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The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013
This paper builds on the underlying framework of Jacob and Levitt (2003) and further work by Gustafsson (2014) to determine the prevalence of cheating in South African schools using a nationally representative sample (Verification ANA) of the Annual National Assessments of 2013. This research forms...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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School of Economics
2017
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| _version_ | 1867613503240536064 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Ross, Lauren |
| author2 | Woolard, Ingrid |
| author_browse | Ross, Lauren Woolard, Ingrid |
| author_facet | Woolard, Ingrid Ross, Lauren |
| author_sort | Ross, Lauren |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This paper builds on the underlying framework of Jacob and Levitt (2003) and further work by Gustafsson (2014) to determine the prevalence of cheating in South African schools using a nationally representative sample (Verification ANA) of the Annual National Assessments of 2013. This research forms part of a broader research project on 'binding constraints in education' promoted by the Programme to Support Pro-poor Policy Development (PSPPD), housed at Stellenbosch University. The adapted methodology is verified in order to ensure that the suspicious string indicators as discovered by Jacob and Levitt are indeed indicative of suspicious behaviour when applied to the South African ANA. At a national level, the data suggests that cheating or suspicious behaviour is likely to be prevalent in up to 10 percent of schools with respect to Mathematics and Language in Grades 3 and 6. The manner in which schools behave suspiciously varies significantly by province, subject and measure. As many as 37% of primary schools in the Eastern Cape, 26% of primary schools in KwaZulu-Natal and 24% of primary schools in Limpopo show some evidence of cheating in Grade 3 mathematics, compared to just 0% to 2% of primary schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng. Similar extremes are noted in the Grade 6 results. These results suggest that the mere act of assessment and measurement induces behavioural distortions such as gaming behaviour even in the absence of high-stakes. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22939 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:37:11.014Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | School of Economics |
| publisherStr | School of Economics |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22939 The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 Ross, Lauren Woolard, Ingrid Spaull, Nicholas Economics This paper builds on the underlying framework of Jacob and Levitt (2003) and further work by Gustafsson (2014) to determine the prevalence of cheating in South African schools using a nationally representative sample (Verification ANA) of the Annual National Assessments of 2013. This research forms part of a broader research project on 'binding constraints in education' promoted by the Programme to Support Pro-poor Policy Development (PSPPD), housed at Stellenbosch University. The adapted methodology is verified in order to ensure that the suspicious string indicators as discovered by Jacob and Levitt are indeed indicative of suspicious behaviour when applied to the South African ANA. At a national level, the data suggests that cheating or suspicious behaviour is likely to be prevalent in up to 10 percent of schools with respect to Mathematics and Language in Grades 3 and 6. The manner in which schools behave suspiciously varies significantly by province, subject and measure. As many as 37% of primary schools in the Eastern Cape, 26% of primary schools in KwaZulu-Natal and 24% of primary schools in Limpopo show some evidence of cheating in Grade 3 mathematics, compared to just 0% to 2% of primary schools in the Western Cape and Gauteng. Similar extremes are noted in the Grade 6 results. These results suggest that the mere act of assessment and measurement induces behavioural distortions such as gaming behaviour even in the absence of high-stakes. 2017-01-23T12:03:29Z 2017-01-23T12:03:29Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22939 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Economics Ross, Lauren The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 |
| title_full | The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 |
| title_fullStr | The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 |
| title_short | The prevalence of cheating in National Standardised Assessments in South African schools : applying the Jacob and Levitt (2003) method to the Annual National Assessments of 2013 |
| title_sort | prevalence of cheating in national standardised assessments in south african schools applying the jacob and levitt 2003 method to the annual national assessments of 2013 |
| topic | Economics |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22939 |
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