A quick picture can do a lot of damage.

Recently, a Manhattan High student took it upon themself to take a picture of a State Assessment Writing prompt and share it through the popular app Snapchat. One of the viewers of the Snap soon recognized the prompt during their own assessment.

“A teacher brought it to my attention that a student who had taken their test said that they had seen the question that was on the screen earlier in the day,” Assistant principal Angie Messer said. “The teacher sent the student to me and I talked to the student and found out that we had another student who had taken a screenshot of a question he had on his assessment and snapchatted it out during the day.”

The district has specific actions that they follow in instances such as these.

“When a teacher learns about an irregularity around testing protocol, the infraction is treated as a disciplinary matter for the students involved as well as a situation requiring measures to re-establish the testing environment validity,” superintendent Bob Shannon said.

The action was reported to the state.

“I had to self report us for breaking testing protocol to our district test coordinator and then she had to report that to the state of Kansas and we also notified Dr. Shannon so in case information comes down from the state he’s aware of it and obviously I had to notify Mr. Hoyt,” Messer said.

The student who took the picture’s test has been nullified and will count against the school.

“So the state is aware of it and what will happen is the student who took the picture, that student’s test will be invalidated and it will count against our participation rate for our high school,” Messer said. “The other student who saw the question earlier in the day, so benefitted from seeing it, that student has had their test reset and will retest with a different writing prompt.”

Due to state participation requirements and the funding that comes with meeting them, the student’s nullified score harshens the burden of state assessments. High schools are required to have around a 95 percent participation rate.

“I was very very disappointed because this is my second year here at Manhattan High, but in my previous job for five years I coordinated the state testing and I know how important it is and how difficult it is sometimes to reach your participation level that you have to at a high school,” Messer said. “Every student is important to test and what happens with that data is very important and it’s just very disappointing to me that a student didn’t think it would be a big deal to not follow the directions they were given.”

State Assessments, though at times a hassle, are one of the many ways in which teaching and learning can be evaluated.

“We use that information to look back and reflect upon our teaching and see how we’re doing at teaching towards the standards we’re supposed to be teaching in our classes and how the students are retaining that information and showing that they have learned it,” Messer said. “Unfortunately, it’s a very high stakes piece of data that the state uses for your funding and things like that.”

Shannon agrees on the importance of State Assessments.

“State assessments are useful to provide information to the teacher about a student’s achievement on the standards being assessed and as a general overview of the extent to which groups of students have learned the intended standards,” Shannon said.

Correspondingly, new precautions have been implemented to avoid further breaks in protocol.

“In the state testing rooms now there are boxes for students to put their electronics in the room when they enter as an added measure because the teacher had asked students not to have their phones out in the same room that the student took a screenshot and, clearly, that didn’t work,” Messer said.