Video: MCPS "Grading system not foolproof"

The Washington Post video of the Churchill High School community meeting on the grade changing scandal has extensive video of the statements of Principal Joan Benz and MCPS Chief Technology Officer Sherwin Collette.

WUSA9: Churchill HS - Root cause of this scandal wasn't technology

WUSA9 reports: 

...The school's chief technology officer said the root cause of this scandal wasn't technology, but human action. Still, a small device helped students breach a system that administrators believed was secure...

MCPS Chief: "We will not chase the wind."

The above quote from the MCPS Chief Technology Officer, Sherwin Collette, means that MCPS will not investigate if any grades were changed at Churchill High School in previous school years.

According to The Washington Post quotes from Mr. Collette and Principal Joan Benz, the problem at Churchill High School was that students didn't turn in other students soon enough. If the students had turned each other in earlier the grade changing would not have gone on for so long.

MCPS can't detect unauthorized grade changes unless students notify school staff?

The Washington Post: Officials can't prove who changed Md. high-schoolers' grades

...The grades of 54 students were changed, but the school system is unable to prove who changed those grades. The grades of 46 of the students were changed back, rather than lowered, as is done when a student is caught cheating, Benz said.

"There is no way in that computer system to determine who changed that grade," she said. All grades for this academic year have since been verified, she said...

..."I'm just surprised that it took this long" for teachers to notice grade changes, Dave Williams said. "I'm surprised there were not more" students involved.


Benz said the school has received direct questions about the situation from University of Maryland officials but has no plans to issue a letter to colleges because that would be a "red flag" and is "absolutely unnecessary," Benz said...

...Chief Technology Officer Sherwin Collette said school officials have also found no evidence that grades in other academic school years had been changed. He said he has no plans to investigate any other semesters, unless given proof that similar breaches occurred.  "We will not chase the wind," he said.

...Collette and Benz both said the grade-changing incident could have been stopped earlier if students had notified officials and turned in their classmates.


"Young people often don't think, and it's our job as adults to make them think," Benz said...

Meeting held to discuss grade tampering - wtop.com

Meeting held to discuss grade tampering - wtop.com

...School officials say the students stole teacher's identifications using an electronic device, then got into the grading program and changed grades. The school is still trying to determine if all 54 kids knew about the situation, or if their grades were randomly changed.
Only two universities - the University of Maryland and George Washington University - have inquired about the scandal...

MontCo officials brief parents on Churchill cheating scandal | Washington Examiner

MontCo officials brief parents on Churchill cheating scandal Washington Examiner

Montgomery County school officials could not promise an end to computer hacking on Monday night when they appeared before an auditorium of frustrated
parents at Winston Churchill High School.
"The root cause is around human actions," said Sherwin Collette, Montgomery County's chief technology officer. "We're continually fighting a moving target in terms of new threats involved."...