An Orange County, CA high school has come under fire from state education officials after they issued student ID cards that are color-coded based on their standardized tests scores, the Orange County Register reported. At John F. Kennedy high school, the cards come in three colors: Black, the highest level, gold, the second best, and white…the worst. The cards do more than just announce students’ testing levels, however. The gold and black cards also give students access to a variety of discounts and campus privileges, while the white cards give none…
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Social websites are latest sources for plagiarized material
Plagiarism is going social, according to Turnitin.com, which found that one-third of plagiarized material in student papers can be traced to social networking, content sharing, or question-and-answer websites.
Turnitin.com offers software that checks student papers against a vast database of prior works and the internet at large, looking for matches that can indicate possible plagiarism. An analysis of the top sources of matched content flagged by the software reveals a significant shift in the last few years, the company says—from so-called “term paper mills” to social sites and homework help sites.
While social networking and content sharing sites accounted for the highest percentage of all matched content, one-quarter of all matched materials came from legitimate educational websites, the company said—many of which use “.org” or “.gov” domain names. These sites often include pages dedicated to helping students complete their homework or prepare for tests.…Read More