Examining teachers' ethical dilemmas in classroom assessment Pope, N., Green, S., Johnson, R., & Mitchell, M. (2009). Examining teachers' ethical dilemmas in classroom assessment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (5), 778-782. Précis Pope, Green, Johnson, and Mitchell (2009) suggest that we need more research and discussion about ethics and classroom assessment. Many ethical dilemmas face teachers, yet little has been studied about ethics and assessment. Teachers spend a third of their time on assessment-related activities and do so without clear guidelines on the ethical dilemmas involved. There is a need for in-service teachers to undertake training and discussion on ethical conflicts and dilemmas related to assessment as it appears that ethical reasoning does not develop on the job. The group study of in-service teachers highlighted dilemmas related to ethics and evaluation. When discussing a scenario where there are no right or wrong answers, teachers' responses were grouped according to two principles of "do no harm" and "score pollution." Although responses varied greatly, the contamination of the highest rated score with institutional requirements versus student needs is the major concern regarding the conflicting elements. Ethical conflict based on institutional expectations is described as inevitable, since institutions deal with the abstract and teachers deal with the person. Within institutional requirements teachers see an ethical conflict where the governing body's rules do not match what teachers see as meeting the needs of the student. As the needs for large-scale evaluation increase, so does the focus on practice. Students must be the priority and teachers lack formal training. Research, cle...... middle of paper ......ics/codeofethics.stmO'Neill, J., & Bourke, R. (2010). Educate teachers in a code of ethical conduct. Ethics and Education, 4 (2), 159-172. Peterson, M. (2005). The ethical dilemmas of high-stakes testing and issues related to teacher preparation programs. Journal of College and Character, 6(7). Pope, N., Green, S., Johnson, R., & Mitchell, M. (2009). Examining teachers' ethical dilemmas in classroom assessment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (5), 778-782.Schmeiser, C. (1995). Ethics in evaluation. Eric Digest .The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Assessment. (2003). Student assessment standards; How to improve student evaluations. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press. Winthrop University. (2011, August). Faculty and staff profiles. Retrieved August 2011, from Winthrop University: http://www.winthrop.edu/coe/faculty/default.aspx?id=11015