questions. When test theft occurs, it is for the purpose of sharing or selling the test content, so that others may benefit from gaining prior knowledge before the test event.

Test cheating and theft are on the rise. Research studies by Rutgers University professor Donald McCabe suggest that graduate business college students tend to cheat more than their nonbusiness counterparts and that more cheating is going on because today’s students do not consider what they are doing, cheating. There are occurrences of cheating and fraud that result from the unintended use of test scores, for example, tying school accountability and teacher performance to student assessment. There were many states and districts caught up in cheating scandals that stemmed from federal requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Under this act, schools and districts were required to show school improvement through annual statewide K–12 assessments or be subject to disciplinary action plans and sanctions. As a result, some school personnel coached students during testing, changed student answers, and identified low-performing students for noninclusion in testing events, in the name of making their school or district look like they were high performing. In 2015, the enactment of Every Student Succeeds Act introduced different school accountability measures, but it is unclear whether these new measures will drive similar behaviors.

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