Level the Playing Field by Danial

Level the Playing Field by Danial - February 2018 Scholarship Essay

“Just put a camera on the test” I joked. Our Advanced Placement Computer Science class was having a lengthy discussion on how to deal with the widespread cheating occurring in the district. Our teacher, Mr. Hanson, interjected a reply during this part of the conversation, noting that advances in technology will eventually let students cheat with materials such as glasses and contacts with answers projected onto them, making it impossible to monitor if students were cheating. This problematic hypothetical rise in technology will become less hypothetical over the years and eventually become a prevalent part of the educational system. In recent years, smarter phones and watches have disrupted the equilibrium in the educational system. Teachers used to be able to simply make one version of a test, let students take it, and not have to worry about any unfair advantages any of them received (save for the occasional incident where parents scaled the walls of a school to give their children the test answers). But now an epidemic of dishonest conduct has spread, not only through high schools across the world but also colleges and primary educational schools are dealing with much more severe problems. As this technology advances, the educational system will have to adapt to it and the problems it causes.
Although we all wish we never have to deal with this dilemma during our lifetime, the surge of innovation is eventually going to make the discernment of those who deserve to be rewarded for their hard work from those who cheat their way through school impossible. According to several studies, between 80 and 85 percent of high schoolers admitted to cheating at least once in the past year, with over 93% of those admitting they cheated four or more times. This starts becoming a chronic problem in the spine of the school structure, as the numbers this cheating effects are the numbers colleges or graduate schools judge students by. In fact, cheating is the worst it’s ever been since researchers started doing studies on the subject. Our high school has felt the effects of this as well, with multiple incidents during final exams week of students using phones to cheat. These problems are accelerated by the growth of technology. Nobody was able to use polaroids to send other students answers, and soon technology will be a lot better than just polaroids.
So yeah it’s a problem, but what can we do? Well, I’m glad you asked. In this situation, the wrong solution is to increase cheating restrictions and spending enormous amounts of time and effort on making sure students are not able to cheat. A flaw this big in the system means that the system itself needs a change. In recent years, the American education system has been directed towards standardization as a way to compare student’s scores. However, this makes not only the scores more comparable, but the answers as well. Cheating becomes too facile and tempting in a standardized system, an exact reason we need to move in the opposite direction. In addition, students are less likely to cheat if they believe that their school values mastery of a subject rather than memorization of information. This trend should push us to place more emphasis on technical courses, in which students spend more time on learning the intricacies of a particular subject instead of demanding for memorization of key terms. If these long term solutions are implemented with a complementary dialogue between teachers, parents, and students, the future of education will be on a level playing field.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/03/19/these-indian-parents-climbed-a-school-wall-to-help-their-kids-cheat-on-an-exam/?utm_term=.780d9491344c
http://neatoday.org/2012/12/11/what-can-be-done-about-student-cheating-2/