Next year, MCPS will no longer use GoGuardian, an educational software that allows educators to monitor student activity online, in order to prevent cheating, as well as self- or community harm. While GoGuardian has reduced cheating and distractions to students, it was an expensive component of the county’s budget, costing over $230,000 annually. Student Member of the Board, Sami Saeed, proposed this change to save MCPS an immense amount of money that he felt could be put to better use. The loss of GoGuardian will greatly impact teachers’ policies and will limit cheating prevention methods, particularly with the rise of AI tools, such as ChatGPT.

Without GoGuardian, some teachers are planning to switch testing formats in an effort to mitigate cheating. B-CC history teacher, Mr. Gorgian, explained how he will acclimate his class to this new change, “Well, I was using GoGuardian for online quizzes mostly, so I will go back to using paper quizzes and will have to monitor students more closely.” 

Students may be relieved about the loss of GoGuardian, but learning about teachers’ new policies could change their thoughts. Sophomore Pablo Suleiman shared his feelings about the end of GoGuardian at school, “At first I was excited, but I realized that a majority of our tests will be on paper now, and we can’t use our Chromebooks as much.”