Concord Monitor · Education · April 18, 2026

AI is breaking high school. Students are starting to sound the alarm.

by Jeremy Margolis

Abridged for classroom use · ACT-format reading. Full article: PDF · concordmonitor.com
    How the questions work
  • Ten questions, including one constructed response at the end. Work them in order.
  • All answers go in your Lab Notebook first, then you copy them into the classwork form.
  • Every wrong option is one of the four traps. Name which one.
  • Nobody finishes all ten. Get as far as you get.
AI is breaking high school. Students are starting to sound the alarm.
Concord Monitor · Jeremy Margolis · April 18, 2026 · abridged for classroom use
Faith Dudley, a Concord Christian Academy junior, standing at her laptop in the school hallway.
Faith Dudley, junior, Concord Christian Academy. Photo: Alexander Rapp · Concord Monitor
Three Concord High School seniors seated on a bench: Martin Pennington, Andrew Pfitzenmayer, and Caledonia Mahon.
Concord High seniors Martin Pennington, Andrew Pfitzenmayer, and Caledonia Mahon. Photo: Jeremy Margolis · Monitor staff
  1. Concord Christian Academy junior Faith Dudley was in class
  2. a few weeks ago when her teacher confronted a friend about
  3. using AI on an assignment. The friend denied it, and the
  4. teacher didn’t press the issue. But Dudley wasn’t sure.
  5. Curious, she asked her friend after class whether the words
  6. had been her own or a machine’s.
  7. The teacher’s suspicions had been right. Dudley
  8. considered her friend a good writer, and the news was
  9. “hard for me to hear,” she said in an interview.
  10. The Warner resident is no anti-AI absolutist. Dudley
  11. sometimes uses ChatGPT as a tool to better understand
  12. complicated material, and she doesn’t downplay its utility.
  13. But she draws a firm line at submitting work directly
  14. written by AI.
  15. Increasingly, at high schools across the country, that
  16. line has become blurry. Last year, 84% of high schoolers
  17. reported using AI for their schoolwork, according to a
  18. study conducted by the College Board.
  19. Martin Pennington, a Concord High School senior,
  20. estimated that 80% of his classmates have used AI on
  21. schoolwork in ways that are not allowed. “Among students,
  22. it’s kind of open how much kids use AI for assignments,”
  23. Pennington said. “I used to be motivated to learn, and
  24. now there’s just really not much to be motivated for when
  25. you feel that school is more about just receiving a grade
  26. than learning.”
  27. Interviews with eight students from four area high
  28. schools, all of whom are unsettled by rising AI use,
  29. revealed a burgeoning crisis in New Hampshire’s schools.
  30. The students described feeling sapped of motivation,
  31. noticeable cognitive deterioration among their peers, and
  32. a sense of hopelessness.
  33. Concord High senior Andrew Pfitzenmayer said a
  34. classmate in his advanced history class “mentioned that he
  35. didn’t know the Declaration of Independence was even
  36. attached to American history, because he had used AI
  37. during that whole class.” Those interviewed said students
  38. have become more emboldened to use AI this year because
  39. of the unreliability of detection tools. They knew of more
  40. classmates who had been wrongly accused than students
  41. who had been caught.
  42. “It makes teachers not trust students as much because
  43. they automatically assume the worst,” Concord High senior
  44. Caledonia Mahon said. Mahon poured her heart into a
  45. recent end-of-course reflection for an outdoor education
  46. class called R.O.P.E. But when her classmate got up to
  47. give his speech, he openly admitted that he had used
  48. ChatGPT to write it. “Why am I even doing all of this
  49. work?” Mahon wondered.
  50. The teacher, Frank Harrison, said in a statement that
  51. he had “no evidence” AI-generated work had been
  52. submitted in the course.
  53. Terry Wolf, Concord School District’s director of
  54. communications, said the district’s AI implementation
  55. team is developing a new policy. Concord High’s current
  56. policy bars all AI use. Rob Starner, Concord Christian
  57. Academy’s head of school, thinks more writing should
  58. take place in class. Concord Christian doesn’t currently
  59. have a school-wide AI policy, but it plans to develop one
  60. over the summer.
  61. “I worry about almost a mind-deadening future,” said
  62. Londonderry High School junior Lauren Damota, who came
  63. in third place in a statewide writing competition on AI
  64. regulation. Vaibhav Rastogi, the winner and a Bishop
  65. Brady High School senior, tutors math. “The general
  66. populace of students — their critical thinking, their
  67. ability to really stick with something for an extended
  68. period of time — that is something I’ve found lacking,”
  69. Rastogi said.
  70. “When strong students copy and paste this really good
  71. essay from AI, the teachers don’t question it, because
  72. they already know that they are capable of writing it,
  73. even though they didn’t,” Concord High junior Jasmine
  74. Dorval said. Students said the solution is not going to
  75. come from blocking access to AI. “Embed it in their
  76. minds that the point of school is not just to pass and
  77. get the highest grade,” Concord High junior Zadie Taylor
  78. said. “It’s really to understand the core concepts of
  79. what they’re learning.”
Q1 · Main Idea the passage
What is this article mainly about?
  • AStudents who are troubled by widespread AI use describe how it is changing their schools.
  • BSchools have found effective ways to detect AI use.
  • CAI detection tools do not work reliably.
  • DAll high school students now use AI to do their schoolwork.
Q2 · Detail lines 4–6
After class, what did Faith Dudley do?
  • AShe reported her friend to the teacher.
  • BShe asked her friend whether the work was her own.
  • CShe told the teacher her friend had denied it.
  • DShe stopped speaking to her friend.
Q3 · Detail lines 53–61
According to the article, what is Concord High School’s current AI policy?
  • AIt allows AI for research but not for writing.
  • BThe school does not have one yet.
  • CIt bars all AI use.
  • DIt requires students to say when they have used AI.
Q4 · Inference lines 50–52
Why does the article include Frank Harrison’s statement?
  • AIt shows Harrison proved the students wrong.
  • BIt reports the teacher’s response, which does not match what the students described.
  • CIt shows the students were lying about the speech.
  • DIt explains what punishment the student received.
Q5 · Inference lines 33–37
Pfitzenmayer says a classmate did not know the Declaration of Independence was attached to American history. What does this suggest?
  • AThe classmate had never been taught American history.
  • BAI tools give incorrect information about history.
  • CThe classmate got through the coursework without learning what it covered.
  • DAdvanced history classes are too difficult for most students.
Q6 · Vocabulary line 10
The article says Dudley is no anti-AI absolutist. As used here, absolutist means a person who:
  • Ahas studied a subject in depth.
  • Bnever uses technology of any kind.
  • Cfollows every school rule exactly.
  • Drejects something completely, with no exceptions.
Q7 · Function lines 27–32
What job does the paragraph about eight students from four high schools do?
  • AIt tells you where the article’s information came from and what it found.
  • BIt proves that all New Hampshire students are unsettled by AI.
  • CIt explains how students avoid getting caught.
  • DIt shows that AI detection tools are unreliable.
Q8 · Two Numbers lines 15–18, 19–20
Pennington estimates 80 percent of his classmates have used AI in ways that are not allowed. The College Board found 84 percent of high schoolers used AI for schoolwork. What is the relationship between these two numbers?
  • AThey confirm each other, since they are only four points apart.
  • BPennington’s number proves the College Board study is accurate.
  • CThey measure different things and come from different kinds of evidence.
  • DBoth come from national studies of high school students.
Q9 · Detail lines 61–65
What contest did Lauren Damota and Vaibhav Rastogi enter?
  • AA national coding competition.
  • BA statewide writing competition on AI regulation.
  • CA local science fair on AI ethics.
  • DA New Hampshire debate tournament.
Q10 · Constructed Response lines 76–79
Zadie Taylor says the point of school is “to understand the core concepts of what they’re learning — how to retain that information and use it later on in life.” Do you agree with her definition of the point of school? Cite one specific line from the passage to support your answer.
Write in your Lab Notebook. 3–5 sentences. State your position, then quote or paraphrase at least one line from the passage that supports it.