It's good to see that the NY Board of Regents is taking major steps to reduce the ability to cheat (and the likelihood of catching cheaters):

The state's Department of Education on Monday recommended several measures to crack down on cheating on high-stakes exams that influence not only the futures of students but also ratings of public schools and teachers' careers.

…Other recommendations include:

— Spending more than $2 million in the 2012-13 budget to spot check more Regents exams and move to greater analysis of all Regents exams and their scoring.

— Prohibiting most teachers from scoring their own students' exams, although some benefit was seen in allowing teachers to be present during testing and proctor their students' tests.

— Retaining tests for more than one year, as now required, for potential investigations.

— Moving to "centralized scanning" of multiple-choice questions to better spot possible cheating. New York is unique in relying on local scoring, "and significant investments have been made at the local level to develop infrastructure." That includes assigning teachers to scoring duties and hiring substitutes to cover their classes.

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