Last fall, a number of Long Island high school students were caught cheating on ACT and SAT tests by using fake identification to impersonate other students.
The controversy surrounding these prominent tests and the subsequent rule changes raise two major issues. First, there is the discouraging but undeniable fact that students of all ages will always attempt to break the system and maximize gain with minimal effort. Long overdue tweaks to the registration and test-day process will discourage plenty of students from taking drastic measures such as those who were punished in Long Island, but most larger high schools do not have the time to sacrifice to verify the photos of several hundred students. These changes also do nothing to prevent wandering eyes and “nothing about the more significant and widespread problem of collaboration inside the test center,” according to the director of FairTest, an educational organization that works to ensure valid and fair testing.
Second, there is reason to evaluate the message this sends to youth. Students across the nation are heavily pressured to achieve certain test scores. A cheater’s inaccurate test score could be the one factor that puts them ahead of another potential college candidate who actually cooperated with the rules. We continue to place an enormous value on these esteemed standardized tests for college acceptance and scholarship opportunities, even though the integrity of the test has been consistently weakened. Instead of merely punishing the cheaters and repeatedly adjusting the rules, the academic community should decide to take stronger actions to prevent cheating in general because it is crucial that students understand the implications of cheating from an early age. Students must learn that it is impossible to be the best at everything and realize the value and satisfaction of producing honest work. Failure is highly frowned upon in the American eye, but cheating is a sign of weakness and laziness that any person should be ashamed of, no matter how small or large the stakes.
While no one is perfect, there remains no true benefit in cheating on standardized tests. Freshmen students are often shocked when they come to college and find that a professor has an extensive list of procedures that must be followed on test days to limit chances to cheat. At the college level, those that cheat will proceed to the job market and discover that they will be left behind if they do not know the relevant material and how to prepare themselves for major job assignments. Every college student should be reminded that honesty really is the best policy in the academic environment.
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