Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, Maryland, was made famous by alum Darren Star (award winning producer, screenwriter) who created the television series Beverly Hills 90210 based on his Churchill High School experiences. Today, it's getting an extra share of media attention following the eruption of a scandal of Hollywood proportions.
The story of "computer grade hacking" broke Wednesday night by way of a pre-recorded phone message sent by the administration to the homes of the 2,100 students who attend the school.
That's actually how I heard about it - I am the parent of two Churchill High School students.
40 to 50 students were involved in the scheme to change grades. A small ring of students had allegedly obtained secret passwords for the grading system and were either selling the passwords (so students could change their grades on their own) or being paid to change student grades.
Some teachers in Montgomery County didn't hear about the grading scandal until two days later, on Friday morning, when they were told to change their passwords immediately.
"I put my grades in and then I immediately print out what I've input," said one Montgomery County teacher who wished to remain anonymous. "But I don't think a lot of teachers do this."
As with many public schools in the area and around the country, Churchill's grade tallying and reporting is done mostly, if not completely, on the computer. Teachers who are strapped with six classes of 25 to 30 students per class (that's 200 to 300 students a day) cut down on their workload in part by offering multiple-choice tests that are graded by a computer and also by reusing tests year after year. For this reason students are infrequently given back hard copies of their assignments or tests (to prevent cheating the following year) to show their parents or guardians. This system, while good for the teachers is not good for the students. It means, first, that students cannot actually learn from their mistakes because they don't know where they made those mistakes and, second, that parents have little or no idea how their kids are actually faring at school. Ed-line, an on-line grading warehouse that reports grades only, becomes their hollow yardstick.
Even before this scandal broke out I, along with many other parents, had major problems with this appalling system.
Somewhere in the ethernet between where teachers file their grades and where those grades appear on Ed-line, the students who hacked into the grading system made their changes.
"Without paper-proof of grades, how do we know whose grades were changed?" asks one parent of two Churchill students. According to the Washington Post sources say that finding the original grades may be difficult "because teachers at the school no longer keep separate log books of their grades."
After hearing the recorded message reporting the abuse of the grading records, questions about the incident could be heard from DC office buildings to grocery stores in the suburbs. "What if these kids lowered the grades of students they didn't like out of spite?" asked the parent of a senior and a freshman. "How do we know? How will we know?"
Even the television series Beverly Hills 90210 (originally entitled Potomac 20854, according to rumors around town) didn't use a computer hacking theme in the 1990s version or in the 2008 spin-off that follows a new group of high school students. Perhaps that's because a grade changing scandal didn't seem sexy enough. Or perhaps it's just that it was too fantastical.
In this D.C. suburb, home to many famous inside-the-beltway types including former CIA chief George Tenet and political activist and actress Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), an area jaded by constant adult-variety political scandals, residents are shocked by this child-centric scandal and it has thousands in Potomac and the surrounding towns very worried.
"If this can happen at Churchill High School it could happen or might already be happening at any of the other schools in the area," said the mother of two Churchill High School students.
The problems for students, parents and teachers in Montgomery County and at Churchill High School in particular, which brags a 98-percent graduation rate and SAT scores that are the second highest in the country, are far reaching and the questions are limitless. How many students are involved? How many students were affected? How long has this grade-fixing been going on? When will the entire story emerge and how bad will it turn out to be? And, ultimately, how will this problem be fixed?
"What if a child didn't ask to have their grades changed but the students who did this decided to do them a favor?" asked one parent. "Will that child be implicated? How do we know who to believe. How do we know which students knowingly let their grades be changed and which didn't know about it? How do we know anything? There's no paper trail."
According to sources, this scandal was discovered when one of the involved students changed his class grade from a C to an A. Somehow the teacher noticed the discrepancy, perhaps thinking he'd input the grade incorrectly, and changed the grade back to a C. The student then allegedly changed the C back to an A and the teacher reported to school officials what he may have thought was a glitch in the system.
All this happened earlier this week, but according to a number of parents many of their children have known about the grade hacking for some time now. Some could even name the hackers before their names became public knowledge.
Some students told their parents they were asked if they wanted their grades changed and today they are, to say the least, relieved that they said 'no.' Were these children parented better than the hackers and those who went with them to the dark side? Fair or not, there's no denying that many of us are asking that exact question.
Other parents say their children were completely shocked by the news saying they had no idea this was going on in their school.
In a world rocked by constant, highly-publicized adult scandals, whether it's Jack Abramoff, Bernie Madoff, John Edwards or even Tiger Woods, what could these children have been thinking? Have they not seen that lying leads to a nasty and very messy dead-end? Did they really think they would get away with the grade changes, graduate from Ivy League colleges and go on to lead pristine lives of great success and greater wealth? Or did they not care if they got caught thinking only about the immediate results, satisfied to enjoy the ride for as long as it lasted?
Could a boring suburban existence have inspired them to risk everything their parents had neatly and generously provided? Or was it, in fact, the high-pressure environment of an elite school system that pushed them over the edge?
Is this ultimately going to become the convenient excuse for these students and then the catalyst that will require the entire educational system to be reassessed?
"If they feel like they have to resort to this," concluded one parent, "then there's something wrong with our school system."
"I wish I knew why they did this, was it to be funny or was it really because they felt so much pressure to get into college?" asks one Montgomery County teacher. "It's very sad if the kids feel this much pressure that they need to go about things this way."
Is there a lesson here? Or, will some great defense lawyer sweep in and declare temporary insanity caused by an overwhelming pressure to succeed?
Surely this story will continue to unfold and like so many scandals of our time, will one-day turn into a made for television movie.
Follow Cari Shane Parven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/insidebeltway
Go ahead a cheat; you'll get rewarded for it. That's what they learn. That's the central lesson in DC.
Listening to inside-the-beltway types wax moralistic has always been a bitter joke. The parents are shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you.
How shocked can they *really* be?
And yeah, in case you were wondering...I'm a WCHS alum, too. The parking lot of that school looks like an exotic car dealership, so don't wonder tooooo much about what values the kids that currently attend are taking in via osmosis.
Apples don't fall far the tree, you see.
Despite the many instances of this in other places (in the next high school over, BTW) she provided no other research, just complained about the one school. Did the reporter report this to advance herself? Or was it just a venting? Since her post she has been on TV regarding this topic. Nice publicity for her, I guess. Not good for the school her kids are in. I hope they're not seniors, anxiously waiting to hear from colleges, who might after all of this publicity may say "no thanks" .
Those in the media have a serious responsibility regarding the consequences of their posts.
Is this the next step for high school students who break into computers and change grades? What are we doing about our own brand of computer hackers? Ignoring them? Slapping them on their wrists? Not informing colleges they’ve already been accepted to about their “transgressions?”
I find this hacking into school computers and changing grades VERY DISTURBING and I hope everyone involved, from parents, to teachers, to school administrators, to mayors, to governors, to our Secretary of Education, to our President, is taking it as SERIOUSLY as they should be. .
"If [the students] feel like they have to resort to this," concluded one parent, "then there's something wrong with our school system."
Because, of course, when young people in a super-rich and overwhelmingly white neighborhood like Potomac commit crimes to try to game the system even further in their favor, it can't possibly be their fault. No, we must blame their environment, their school system, or society. Can't help but think how different the law enforcement reaction would be if this had happened at Paint Branch, Kennedy, Wheaton or any other east county high school.
"Could a boring suburban existence have inspired them to risk everything their parents had neatly and generously provided? Or was it, in fact, the high-pressure environment of an elite school system that pushed them over the edge?....Surely this story will continue to unfold and like so many scandals of our time, will one-day turn into a made for television movie."
Hmm, I wonder who might be interested in writing the screenplay? The reporter already seems very apt to dig as much drama out of this story. The touches of what "their parents had neatly and generously provided" and "the high pressure environment of an elite school system," further elucidates the sense of typical, west county self-importance with which she approaches the entire story. And the claim (dream) that an aspect of her own life will one day become a movie just takes the cake.
These concerns could have been easily addressed had the reporter bothered to talk to anyone besides her fellow parents. First of all, there is a paper trail: the actual graded papers. Just because they weren't sent home to parents does not mean the teachers do not have them. It would have been useful if the reporter had inquired as to how many teachers kept these papers, then we would know if there was an issue with teachers throwing away papers too quickly, which is something that could be addressed very easily and promptly. Secondly there are the computer logs which often have saved backed up copies from previous dates of the data stored on the network, thus one could easily see if a large number of grades had been changed at one time, particularly if it was many weeks after the assignment was initially graded, by comparing the current data to the backup copies made at previous dates. So there is, quite likely, both a physical and digital paper trail that can be made readily available.
The two things have nothing to do with each other. SATs and other standardized tests have used scantrons for decades without having to reuse the exact same test, and regular hand-graded tests have been recycled by teachers too busy or too lazy to create new ones every year for centuries. A reporter should not let their personal qualms with how much work is sent home by the teachers of their children become another excuse to rail against everything being "too computerized these days."
How much they send home is a personal decision of that teacher and has nothing to do with the technology involved, and has even less to do with the actually issue here, which is the hacking of computer-stored grades (even hand graded test scores get put into a computer eventually). That being said there is a simple solution to this, without attacking effective tools like Ed Line that allow parents to see, in real time, their child's grades (broken down by specific assignments), their attendance, and their homework assignments (assuming the teacher has adequately utilized the technology and posts this information). Teachers need to back up their grades.
1. To me breaking the law is a problem . In 1972 five men were charged with attempted interception of telephone and other communications in the Nixon/Watergate Scandal. If that was against the law, I assume breaking into the school’s computer system is against the law.
2. In 1972, an election year, people were saying “It’s just politics.” Today, people are saying
"kids have always cheated". Accepting cheating is a problem.
3 Complaining about the tremendous stress placed on the students is a problem. Perhaps we should send our students to school in Japan so they can compare education workloads.
4. Class size is a problem for teachers and students.
5. Grade inflation is a problem. If Obama4Us's comments re grade inflation is wide-spread, then Americans are in deep trouble.
According to Potomacmom “Students who have been removed from MCPS will not be punished at all. They are just transfering to another school district and they are beyond MCPS' reach.
Again, I hope these problems will be addressed by the community, by the state, by the government. If this next generation is to compete in the world we’d better fix these problems immediately.
But let's look at Churchill for a moment. Yes, this is a bad incident - but at least the cheaters got caught, and this is being taken seriously by the school system. Moreover, the latest rumors are that the cheaters are faced with at least suspension/expulsion (based on their involvement); two kids have already dropped out of the school system. Charges have not been ruled out.
It's also been an opportunity to reiterate to my own two kids that cheating doesn't pay.
Let's not trash a school that is so wonderful in so many ways. This could have - and does - happen all over. Most of the kids at Churchill work honestly and hard for their grades.
Now, let's rewind. It's 1970 and our teacher at Sherwood High School is absent for the last few days of the final marking period. The sub must be upwards of 80 years old and is sleeping in a corner of the room. One of the Juniors in the class breaks out the teacher's hard-copy, 'ole fashioned grade book and begins awarding inflated grades to his classmates. Cheating is hardly a modern phenomena. Our KNOWLEDGE of the incidents and incessant, often erroneous gossip and jealous aspersions IS due to cyberspace.
I cast the ball in your court: Do you know what's on your student's Facebook? My Space? I-phone, I-this, and E-that? If you answer "yes," I'd say it's 99% likely that your head is buried in the sand. Welcome to the millenium! The cookie jar is in the center of the table and our civic responsibility is to instill ethics in our families that will hopefully establish a character that withstands temptation when tried. There is no excuse for what these young people chose to do and they WILL bear the consequences, as has been, is, and will remain the system's standard. Say a prayer for their souls, tonight, and be thankful that the child who strayed wasn't yours.
These comments are uninformed. First, MCPS sets class size limits. Core subjects cap at 28 and MCEA--the teacher's collective bargaining organization--ensures that teachers have 5 classes per day. Second, the "robocalls" go out to EVERYONE who correctly records and returns the student information forms distributed at the beginning of each school year. Those who did not receive a call should notify the school and submit or correct the contact information. Third, do you really believe that a school system as sophisticated and well-respected as MCPS doesn't back up data both at the school level and the system level routinely? Do you really believe that teachers are not vigilant about grade records? For goodness sake, the grades are reported immediately on Edline throughout each day! What could be more transparent and more verifiable to more people on so many occasions? How do you think this unfortunate incident was noticed in the first place?
(Continued in next post)
I cast the ball in your court: Do you know what's on your student's Facebook? My Space? I-phone, I-this, and E-that? If you answer "yes," I'd say it's 99% likely that your head is buried in the sand. Welcome to the millenium! The cookie jar is in the center of the table and our civic responsibility is to instill ethics in our families that will hopefully establish a character that withstands temptation when tried. There is no excuse for what these young people chose to do and they WILL bear the consequences, as has been, is, and will remain the system's standard. Say a prayer for their souls, tonight, and be thankful that the child who strayed wasn't yours.
Sorry, the reality is that classes at Churchill regularly go over 30. There are no limits. You might be thinking of red zone schools? Churchill is green zone.
And the robocalls are more sophisticated than you understand. They can and are targeted as needed. It's a new day and the robocalls are not sent to everyone if not needed. For example, every evening the robocalls only go out to the students that were marked absent during the day. That is a specific group that is called using the robotic calling system. That is the beauty of the system, it can be set up to target a specific group. Parents that have completely up to date information didn't get the call about this issue last week.
Students who have been removed from MCPS will not be punished at all. They are just transfering to another school district and they are beyond MCPS' reach.
25-30 students in a Churchill classroom would be a dream. 30 is considered a small class. 35-40 is more the norm.
Have you read about Jerome Dyson's experience at Churchill and why he left?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010803597.html
As one of Jerome's teachers at Churchill, I worked tirelessly to make him a success, even when he fought against us. If people had any clue how hard we work to make these kids successful, they would be ashamed of all the negativity they throw at us.
Who is at fault here for the cheating, or for any moral failure? Lets make those who did the acts responsible for their own actions, and not try to place blame on everyone else. Like Jerome, or these current cheaters, students have a responsibility to do the right thing.
I don't think public schools should necessarily hold the responsibility for teaching morals and values (although we try to support and uphold those values), like integrity, honesty, and personal responsibility. Kids need to learn these values at home, from their parents. Schools should teach academics, parents should teach morals. That is something we used to inherently understand as a society.
Please...
while you're taking a look at cheating habits, maybe you should also look into the grade inflation that regularly got forced on teachers on the west side of the county, why class ranking got trashed by the west side of the county and weighted grading (instead of weighted class rank) got added and what that did to add to cheating. There's a history of privilege in the land of Bethesda and Potomac in relation to MCPS and it isn't pretty. It's why there is so little accountability for individiuals starting at the middle schools and extending far into adulthood. Teachers aren't to blame. People just don't want to look in the mirror and acknowledge that they are part of the problem.
Additionally, there has been tremendous pressure on teachers to inflate grades. I have been instructed to give students a minimum of 50% credit for an assignment EVEN IF THEY NEVER TURN IT IN. Besides this obvious academic dishonesty imposed on teachers, grade inflation gives students and their parents an inflated idea of their abilities. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next decade as these current students compete in a global economy with students from other countries for places in universities and jobs.
I cast the ball in your court: Do you know what's on your student's Facebook? My Space? I-phone, I-this, and E-that? If you answer "yes," I'd say it's 99% likely that your head is buried in the sand. Welcome to the millenium! The cookie jar is in the center of the table and our civic responsibility is to instill ethics in our families that will hopefully establish a character that withstands temptation when tried. There is no excuse for what these young people chose to do and they WILL bear the consequences, as has been, is, and will remain the system's standard. Say a prayer for their souls, tonight, and be thankful that the child who strayed wasn't yours.