Cheating in School

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.