Students caught cheating on tests or plagiarizing papers once faced the possibility of getting a zero on the test, failing a course or, at the very least, humiliation. Not now.
A nationwide study indicates that students not only have no qualms about cheating, but that often teachers close their eyes to it. The survey was conducted by Rutgers University professor Donald L. McCabe, founder and president of the Center for Academic Integrity. This national association of more than 250 colleges is dedicated to fostering scholastic honesty.
According to the 2001 survey involving 4,500 students from 25 high schools across the country, cheating was found to be rampant, with 97 percent admitting to at least one instance of cheating, from copying homework to duplicating answers on tests.
"Nowadays," says Erika Karres, an assistant education professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "parents and some educators think there are worse things."
Karres, a former public school teacher who studied student cheating patterns for more than 30 years, says parents may minimize their child's infraction by thinking "he was cheating, but [it's not like] he's taking drugs" or "she was cheating, but [it's not like] she's pregnant." As for teachers, Karres claims some don't want to go through the hassle to "press the point. Who has time to have a meeting after school with all the records, materials, affidavits and statements?" And even if that meeting occurs, parents may blame the teacher because he or she didn't take the time to change the order of test questions for his or her various classes.
Still, she adds, many teachers are vigilant. For example, English teachers may check word clusters on the Internet for signs of plagiarism or file away samples of student writing to compare with vocabulary and grammar used in later papers.
"Teachers are aware cheating occurs and they are savvy -- not all, but many of them," she says.
No matter the cheaters' motives, educators agree the computer has greatly contributed to their wrongdoing.
Cheating "is just a click away on the Internet," says Claire Paolini, dean of the college of arts and sciences at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn. "There doesn't seem to be ownership of what is there. We use it freely, we use it without paying for it, we use it because it is available and in many instances, it almost looks anonymous."
