Why they cheat |
Winter 2011 • Volume 9 • Issue 1
When a student takes a test, educators presume that the results will reveal what the learner knows and is able to do. Test results morph into "data" that administrators and school board members use to make decisions that affect the district and its community. But when students – or their teachers – cheat to boost results, the function of education and its accountability mechanisms are both undermined.
Equally disturbing are the social aspects, as cheating is viewed by its many perpetrators as morally acceptable. A survey by Who's Who Among American High School Students discovered that 76 percent of high-achieving teens cheated because it "didn't seem like a big deal." Once one gets past the moral issues, cheating appears to have a favorable cost-benefit balance; 90 percent of respondents to the Who's Who survey who admitted cheating said they had never been caught.
