Documents say Army knew of exam cheating

[sabra]

Source: Boston Globe

WASHINGTON -- The Army was warned at least six years ago that its online testing program was vulnerable to cheating, and has known for nearly a year that soldiers are obtaining copies of exams and answers on the Internet to fraudulently obtain promotion points, according to military documents.

The documents show that beginning in September 2006, the Army's own computer technicians began monitoring soldiers' usage of shamschool.com, the unauthorized website that is at the center of an investigation into whether thousands of soldiers are cheating on the Army Correspondence Course Program, known as ACCP.

On July 25, the soldier who operates that site, Specialist Adam Chrysler, was ordered to remove the materials after superiors in the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., were tipped off that they were downloaded by soldiers at Army bases from Germany to Alaska.

But less than a week after ordering Chrysler to remove the material from his website, copies of the tests and answer keys have appeared on at least three other websites. In direct protest of the order, another soldier set up a message forum on Google to post the data. The intent was clear: The soldier, Sergeant Micah Smith, who is based at Fort Benning, Ga., called the new site ShamSchoolx2.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/03/documents_say_army_knew_of_exam_cheating/

[MADem]

1. Well, this is very interesting for a lot of reasons. For awhile there, if you were breathing you

got promoted. Sign your name, and there ya go!

It suggests that the Army is reinstigating force-shaping tools, which suggests that they're recognizing that they will soon be returning to a SMALLER FORCE. Tests like this are the first line of force-shaping, used as a reason or an excuse to weed people out in an up-or-out environment.

Other force shapers besides knowledge testing, like physical fitness tests, weight standards, collateral duties, adherence to and enthusiasm for organizational 'goals' (retention, equal opportunity, that sort of thing) and so forth, usually follow when you are contracting, rather than expanding, the number of personnel on active duty.

We'll see if they start rounding up the chunkies at the Pentagon and tossing them over the side--there are a boatload of them over there, nowadays, when before, there were almost none. If that happens, the war is all but over!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Interesting.

The site software is Xoops. Just the thing for rapid site deployment.

[youngdem]

3. I seriously doubt the army gives two shits what the GPA is of their cannon fodder.

[sanskritwarrior]

4. LOL

then you would be incredibly wrong.......

So please define to me who qualifies as cannon fodder? 14 year Army soldier here, 6 more to my 20, and I am not cannon fodder. In fact I take high offense to anyone that "claims to support the troops" calling us cannon fodder.......Please explain your remarks.

[tabasco]

7. This coming from the guy who compared Iraq casualties to traffic accident victims.

You're full of it.

"High offense." LMAO.

After your previous remarks that statement is ludicrous.

[sanskritwarrior]

10. Ummm wrong person

I never did that

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Dude, he's got a much better one now:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1516248

Next to that, the traffic accidents shit is almost reasonable.

[Pastiche423]

9. If you went to Iraq, you are cannon fodder

No ifs, ands or buts about it.

Pure-tee cannon fodder.

[sanskritwarrior]

11. I disagree and ask you kindly to prove yourself

[Pastiche423]

12. Prove myself?

I'm not the one that is cannon fodder.

[sanskritwarrior]

13. You can't prove it then??

just say so.

[Pastiche423]

14. You were cannon fodder

Period.

[sanskritwarrior]

15. LMAO

so you cannot prove it.......just admit it.

[Pastiche423]

16. I have nothing to prove

YOU went to a sovereign country to kill innocent people for a LIE for YOUR CiC.

Did you not?

[sanskritwarrior]

17. Hmmm

Is the war illegal or not?

If so then can you please direct me to the Congressional resolution stating that the Iraqi War Resolution Act was made in error......

[Threedifferentones]

18. Well there wasn't in the Taliban's Afghani laws forbidding attacking America

So 9/11 wasn't a crime, right?

The occupation of Iraq is obviously completely immoral, and was never sanctioned by any international body. And those poor souls sent into harms way are essentially sitting ducks in a war zone they cannot get rid of, "cannon fodder" if you will for a greedy elite and millions of foolish people.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. Let's not kid ourselves.

Sanskrit warrior was never cannon fodder.

:rofl:

[Pastiche423]

21. Are you saying he never was in Iraq?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. I'm saying he was never cannon fodder.

:P

[Pastiche423]

23. IF he was in Iraq, he WAS cannon fodder

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. No arguments there.

:D

[Pastiche423]

25. Gotcha

[uppityperson]

26. !

[hayu_lol]

5. Youngdem, these courses have nothing to do with GPA...

these courses, like their counterparts in the AF, Navy, and Marine Corps, help individuals to gain the skills to upgrade within their specialty...or just for expanded knowledge about all specialty fields.

These correspondence courses are all open book exams throughout the course. So, if you have any smarts at all, a sham exam with furnished answers won't do anyone any good.

People who can't pass the exams with the course materials sitting in front of them, shouldn't be taking the courses in the first place.

Many career types take these courses for their own expanded knowledge.

[trogdor]

6. They still use the yellow books?

You'd think all that stuff would have gone electronic a long time ago. At any rate, the Army is stupid to award promotion points for these courses, even at the going rate of 1 point per five credit hours. Cheating was rampant even before the internet era, with rings of soldiers co-op'ing the courses and circulating paper answer keys.

/Army 1982-2004

[rickrok66]

8. Bad, but not the end of the world

This has been going on for years. No, soldiers shouldn't be cheating. The other side of the argument is that these courses are open book - it is not worth the time and energy to cheat. They are not that hard.

These course also make up a small percentage of promotion points too. They are one way to earn points and soldiers don't have to enroll unless they want to or are ordered to by their supervisors. Promotions come from a commander's recommendation, marksmenship, awards, physical fitness scores, and college credits too. There are some checks and balances and hard metrics in the mix for these guys.

The courses are good for guys who are in remote areas or in the reserves / guard units. In the 1980s, they were a little bit more interesting. You could enroll in almost any course. Usually, the sergeant would make you finish the generator repair course, then you could enroll some cool Special Forces course on survival in the jungle. Anyway, it seemed cool when you are 19.