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Sep. 23 is International Day of Sign Languages

September 23 is the United Nations’ International Day of Sign Languages and this year’s theme is “Sign Languages are for Everyone!” The result of a 2017 initiative by the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), the International Day of Sign Languages is observed on September 23 because it was on that day in 1951 that the WFD was established.

The United Nations (UN) states that the purpose of the International Day of Sign Languages is “to raise awareness of the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of people who are deaf.” The organization believes that early access to sign language and services in sign language “is vital to the growth and development of the deaf individual and critical to the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals.”

In a statement on the UN’s website, Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, launched last year, aims to strengthen our efforts to ensure the meaningful participation and full inclusion of people with disabilities in all that we do, including in times of crisis. That is the only way to fulfill the central promise of the 2030 Agenda – to leave no one behind.”

In commemoration of the International Day of Sign Languages, the WFD has issued a Global Leaders Challenge, which “aims to promote the use of sign languages by local, national, and global leaders in partnership with national associations of deaf people in each country, as well as other deaf-led organisations.” Leaders from around the world have accepted the challenge by recording themselves signing this year’s theme in their national sign languages.

Zoom took the opportunity to announce that it has added new features to its platform in an effort to make it more accessible to those in the Deaf community. New features include advanced closed captioning settings as well as the ability to “pin” the window of a sign language interpreter directly next to the window of the person speaking.

On October 9, Netflix will debut a new docuseries entitled “Deaf U,” which follows a group of deaf friends as they navigate life at Gallaudet University. The series is produced by Nyle DiMarco, a deaf actor/model/activist who studied mathematics at Gallaudet.

For more information on the International Day of Sign Languages, visit https://www.un.org/en/observances/sign-languages-day.

Developments in Remote Assessment

While the use of remote education and remote testing has been on the rise, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the volume of remote educational and assessment approaches. With this increased frequency of remote testing, it’s useful to know the variety of options available to help ensure a secure process that supports test-taker integrity.

While the information presented here is not intended to be comprehensive, it provides a high-level overview to assist educational stakeholders in product evaluation.

Functionality to Support Learners in a Remote Environment
With rapidly shifting environments for students, new options are available to help educators determine which students may need some additional support:
• Learner readiness assessments help educators and students understand whether they have the skills needed to navigate an online learning environment successfully (and provide helpful next steps to those students who need some additional skill building).
• Learner engagement monitoring examines student engagement by tracking attendance, the amount of time a student spends in their learning platform, and the types of activities students are doing while logged into the system.
• Remote climate surveys help administrators acquire a strong understanding of how teachers, parents, and students are feeling about their online learning and assessment experiences. Climate surveys proactively provide actionable data for schools, districts, and states to create the appropriate support and educational plans necessary to meet the needs of their various stakeholders.
• Analytics tools combine a variety of data points (grades, attendance, assessments, surveys, etc.) for a holistic picture of student and school performance. They are particularly helpful in providing early warning indicators for those students or groups of students who are struggling with a change in the educational approach.

Once students are ready to take remote assessments, there are additional considerations for educators and administrators to help ensure a secure and valid testing environment.

Functionality to Ensure Test-Taker Identification
• ID verification: Where applicable and appropriate, using a student ID confirms that the individual taking the test is the authorized test taker.
• Facial detection technology: Where applicable and appropriate, using a camera to record and identify faces ensures that the same test taker is present throughout the entire session (versus simply verifying at the beginning of the exam).

Functionality Available during Testing
• Lockdown browsers: This system feature ensures that a test taker is not accessing unauthorized content on their device during a testing session.
• Live online proctoring (LOP): Where available and appropriate, software can facilitate the use of human proctors during testing sessions. LOP can typically support proctors supplied by an external vendor, teacher proctors, or parent proctors.
• Proctoring powered by artificial intelligence (AI): Where it is not feasible or desirable to provide a live, human proctor, proctoring software can monitor, track, and report information regarding the testing sessions, including:
o Monitoring and recording of activities being completed on screen by the test taker
o Eye and head movement tracking to evaluate what test takers are looking at during their assessment
o Voice and person detection to highlight whether additional people are in the room while a test is being taken
o Cellular phone detection to identify whether a cellular phone device is in use during testing

Additional Considerations
As our educational environments and assessment options continue to evolve, it is particularly important to evaluate remote assessment options in light of crucial student considerations. Not all options provided by various vendors take into account accessibility for the broadest set of students (particularly for underserved populations) or fully address accommodation requirements. COVID-19 has had an inequitable impact across student groups, making it extremely important to ensure that introduction and implementation of new assessment approaches provides the best possible experience for every student.

In addition, it is essential to fully vet and discuss the data privacy considerations for any approach or from any vendor. Communicate these considerations with all educational stakeholders (including parents) to ensure that personally identifiable information (PII) is handled safely and appropriately and that vendors conform to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

By working with partners to ensure the best possible program, administrators can create flexible supports that meet the needs of students and provide secure environments that deliver crucial data to educators.

Nikki Eatchel is EVP and chief assessment officer at Scantron.

Pandemic Highlights Importance of Indigenous Self-Determination: UN Rights Chief

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need to ensure the world’s indigenous people have control over their own communities, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has affirmed. Michelle Bachelet described the pandemic as “a critical threat” to indigenous communities everywhere, at a time when many are also struggling against man-made environmental damage and economic depredation.

“Overall, the pandemic hammers home the importance of ensuring that indigenous peoples can exercise their rights to self-government and self-determination”, she said in a message for the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

“This is about saving lives and protecting a precious web of cultures, languages and traditional knowledge, that connect us to the deep roots of humanity.”

Among the world’s poorest
There are roughly 476 million indigenous people worldwide, according to UN estimates. Although less than five per cent of the global population, they account for 15% of the poorest people on the planet.

Ms. Bachelet noted that many indigenous communities have “deeply inadequate” access to health care, clean water, and sanitation, while their communal way of life can increase the probability of rapid contagion.

Ancestral knowledge lost
COVID-19 cases have surpassed 18 million globally, and the Americas remain the epicenter of the crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced last month.

The UN rights chief said more than 70,000 indigenous people across the region have been infected to date, including almost 23,000 members of 190 indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin.

“Over 1,000 deaths have been recorded, including several elders with deep knowledge of ancestral traditions,” she added. “They include the tragic death in Brazil this week of chief Aritana, of the Yawalapiti people.”

Lives under threat
The Amazon spans nine countries and Ms. Bachelet noted that indigenous communities in the vast region live on lands that are increasingly damaged and polluted due to illegal mining, logging, and slash-and-burn agriculture.

Despite measures to contain COVID-19 spread, such as movement restrictions, many of these activities have continued, alongside movements by religious missionaries which also expose the indigenous to the risk of infection.

Meanwhile, those indigenous people who live in voluntary isolation from the modern world may have particularly low immunity to viral infection.

Ms. Bachelet said indigenous communities must have a role in pandemic response, stressing that “they must also be consulted, and should be able to participate in the formulation and implementation of public policies affecting them, through their representative entities, leaders and traditional authorities.”

Despite UN efforts throughout the International Year of Indigenous Languages to highlight the daily disappearance of mother tongues across the world, the President of the General Assembly (PGA) warned a few months ago that “challenges persist nonetheless.”

“Every fortnight, at least one indigenous language vanishes from the face of the earth,” spelled out Tijjani Muhammad-Bande. “This translates into two extinct indigenous languages each month.”

Turning to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the President pointed out that the 2007 milestone calls on States, among other things, to enact policies and laws aimed at preserving and strengthening indigenous languages.

“The status-quo is indeed grave,” he asserted, painting a picture of only 4,000 surviving indigenous languages, spoken by a mere six percent of the total world population. Mr. Muhammad-Bande said it was “equally noteworthy,” that 15% of the poorest people on the planet are indigenous.

Source: United Nations

Homeschooling 101: Tips for Parents Adjusting Virtual Learning With Kids

For the past decade, I have seen firsthand how students may benefit from certain elements of online education that help ensure a more effective learning environment. But, as my children’s schools closed in the wake of coronavirus, even I have struggled at times to make the transition to working mom and teacher of three teenagers who are now going to school virtually.

I have seen the important role that online learning can play to ensure that people can continue to learn regardless of their physical proximity, but children need social interaction; it’s a fundamental stage of development and K-12 students benefit from having peer-to-peer engagement. I will certainly admit that for my kids, the initial excitement about staying at home has turned into a longing to get back to their teachers and friends in person. I am trying to stay focused on helping them see this time as an opportunity, not a challenge.

The hardest part seems to be watching my kids struggle to communicate and engage with their teachers online because they aren’t used to interacting in that environment. There is value in facial expression and in the body language that a teacher can use to see that a student is not understanding a topic. As a parent, I know my children have access to adequate instruction regardless of modality, but the social aspects are different and less well served, which is why we will return to the classroom when we can.

This will be our new normal for the rest of the school year, but coronavirus could potentially force K-12 education to adopt more online learning practices. As parents, we must use this time for learning, too. During this short time that we have been quarantined, I have learned a few things as a work-from-home mom/teacher that may benefit other parents. 

Adopt a teaching role

There are a lot of misconceptions that online learning is somehow less rigorous than traditional, in-person education. Our kids are getting a dose of something we call the flipped classroom, going through materials by themselves and using instructor time to get clarity on the areas that are more difficult.

The curriculum is the same, the learning is just as engaging, sometimes more so because of the available creative tools, the difference might be the sequence of when my kids interact with the teacher. I’ve seen this work for adult learners and the same can apply to our children. We’re helping k-12 educators transition to the online environment by offering a two-day virtual Teaching Academy and helpful webinars. The intent is to ensure teachers are comfortable in any modality and students don’t lose ground during quarantine.

Let your kids’ teachers lead

While you may have to be the teacher at home, follow the professional’s lead. Many teachers are assigning coursework schedules and others are even trying to hold their group discussions online. They are education professionals who have your children’s best interest in mind and have thought out ways to keep their education going. Read the teacher’s emails and know what is expected so you can reinforce it!

If you follow the guidance of the teacher and ensure that children are engaged, do their work, and then seek out help as needed, they can learn the academic content as effectively as they do in the classroom.

Implement learning intervals

Make sure your kids are engaged in learning intervals throughout their day. Being at home, they can become easily bored and distracted. Make learning a priority, but you now also need to help them break up the day, too. 

Schedule breaks to take time away to help them when you can. They are used to a dedicated time for learning each day, so try to follow that routine as much as possible. However, I have noticed that they will probably finish earlier, so you will have to help them find activities to keep them moving or involved in their other hobbies. Even my kids’ soccer clubs have gone digital. We are uploading videos of skills practice and running maps every night so that the club knows they are on task!

Lead by Example

An early realization of the importance of self-advocacy has emerged. So often kids are dissatisfied consumers of what they feel is a force-fed product. When you must motivate yourself to get up on time for the Google Hangout or to use limited office hours, I truly believe kids start to see the relationship between input and outputs.

We may fall into a comfort level at home and let our responsibilities slide in a way that we wouldn’t in the office. Remember that your children are always watching and learn from you. When you are motivated, they will be, too.

Lean into the benefits

We know that the younger generation is very tech-literate, but, through online learning, they are getting accelerated exposure to the intrapersonal and professional applications of technology they weren’t getting through video games and social networking!

That is the way the world is heading – everything will involve technology to an extent – and simply knowing how it works doesn’t guarantee the required level of literacy. Embrace online education to help to instill those skills and competencies.

We will have to wait and see the extent to which traditional schools adopt online learning. We may see schools start to adopt stronger blended learning practices, where they combine online with in-classroom modalities in a much more integrated way. That concept has been implemented for a few years now, there are several online high schools, for example, but this pandemic has shown us that most schools haven’t yet invested much energy or creativity in figuring out ways to use online methods to reinforce learning, reduce costs or time-shift learning moments.

In this short period, we can see how online learning can open the door to tech literacy and virtual interaction that will only continue to evolve, especially when we get to the new normal. When my kids enter the workforce, virtual environments will be much more prevalent, so learning how to interact at this younger age will help better prepare them for the future.

For now, it is our responsibility as parents to instill those benefits and continue our children’s education. It can be challenging, but parents are used to overcoming challenges and doing what needs to be done to help our children succeed. 

About the Author:

Ruth Veloria is the Chief Strategy and Customer Officer at University of Phoenix.

How to Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15. The holiday celebrates the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. The holiday covers a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402.

Furthermore, the day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively. Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, also falls within this 30 day period.

Executive and Legislative Documents

The Law Library of Congress has compiled guides to commemorative observations, and includes a comprehensive inventory of the Public Laws, Presidential Proclamations and congressional resolutions related to Hispanic American Heritage Month.

Some highlight events include:

Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Homegrown: Cambalache
Cambalache, named for a Spanish word that means “exchange,” is a Chicano-Jarocho group based in East Los Angeles. Founded in 2007 and led by César Castro (sonero, maestro and luthier from Veracruz, Mexico), Cambalache plays and promotes traditional son jarocho through performance, music workshops, and educational demonstrations. Son jarocho comes from Veracruz, Mexico, on the gulf coast, a cultural region shaped by Indigenous, African, and Spanish culture. In the spirit of the fandango, a traditional celebration of music and dance, Cambalache engages its audience through participatory performances. In 2010, Cambalache organized an important fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Karl in Veracruz, thus strengthening decades of social and cultural exchange of the Chicano-Jarocho network. Cambalache’s educational mission involves demonstrations from elementary school to universities, museums and music festivals. The music of Cambalache was featured on August 7, 2011 on NPR’s All Things Considered, whose host commented: “Son Jarocho has been popular in Los Angeles, going back to the 1950s with Ritchie Valens, then Los Lobos. Today, it’s a part of the regular soundtrack of Latino music in East L.A.” Castro and fellow Cambalache member Xochi Flores appeared in the 2014 Homegrown concert of Son Jarocho Master Musicians.

Monday, October 11, 2021
Celebration of Children’s and YA Latin American and Latinx Literature
Join the Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress and Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP) in a virtual celebration of children’s and YA Latin American and Latinx literature. Hear from authors and illustrators amplifying stories and voices from across Latin American and Latinx communities for young readers. We invite families, educators, and students to take part in this unique celebration during Hispanic Heritage Month.

Did You Know?

60.6 million

The Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2019, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or racial minority. Hispanics constituted 18.5% of the nation’s total population.

Source: Vintage 2019 Population Estimates

12

The number of states with a population of 1 million or more Hispanic residents in 2019 — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Source: Vintage 2019 Population Estimates

29.8

The median age of the Hispanic population, up from 27.3 in 2010.

Source: Vintage 2019 Population Estimates

Resources:

AERA and OECD to Co-Host Webinar on Education Research Worldwide

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will co-host a webinar on “Education Research Worldwide in a Covid and Post-Covid World” at 9:30-11:00 am EDT Wednesday, September 23. 

This AERA-OECD webinar will examine priorities and planning for education research at a time when education and learning face uncertainty and dislocation. In this interactive discussion, research leaders from around the world will share insights on how education research is currently contributing to the response to COVID-19 for all levels of education and forms of learning. They will also discuss what is needed to further understand and monitor related challenges, and will offer evidence-based policies to help education leaders, government officials, schools, and education systems make sound decisions. 

The webinar will explore how the worldwide research community can collaboratively contribute to the design of COVID and post-COVID education and to the implementation of new research processes that can help inform stakeholders during and after the crisis.

WHO

Moderators:

  • Felice J. Levine, AERA Executive Director
  • Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin, Deputy Head of the Innovation and Measuring Progress Division and Senior Analyst at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills

Speakers::

  • Hidenori Fujita, Past President, Japanese Educational Research Association (Tsuru University) 
  • Shaun R. Harper, AERA President (University of Southern California)
  • Debra Myhill, President, European Educational Research Association (University of Exeter)
  • Joe O’Hara, President, European Educational Research Association (Dublin City University)
  • Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills

WHEN

Wednesday, September 23, 2020, 9:30-11:00 AM EDT.

WHERE

The event will be held on Zoom. Register here.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This event is open to the public. ASL and closed captioning will be provided. Please register in advance.

Kiwis Celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori – Māori Language Week is an annual celebration of Te Reo Māori promoted by the Māori Language Commission working with the Human Rights Commission and Te Puni Kokiri.

The week highlights the opportunity for New Zealanders to ‘Give it a go’- to learn and use more Māori phrases in everyday life.

“The time has come for us to build on Te Wiki o te Reo, and to extend out to a month. Mahuru Māori is about empowering ourselves to speak our language unapologetically. People reference the ZePA model, which talks about ‘right-shifting’ the critical mass; from zero, to passive, to active. Shifting is great, but we need to be more proactive,” Paraone Gloyne told the NZ Herald.

If you’re a beginner in learning, then a great place to learn is the Starting In Te Reo Māori podcast, hosted by Grant Whitbourne. There is also the bilingual Tāringa podcast made by Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and hosted by Te Puaheiri Snowden​ and Paraone Gloyne which blends traditional stories and the history of tikanga.

The New Zealand government is aiming to have 1 million speakers of te reo by 2040.

Image courtesy Māori Language Week.

Collaborate and Focus

This year my school is beginning the year with 100% virtual learning. That’s a big leap! We’ve never before had a one-to-one supply of laptops or tablets for students, and until last March, I had never used Zoom, Google Classroom, Schoology, or any other remote learning technology. We’ve all had to learn so much so quickly. It feels like I played basketball on a court for 15 years and then someone suddenly handed me an Xbox controller and said, “This is how we do it now.” Well… how hard could it be? I know the moves, I know the rules, I know my team; it should be easy, right?

Turns out it’s really hard and terrifying. I truly believe education is only ever about the students, but how can we help students navigate this new landscape when we don’t know the way ourselves? I have two ideas.

First, we must figure out three things: What do kids really need to learn; what can we trim to create lean, efficient lessons; and how can we make those lessons ultra-engaging? Focusing on spreadsheets, trackers, and checklists kills inspiration. Focusing on students above all else opens the floodgates of innovation, motivation, and courage.

Second, to survive this wild year we must tap into the greatest resource in the world: each other. In 2018, viewers of my YouTube channel, Real Rap with Reynolds, asked me to start a Facebook group where they could support and inspire each other. Since then, thousands of people from around the planet have joined this passionate and responsive community. A veteran teacher who needs to learn about Schoology can ask the group and find help in no time. A first-year teacher who feels completely alone can find a hundred friends to offer both survival tips and emotional support. Truly, any need can be addressed through the power of connection.

YouTube, Facebook, and Linkedin are other great places to find educators who resonate with you and who will help you become the teacher you always dreamed of being. Teacher’s Corner, created by HMH, allows teachers of all grades, subjects, and experience levels to share powerful ideas and support. Connections are more vital than ever this year. Take time to explore these virtual spaces and find a place where you can both give and receive support. That way all of us can focus on what’s truly important this year: our students.

CJ Reynolds teaches high school literature and The History of Hip-Hop in West Philadelphia. He is the author Teach Your Class Off: The Real Rap Guide to Teaching. CJ is also the creator of the YouTube channel, Real Rap with Reynolds. CJ uses his passion for creating engaging content as an HMH Ambassador, working with learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt to develop original professional development resources in its tool for educators, Teacher’s Corner.

A Third of World’s Schoolchildren Cannot Learn Remotely

© UNICEF Rashad Wajahat Lateef
Bangladesh, 2020

At least a third of the world’s schoolchildren were unable to access remote learning when COVID-19 shuttered their schools, according to a new UNICEF report released last month as countries across the world grapple with their back-to-school plans.

“For at least 463 million children whose schools closed due to COVID-19, there was no such thing as remote learning,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. “The sheer number of children whose education was completely disrupted for months on end is a global education emergency. The repercussions could be felt in economies and societies for decades to come.”

At the height of nationwide and local lockdowns, around 1.5 billion schoolchildren were affected by school closures. The report outlines the limitations of remote learning and exposes deep inequalities in access. The report uses a globally representative analysis on the availability of home-based technology and tools needed for remote learning among pre-K, elementary, middle, and high school children, with data from 100 countries. Data include access to television, radio, and internet and the availability of curriculum delivered across these platforms during school closures.

© UNICEF Thomas Cristofoletti
Cambodia, 2020

Although the numbers in the report present a concerning picture on the lack of remote learning during school closures, UNICEF warns the situation is likely far worse. Even when children have the technology and tools at home, they may not be able to learn remotely through those platforms due to competing factors in the home including pressure to do chores, being forced to work, a poor environment for learning, and lack of support in using the online or broadcast curriculum. The report highlights significant inequality across regions. Most affected are schoolchildren in sub-Saharan Africa, where at least half of all students cannot be reached with remote learning. Schoolchildren from the poorest households and those living in rural areas are by far the most likely to miss out during closures, the report says. Globally, 72% of schoolchildren unable to access remote learning live in their countries’ poorest households. In upper-middle-income countries, schoolchildren from the poorest households account for up to 86% of students unable to access remote learning. Globally, three-quarters of schoolchildren without access live in rural areas.

© UNICEF Jean-Claude Wenga
Democratic Republic Congo, 2020

The report also notes varying rates of access across age groups, with the youngest students most likely to miss out on remote learning during their most critical years of learning and development:

• At least 70% of schoolchildren of pre-K age (120 million) cannot be reached, largely due to challenges and limitations to online learning for young children, lack of remote learning programs for this education category, and lack of home assets for remote learning.

• At least 29% of elementary school children (217 million) cannot be reached. At least 24% of middle school children (78 million) cannot be reached.

• High schoolers were the least likely to miss out on remote learning, with at least 18% (18 million) not having the technological assets to access it.

© UNICEF Vinay Panjwani
India, 2020

UNICEF urges governments to prioritize the safe reopening of schools when they begin easing lockdown restrictions. Where reopening is not possible, UNICEF urges governments to incorporate compensatory learning for lost instructional time into school continuity and reopening plans. School opening policies and practices must include expanding access to education, including remote learning, especially for marginalized groups. Education systems must also be adapted and built to withstand future crises. UNICEF’s Framework for Reopening Schools offers practical advice for national and local authorities. The guidelines focus on policy reform, financing requirements, safe operations, compensatory learning, wellness and protection, and reaching the most marginalized children.

As part of its Reimagine campaign aims to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from aggravating a lasting crisis for children, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, UNICEF is calling for urgent investment to bridge the digital divide, reach every child with remote learning, and, most critically, prioritize the safe reopening of schools. The analysis does not focus on out-of-school children. For the latest data on out-of-school children visit https://www.unicef.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/SOWC-2019.pdf. Download the report at https://data.unicef.org/resources/remote-learning-reachability-factsheet.

Preserving Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is something every teacher strives to maintain in the classroom. We want our students to be honest in their work because this will better help them achieve long-term retention of the material taught in class and will teach them the importance of honesty, hopefully giving them the satisfaction of knowing they did a good job without having to take any shortcuts. In the world language classroom, there are three main areas of concern when it comes to academic integrity violations: plagiarism (passing someone else’s work off as their own), cheating (such as looking at someone else’s exam in class), and technology (the use of phones, translators, etc.). This article addresses some typical ways in which students may violate these areas, some red flags teachers can look for when grading assignments, some possible solutions, and challenges we face, including distance education.

Plagiarism in academia is often thought to be unique to English/language arts and possibly social studies. However, this is something that is prevalent in world language as well. While predominantly it occurs in upper-level courses such as Advanced Placement, there are some beginner- and intermediate-level teachers who assign projects or other writing assignments where it could become an issue. It is easier than ever for students to gain access to others’ works, and for a long time, this was very hard to combat because there were no tools available for world language teachers. When I first started teaching, all teachers were given access to the website Turnitin.com. While it is great for checking to see how much of the students’ work is original, it was only available in English. Fortunately, this website currently offers services in 17 non-English languages from various language families. And of course, with access to online resources readily available, this is one area where it is becoming easier to verify whether a student is demonstrating academic integrity or not.

Traditional cheating, such as a student looking at another student’s paper for exam answers, is something brick-and-mortar teachers face every school year. No matter how you set up the room, you are never going to find a foolproof method to prevent cheating 100% of the time. Also, we cannot monitor what students are doing outside of class, so we cannot prevent them from asking someone they know who speaks the language to help them with their assignment or getting help from a tutor. Unfortunately, in both of these cases, more often than not the people assisting the students give them the answers outright, whereas if they were asking for help from the teacher, they would guide the student toward self-discovery instead. With the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have moved to distance learning, and now teachers are faced with academic integrity issues they never imagined they would have to encounter.

Ask any distance education teacher and they will tell you that the biggest issue in assessing world language students is the use of online translators. Students do not understand that this is a form of plagiarism (Correa, 2011), so it is up to us to explain to them that it is someone else’s intellectual property. It took a team of people to input words in the various languages and to program the computer to match words across languages when users submit an inquiry.

Those new to detecting this kind of plagiarism might be wondering how to spot when a student has used an online translator. Based on my ten years’ experience teaching Spanish online, here are a few red flags I have seen. The most obvious is misspelled words in English. The translator does not recognize the misspelled word in English, and so it will not translate it. The output will leave the word spelled as the user typed it. Students either just copy and paste the translator’s output without checking it for English typos or they do not know how to spell the word in English. Idiomatic expressions can be another trigger. Most automated translators only look at the lexical input without regard to semantics. The translator goes word by word and does a literal translation, and so the output is inaccurate, whereas someone who used the internet for legitimate research would have found the correct match in the target language. For example, I typed in the phrase “Misery loves company,” and Google translated it to “La miseria ama la compañía,” as opposed to the correct idiom “El perro del horetlano ni coma ni deja comer” (The farmer’s dog doesn’t eat nor allow others to eat). The last one is grammar in the target language above the student’s competency level. If you see someone in a first-semester language class turning in an assignment that has such technical language and grammar that it looks like they are writing a dissertation, chances are that is not their own work, especially if they are getting a low grade in your class. One caveat you do need to take into consideration is that if the student is a native speaker or a heritage language learner, then most likely it is their own work, as their competency in the target language will be at a level higher than others’. The most egregious use of automated translation I’ve ever seen was from an AP language student who copied and pasted their entire essay final, including the disclaimer from the website “this text was translated by Google Translate.” Since it was the last day of the semester, the student only had a few hours to rewrite a five-paragraph persuasive essay or receive no credit for the exam.

One would think that with the detection tools available and teachers becoming savvier when it comes to this, students would be more likely to rely on their own work. Unfortunately, this is not the case. According to Danilyuk (2019), 68% of the over 70,000 undergraduate students and 43% of the over 15,000 graduate students surveyed admitted to having cheated in some form. That same study published a poll of approximately 71,000 students showing that almost half of them felt that cheating on homework was ethically/morally acceptable.

According to Correa (2011), students are unclear what is acceptable because with today’s technology they do not understand the difference between looking up a word in the dictionary and using a translator. If they are only looking up a few words and not having the site translate the entire text, they do not see it as cheating, and many new apps act more like translators than dictionaries. Correa calls this tramposos accidentals (accidental cheating) and argues that time constraints and cost–benefit analyses are other reasons for cheating, as the risk of getting caught is often low, while fear of failing, and/or repercussion of failing, can be high.

Now that we know the what and the why, what role can you, as the teacher, play to help reduce or prevent academic dishonesty?

To start, everyone needs to get on the same page, as some teachers do not enforce policies for various reasons, including not being in agreement with the policy, the penalties being too mild or too severe, and seeing it as too time-consuming (Correa, 2011). Inaction doesn’t just affect you, it affects your colleagues campus-wide. If a policy is not enforced in your class, students will try cheating next year or in another content teacher’s course. Not enforcing the policy leads to more students taking risks. “[Having] a policy that is not enforced or that is not enforced in a consistent manner is often more precarious than not having a policy” (Taylor, 2003, as quoted in Correa, 2011). “Word travels quickly among students who these faculty are, and student comments suggest their courses become particular targets for cheating… When more than a few faculty behave this way, it is hard to convince students that an ethic of integrity exists on campus and cheating can easily become the campus norm” (McCabe et al., 2001, as quoted in Correa, 2011).

Talk to students before this happens. Ask them what they think academic dishonesty is and why they think that is academic dishonesty. Tell them you have zero tolerance, and remind them they will be caught and it is not worth the pain. In my classroom, when I come across someone who has cheated, I do not just deal with the individual student and their parents, but I tell the whole class that I caught someone. Constantly reinforcing that this is unacceptable behavior and that there will be consequences, I find, deters students, and this stops being an issue sooner than later. If you know your student has a tutor, talk to the tutor if possible, or at least ask the parents to tell the tutor that they need to guide the student to find the answer, not give it to them. Students are more likely to retain information long-term if they are guided to discovery as opposed to being given the answer outright. Do an activity with a translator and show students why translators are ineffective.

While we will probably never be able to prevent cheating 100% of the time, if we understand what is considered cheating and students’ motivation, we can curtail future cheating by those individuals as well as deter others from cheating at the same time. Preventative maintenance helps, but enforcing school policy is the best deterrent. If there isn’t a policy, then work with your colleagues to be a trailblazer who creates one. Together we will help our students achieve their goal of learning while also preserving their academic integrity.

References
Correa, M. (2014) Traductores en línea como herramienta pedagógica en la clase de español: individualizando la revisión por pares. 97th Annual Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Denver, CO.
Correa, M. (2011). “Academic Dishonesty in the Second Language Classroom: Instructors’ perspectives.” Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 1(1), 65–79.
Danilyuk, J. (2019). “Academic Cheating Statistics Say There’s Lots of Work to Do.” Unicheck. https://unicheck.com/blog/academic-cheating-statistics/

Tom Beeman is a high school Spanish teacher at the California Virtual Academies, advocacy chair for the California Language Teacher’s Association, and a member of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Distance Learning Special Interest Group. He has been teaching all levels of Spanish online for the past ten years.

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