Cheating to Succeed: A Growing Issue

Cheating in schools has been an ongoing dilemma for indolent students, however, recently more and more studies are finding an increase in students cheating, particularly with high achievers at the forefront. Large-scale cheating has been uncovered over the last year at some of the nation’s most competitive schools, like Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, the Air Force Academy and, most recently, Harvard (Hult Blog).

“I don’t think there’s any question that students have become more competitive, under more pressure, and, as a result, tend to excuse more from themselves and other students, and that’s abetted by the adults around them,” said Donald L. McCabe, the considered founding father of research on academic integrity at the Rutgers University Business School. This continual competitiveness has spawned a cheating culture.

Studies of common student behavior determined that a majority of students have violated standards of academic integrity to some degree, and that so called ‘academically inclined students’ are just as likely to partake as others. Experts assign this issue to the fact that cheating has become easier with the implementation of technology in classrooms and the failure of both schools and parents to give students a clear message about what is allowed and what is prohibited regarding cheating.

It is indisputable that Internet access has made cheating easier, enabling students to connect instantly with answers, friends, and works to plagiarize. Advocates for the implementation of these devices in the classroom typically say that these digital technologies are changing the way students learn and that schools need to adapt to these rapidly changing technologies – a frequent trope that tends to ignore legitimate drawbacks for teachers and students. The technology is extremely helpful, but many educators fail to see past their high utility in the classroom and see their use by students for blatant cheating.

Therefore, to resolve this issue, schools across the country should implement strict rules about the use of cell phones on tests and instruct students to put backpacks and cell phones towards the front of the classroom. Furthermore, if a test or assignment is done on a computer in the classroom, schools can use screen recording software like GoGuardian, which allows a teacher to watch the devices being used in the classroom simultaneously. This software is used at the high school I am currently enrolled in, Bernards High School, and I can personally attest to its success. One class I take does an exceptional job of managing cheating by also using Draftback, a chrome extension that will show the entire history of the creation of a Google document. The two simple implementations that I have mentioned virtually eliminated any previous cheating and plagiarism that went on in that class.

As a student myself, I find that my peers are surprisingly unsure of the definitions of plagiarism and cheating. Today we live in a society that praises success, fueling a competitive environment in academia of students vying for selective colleges and job positions. Yet, is it really success if it is obtained through cheating?

Works Cited
“Easy Ways to Prevent Cheating.” TeachHUB, www<www.teachhub.com/easy-ways-prevent-cheating>
Roberts, Jeffrey A., and David M. Wasieleski. “Jeffrey A. Roberts & David M. Wasieleski, wwwMoral Reasoning in Computer-Based Task Environments: Exploring the Interplay between wwwCognitive and Technological Factors on Individuals' Propensity to Break Rules - wwwPhilPapers.” Steve Clarke, Conspiracy Theories and the Internet: Controlled Demolition wwwand Arrested Development - PhilPapers, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1 Jan. 1970, www<https://philpapers.org/rec/ROBMRI>
“Why Students Cheat, and What To Do About It Hult Blog.” Hult Blog, 24 Jan. 2018, www<www.hult.edu/blog/why-students-cheat-and-what-to-do-about-it/>