In 2008, the Josephson
Institute of Ethics surveyed 30,000 high school students to find how many had
cheated on an exam in the past twelve months. The authors found that an
incredible 64% said they had cheated (38% said they’d cheated two or more
times). The number of girls who cheated was about equal to the number of boys,
and those living in the southeast were more likely to cheat than other regions
of the U.S. (70% said they’d cheated, compared to 64% in the west). Students
attending religious schools were more likely to cheat than those in
non-religious schools: 63% versus 47%, respectively.
Since I teach middle school, I wondered how middle school students compared. It turns out that they cheat less than older kids. The same organization found that serious cheating
begins in middle school and increases in the higher grades. Among other
reasons, students cheat because of pressure to perform, and because they
perceive that everyone is doing it.
Lest you think students are
the only ones cheating, teachers, too, have been caught cheating. Because of
the pressure of student performance on state tests, teachers have been caught
doing things like copying state tests and teaching directly from them, changing
incorrect answers on tests to correct answers, and finishing tests for students
who didn’t finish. Some (if not all) of these teachers faced dismissal, fines,
and even jail.
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