Fifty-four percent said they stole material off the Internet for schoolwork. Reported cheating incidents by private school students were lower than those in public schools. While we're hoping no one cheated to get there, America's ninth-graders outscored their counterparts in 27 other countries in total civics knowledge according to a new analysis of 1999 data released by the National Center for Education Statistics. For more on this good news, go to the NCES Web site . The tiff over high-stakes tests goes on.
Proponents say tying test results to graduation bolsters student knowledge.
But in some circles, high stakes tests appear to create more dropouts. While no definitive data yet exist, high school graduations are down in North and South Carolina, Georgia and New Mexico, four of the 24 states that now have graduation tests in place. A Christian Science Monitor story this week looks at the dropout link. This Web site may tell you. If so, you'll want to take a look at Mathematically Sane, a new Web site that represents a national grass-roots group of teachers, administrators, teacher educators, parents and mathematicians concerned about the future of math education.