Jac VerSteegWhen I was in the seventh grade I cheated on an English pop quiz. The multiple-choice test was on a short story I had not read. My buddy, Will, put his hand by his cheek if the answer was A, on the desk if the answer was B, on his knee if the answer was C, and dangled it straight down if D.
I intentionally entered different answers for a question or two so our tests would not match. The shameful subterfuge was successful. I passed the quiz, and the teacher never found out. (I apologize, Ms. Allen.)
That was an extremely low-tech version of cheating on an extremely low-stakes test. The introduction of high-tech, high-stakes tests creates pressures and procedures for high-tech cheating.
Indeed, the series of cheating scandals that followed the widespread introduction of high-stakes tests included a huge scandal in the Atlanta school system, where teachers and administrators stand accused of inflating grades. And Florida lost an education commissioner, Tony Bennett, when he was implicated in a scheme to rig charter school grades in Indiana. Now high-stakes tests are becoming even higher-tech. Instead of bubbling in their answers on cards that are fed through a reader, students in Florida and elsewhere are transitioning to taking their high-stakes tests online.
While the biggest cheating scandals so far have involved school officials manipulating data, new opportunities for individual students to cheat might be emerging.
Last week Florida experienced the down side of high tech. Students had trouble logging in to take the tests. Some who logged in were kicked off after starting. Some had their work disappear. Some just faced a “white screen.”
On Monday Education Commissioner Pam Stewart said law enforcement officials are investigating whether a cyberattack had caused some of the problems, particularly that “white screen” of death. We’ll see. Could be true; could be a convenient excuse.
In any case, the glitches seem to have provided an opening to be exploited by some students. A Palm Beach County teacher emailed me Monday morning to say that she had heard that test information was making the rounds on Twitter – presumably from students who got a peek at the test and then were kicked off.
If savvy students already are exploiting glitches, what holes in security and procedures will they uncover and exploit in the coming years as more and more tests are moved online? Tiny cameras, hidden, sensitive microphones, concealed earpieces – gadgets of all kind – are turning our kids into data collecting and transmitting powerhouses.
And that’s just students sitting down to take the tests. Reflect on the data breaches that have affected major corporations such as Target and Home Depot. Expect Florida’s brightest whiz kids to be poking around looking for holes in the security protecting test data.
Surely, you say, the testing companies have provided unbreakable cyber-locks to prevent unauthorized manipulation, destruction or distribution of such sensitive information. Yes, and surely a testing company paid millions to provide online exams will have the expertise to ensure that students sitting down to take an all-important test will be able to do something as rudimentary as logging in.
Let’s close with a pop quiz. The likelihood that Florida’s high-stakes testing apparatus will suffer security breaches is:
A) High
B) Very high
C) Higher than that
D) Guaranteed
(Hint: My hand is dangling.)
Jac Wilder VerSteeg is editor of Context Florida. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
