SURVEY

Caught cheating

A recent national survey shows almost half of American teenagers admit to cheating on tests, reports and other school work in the past year, and an informal survey of 10 area high school students and recent graduates shows this region seems to fit the national trend. Every area teenager asked — from both public and private schools — said academic cheating is relatively common at their school and is accepted by students, especially on day-to-day work.

"I've done it on homework, but it isn't worth risking a zero on a test," said one student who asked not to be identified. "If you are involved in sports or something, you may not have time to do all the homework. You ask to borrow someone's paper before class to copy."

The 2003 Gallup Youth Survey poll of 2,000 teens nationwide taken between January 2003 and March 2004 shows 46 percent of high school students age 13-17 admit to cheating on at least one exam in the past year. Sixty-five percent say cheating is a problem in their schools. One student, who also asked to remain anonymous, said he was surprised only 46 percent owned up to their cheating. He thought it would have been closer to 60 percent.

"You see it all the time. If it is something they care about, then they'll put in some real effort. Otherwise they don't bother," he said. "Why waste time on something we're never going to use?"

Many teachers nationwide agree that cheating is a growing concern for American high schools. A recent survey of 725 teachers conducted by CNN.com showed that 58 percent thought cheating was either a "very serious" or "somewhat serious" problem within their schools. Quincy High School Interim Principal Rollie Platt and Assistant Principal Tim Kreinberg said they would be "naive" to believe students don't cheat at their school, but both said they have not seen it reach the same proportions as the national survey. When cheaters are caught at QHS, it usually means at least an automatic zero on the assignment and probably a call to the student's parents. However, in extreme cases or for habitual cheaters, the penalty could be that the student is removed from a class or suspended from school.

"Whenever we find out about those things, we deal with it pretty heavily," Platt said.

Pittsfield High School Principal Lonny Lemon said his school had 10 proven cases of cheating this year, but he said it is unrealistic to believe those were the only incidents out of a 400-member student body in eight daily classes. "We watch it as closely as we can, but we're probably close to that (46 percent) number," he said.

Some teachers involved in the national survey are seeing an increase in the number of students using camera phones and text messagers to pass information. Most area schools have banned pagers, cellular telephones and text message devices from their classrooms. Only one area student had ever heard of students using a cell phone to "text" answers back and forth during an exam, and that was at an area college. Schools can sign up for Internet-based services that allow teachers to download questionable papers so they can be compared to thousands of reports to look for plagiarism. The cheating in area schools seems to be low-tech — crib notes, writing on hands or writing on the bill of a baseball cap seem to be the most common methods. One local student said he had a classmate who wrote notes on bubble gum wrappers, then re-wrapped the gum in its original package. He declined to say if the student was caught.

Monday, June 7, 2004 By Phil Weber

Phil Weber 
8 June 2004

http://www.whig.com/306737469235263.php

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