Security Breach: Testing and Cell Phones

Summative Assessments are an essential part of education.  Standardized testing is the wave of the future.  Testing is not going away.

Cell phones are another thing not going away.  Most students I teach have smartphones.  In an unofficial survey of my class more than 68% of the students had a smart phone.  Students are tied to their phones for social reasons and parents are adamant about maintaining constant contact with their students (not to mention protecting their students' expensive cell phone).

There is a great deal of turbulence where testing and cell phone use overlap.  In a recent staff meeting one of the APs showed us a screenshot of last year's STAR Results.  Under the heading, in bright red letters reads the following:

A security breach involving social media exposure of 2013 STAR test material has been confirmed at this school site. This school is not eligible for state or federal award recognition during the 2013–14 school year.

Apparently a student took a selfie with the cover of the STAR booklet.  It may seem petty, but under no circumstances is any part of the test allowed to be reproduced; the integrity of the test depends on it.

Now the school is trying to figure out how to prevent this from happening again.  One of the big hurdles will be establishing and enforcing rules that run contrary to school culture.  Teachers seldom have established procedures for preventing students from using cell phones during quizzes and exams.  Most of the time it's a verbal warning: "Don't use your cell phone during the exam."  Students and parents push back when cell phone use is infringed.

The ideas for preventing a "security breach" ranged from a school-wide ban on cell phones to buying a cell phone pouch grid that can be mounted to the wall.  I don't know what the official position of the school will end up being, but the whole topic highlighted the benefit of matching my classroom cell phone policy with that of standardized testing.

Folks get riled up when expectations are tightened unexpectedly.  Setting expectations from the beginning of the school year seems to be the best way to prevent a tornado of angry emails.  Once the standard is established students and parents will feel more at-ease when it comes to standardized testing time.

In Mr. Davis' Science Classroom, cell phones will be welcome tools for research and analysis, but unwelcome for classic quizzes and exams in accordance with standardized test rules.