Two Maryland tenth-grade students have been accused of using Twitter to cheat on Common Core-aligned tests.
According to Reuters, the Maryland State Department of Education said a security firm hired by Pearson PLC, which administers the test, found two instances of cheating by high school students who have not been identified. The firm searches social media including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to find evidence of cheating.
“This is the modern version of copying off your neighbor,” the state’s DOE spokesman William Reinhard said.
The students’ tweets, which reportedly included materials from the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) English test, were found over the past two weeks and were removed from Twitter, Reinhard added.
Students in Maryland and ten other states that have adopted the Common Core standards are taking the PARCC tests aligned with them over the course of a month.
Pearson spokesman Jesse Comart said the company has found 76 instances in six states in which students have posted test materials online during this round of testing.