A significant milestone was reached by many college-bound young adults this past weekend: the SAT exam. For those that took the exam, it was a culmination of months of hard work and dedicated studying, not to mention their years of dedicated schooling. This achievement by so many hardworking students was made all the more significant in light of recent SAT cheating scandals in New York's Nassau County submitted to The College Board.
In a disappointing report, rather than taking the time-honored route of studying extensively and working hard to score high on the SAT exam, some students had allegedly opted to pay an impostor hundreds - in some cases, even thousands - of dollars to take the exam for them. This paints today's generation of students in a poor light. However, the overwhelming majority of students taking the SATs do perform and score well of their own accord and personal work ethic.
As a result of the cheating scandal, New York government leaders have recently proposed a new bill that would essentially find those involved in education testing fraud guilty of fraud. This would include individuals who impersonate another person and take the education exam for pay. Those who forge an SAT test would be charged with a misdemeanor.
The bill, which was proposed by Senator Kenneth LaValle of Suffolk County, also calls for increased security measures during the SATs, including mandatory photo identification and, potentially, fingerprinting or retinal scans. One company has also proposed the incorporation of advanced plant DNA technology for further security.
The majority of college-bound hopefuls and SAT exam takers are upstanding, studious and hard working students who want to achieve good results on the exam of their own accord and merit. The fact that lawmakers find it necessary to introduce this sort of measure into law is certainly unfortunate.
However, it also rewards and emphasizes the achievement of those students who do study hard and perform successfully on the SATs while simultaneously cracking down on those students who exhibit bad judgment and who potentially might have been able to cheat and benefit from the lack of enforcement.
What do you think about the proposed legislation? Tell us in the comments below.
Photo by Mr_Stein
