Headlines today point out that Betsy DeVos, slated to be the nation’s Education Secretary, may have plagiarized in her written documents for the Senate Committee. Being a librarian, of course, it caught my attention. I know that I do not approve of her experience to hold this position. But, did the Press exaggerate this latest story? At this point, I am hesitant to depend on any source.
I found this CNN article to explain the text segments well: Betsy DeVos appears to have plagiarized quotes for Senate questionnaire
From the article:
“Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment where they can learn, thrive, and grow,” DeVos writes.
Gupta was credited with nearly the same quotes in a May 2016 press release on ensuring the civil rights of transgender students.
“Every child deserves to attend school in a safe, supportive environment that allows them to thrive and grow,” Gupta wrote.
This first sentence, on its own, would not have raised red flags to me as a reader. They may be something that I would write myself. If, as I read, both quotes were written in response to transgender students in schools. That significantly narrow the context and help me to see where the calls of plagiarism could arise.
The other quote was much less general.
“Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has made a determination about the merits of the complaint,” DeVos wrote in response to a question about publishing the list of schools under Title IX investigations.
The Department of Education guidance reads, “Opening a complaint for investigation in no way implies that OCR has made a determination with regard to the merits of the complaint.”
The text similarities make this statement a clear copy of the published text.
What does this mean? First of all, it means that the writer (was it DeVos?) did not give basic credit to the author of the quote. Doing research is not bad! Not crediting your source, in a professional environment especially, should not happen. At the top levels of government, this should not happen. It would have taken a few words, just like in CNN’s restating, to give proper credit.
Second, there’s a trend here. DeVos is not the first to get caught using someone else’s words.
Monica Crowly and
Melania Trump also have made headlines.
Is there a concerted effort to look for plagiarism from the Trump team? Probably. They are not alone, as people of all parties and positions have gone under the red pen. I’ve noted others before.
This is NOT unique to grown-ups. Our students, when learning under strong teachers and library media specialists, practice the skills of restating and citing sources. I have taught lessons with first graders about how to give authors credit. They can do it! By high school, proper citation skills are expected. In fact, many schools have students turn in their writing to
turnitin.com. This program does the analysis to catch a range from missed citations to clear plagiarism.
When the offenses fall in the plagiarism category, many Academic Honesty expectations would give a zero to a paper with plagiarized text. At the college, level, a student can fail a course. What are the consequences at the highest level of our government?
Maybe adults need to pass their own writing through such a tool. Would these instances have been caught? I believe so. I do wonder, though, if the writers did not care or did not think they would be caught using other’s words.
The plagiarized text from DeVos, as someone who is slated to be the head of the nation’s education system, concerns me. What information literacy lessons has she had? Where was her librarian? Will she see the value in the powerful literacy skills that every student— and every adult— need to be responsible consumers of information? Does she recognize the impact of a school librarian?
Your Perspective: How early do you start proper citation lessons with students? Would your students have the skills to properly cite the example in the second quote?