Top Queens HS bans take-home essays over AI cheating fears


An Elite Queens secondary school forces students to abandon keyboards for pens to prevent them from using Chatgpt and other artificial intelligence tools to cheat, learned the post.

In a decision that scares some students, the Townsend Harris high school ends its long -standing policy to let children type summer reading tests at home, and instead of doing them Finish the mission noted by hand during the first weeks of September.

The mission, a rite of transition to the start of the school year, generally obliges students to read a book during the summer for their English class and to transform a written test when they return to class.

Students of Townsend Harris High School will now write their summer reading tests entirely in hand in early September, marking the end of the traditional take -out mission. Helayne Seidman

“We have noticed too much use of artificial intelligence in the past and thought in class will allow a more authentic representation of students’ thought,” said Brian Sweeney, British teacher, Brian Sweeney said to the classicThe newspaper managed by students.

Critics argue that politics unjustly brings together all students and could make the mission more on speed than real understanding.

“I think it is unfair that we are held responsible for the unused integration of other students,” said a student in the classic.

Another entrant student argued that she prefers home assignments for time management and that the new rule “brings a problem to people who find it difficult to write at a faster rate”.

Yasmeen Ismail, junior and chief co-editor of the classic, described the change of reasonable first step.

Junior Yasmeen Ismail, chief editor of the classic, called the change of rule, a reasonable step, but schools also argued that schools also need long-term strategies to manage AI. Obtained by the New York Post

“In the long term, we need policies that go beyond the simple restriction of inappropriate use,” she told post.

Defending this decision, rising senior and chief co-editor colleague Ryan Chen said it would help maintain the mission.

“This strongly encourages students to physically read the cover of the book instead of using AI to give them a summary and an analysis in a few minutes,” he said.

Politics intervenes in the middle of increasing tensions in the country’s classrooms, AI, causing a wave of copy and gluing school work. The incoherent rules leave confused children – and in a hurry to cheat just to follow, they say.

Many students of the Z generation are now counting on the AI to go to school, with 97% of the 2,000 high school students and college students in a survey in May saying that they used tools like chatgpt.

English teacher Brian Sweeney told classic that politics aims to provide a more “authentic” snapshot of students’ writing skills by removing AI from the equation. Brian Sweeney / Linkedin

“It is really difficult to be a student who is trying to follow the rules at the moment,” said Schonfeld, a junior upcoming Hunter College HS, a most efficient public school led by Cuny. “It’s almost competitive, like not to use [AI] You disadvantage.

His school has no general ban on AI, and Chatgpt is systematically used by many classmates, she said. Some teachers open it openly, while others consider it cheating. The rules vary from one class to another, and the application is incoherent, said Schonfeld.

Schonfeld estimated that Hunter College HS [AI use] Cases, probably less ”, although the lack of formal rules means that teachers do not always watch it.

Kim Hong, a junior from a Holmdel high school in New Jersey, said that she had seen students from her school being reported on AI’s suspicions for something as minor as using the word “emphasizing” in a test.

Ryan Chen, chief junior co-publisher of the classic, says that class tests will push students to read fully the books assigned rather than rely on AI summaries and fast online analyzes. Obtained by the New York Post

The lack of clarity has let students and teachers rush.

“The school should be where you learn to write and think,” Schonfeld told post. “Chatgpt has not eliminated the need for this, but teachers must also show us how to use it intelligently. It’s difficult because they learn next to us.”

The repression of Townsend HS is in contradiction with a broader change in educational policy.

The New York Ministry of Education has lifted 2023 Chatgpt ban Only a few months after announcing it, but has still not issued clear rules on the use of students. The DOE says that he is developing an AI framework and recently launched a AI Politics Laboratory To help schools navigate ethical implementation.

And last month, the United Federation of teachers joined its parent, the American teachers’ federation, in a $ 23 million partnership With Openai, Microsoft and Anthropic to train educators on how to use AI in class. A new “National Center for AI” will open inside the Lower Manhattan Headquarters of the UFT.

Kim Hong, Junior of New Jersey, says that she saw classmates accused of AI who cheat on small choices of words, fueling anxiety about where schools trace the line. Obtained by the New York Post

Panya Mishra, director of Learning Futures Institute of Arizona State University, said that Townsend should focus on the introduction of AI into the classroom, rather than locking it up.

“Writing tests in class can have a sense in some cases,” said Mishra. “But policies covered like this remove the ability of educators to teach students how to work with AI in a critical and judicious way.”

Frances Kweller, director of the Tutoring Company based in Manhattan and Queens, Kweler Prep, celebrated the approach of Townsend as a necessary step.

“It’s reality. AI is the future, ”she said. “You must make sure that students know how to be independent thinkers.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *