cheating

Passing paper notes during a test is a common way students cheat. | Photo Illustration by Evan Sherman

Evaluating how cheating plays a role in the educational system and impacts both culture and policy at school HANNAH CHERN editor-in-chief STEVEN CURTO assistant editor

Taking into consideration the many pressures that students face, the female believes that a major cause of cheating is grown from immense pressures that students receive from parents.

“I definitely believe that if you’re raised in a household where rewards and punishments are given for grades, there’s going to be a higher rate of cheating,” the female said. “...Pressure from family is something that impacts a student’s willingness to cheat because they will do whatever it takes to please their parents or their teachers.”For a junior girl, who wanted to remain

“IF I SEE SOMEONE WHO CONSTANTLY CHEATS ... I THINK THEY’RE CHEATING THEMSELVES OUT OF AN EDUCATION.” anonymous senior girl

anonymous due to her complacen- cy with cheating, pressures from her mom to obtain at least a B in all of her classes caused her to decide to cheat. “My motivations to cheat are that my mom will ground me if my grades drop below a B,” the girl. “The desire to not be grounded until my grade is back up leads me to cheat my way to get better grades.”

In addition to parental pressures that some students face, math teacher Sarah Sides believes that society and individual pressures cause students to CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Features | 14 Design by Tatum Elliott

SPEAKING UP Anonymous students from each grade level voice their opinions on cheating turn to cheating. “A lot of [students put] pressure on themselves to perform really well and [face] pressures from parents at home and from society,” Sides said. “I think a lot of students are perfectionists, so they might not need to cheat, but they tend to ... because of the pressures.” Though students often face pres- sures to maintain As in their classes, some students use cheating as a way to pass a class, such as anonymous ju- nior male who cheated in Spanish II his freshman year.

“I had a pretty bad grade...and to try and improve it, I had a few words and what they meant ... [written] on my leg,” the male said. “I wasn’t really using it, but I guess it was seen [by the teacher], and my grade dropped tre- mendously.”

For another junior girl, who asked to remain anonymous due to her ac- tions with cheating, challenges in life cause her to resort to cheating.

“I feel like I haven’t cheated until this year. It’s like work has been easy, but now that I’m actually having to face hardships, everything’s getting harder,” the female said. “I’ve just been using other people as a resource instead of relying on myself.”

School social worker Debbie Gudenkauf has come across many students with test anxiety, which is the feeling of distress one has before taking a test, which she stated can mo- tivate students to prepare well for the test, but often interferes with perfor- mance.

“It’s normal to have some distress or anxious feelings before a test. Those feelings can actually help you prepare and perform better,” Gudenkauf said. “When these feelings are so strong ADDING IT ALL UP The prevalence of cheating at school

90% 10% yes no have you ever cheated academically? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13 if you have cheated, why did you feel compelled to cheat? to get or keep an A a different reason test anxiety to pass a class 48% 19% 18% 15% if you have cheated, what type of assignments do you cheat on most? 10% 13% 77% homework tests quizzes

that they interfere with your perfor- mance and you do poorly, they may be at the level that would be considered test anxiety.”

Test anxiety may be one factor for why students decide to cheat, but for AP Physics teacher Ryan Johnston when it comes to AP students cheating in his classes, he believes it’s primarily the result of pressures students place on themselves to get all As, which he

“WHEN YOU GET ALL THIS PRESSURE TO SUCCEED ... THEY’RE GOING TO SUCCEED BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.”

teacher ryan johnston

believes is the result of the self-worth students derive from the grading sys- tem.

“There’s a lot of pressure to get good grades, there’s a lot of pressure to get into good schools with a lot of pressure to get good jobs,” Johnston said. “People see these [grades] as val- ue judgments on themselves. Grades are just constructs put on them by so- ciety, and so when you get all this pres- sure to succeed according to society’s expectations, then they’re gonna suc- ceed by any means necessary which is to cheat.”

Gudenkauf agrees with Johnston for the reason students resort to cheat

“I think people should do their assignments to learn the material, but sometimes it’s just easier to cheat.”

Smart watches are used to cheat on tests by looking up answers online or sending messages to other test takers. | Photo Illustration by Evan Sherman

ing, as she believes students cheat due to fear of failure and not maintaining a high GPA.

“With the students I see, it is often fear of failing – fear of not having the GPA they want or that parents expect, fear of not getting into a college that they want or fear of being academically ineligible to participate,” Gudenkauf said. “While there are students who cheat because it’s easier than doing the work, those are not the students I see.”

A second anonymous senior female shares Johnston and Gudenkauf ’s sentiments about why her peers decide to cheat in both AP and regular courses. “I think they’re motivated by grades because we’re taught, in this society, that grades are everything; your GPA is everything, and if you have a C, it’s the end of the world even though it’s not,” the female said. “That kind of environment causes students to cheat rather than learn the material, which is what school is supposed to be designed to do.”

While most students cheat because they fear failure and having a bad GPA, Sides believes that students should take a failure for one test rather than cheat.

“I always try to tell students, ‘I’d rather you fail a test than I catch you cheating because ... we all have bad days,’” Sides said. “Take less emphasis off of the grade and put more emphasis on your character, your choices and efforts.”

anonymous junior boy anonymous sophomore girl “It’s bad when people cheat on tests because ... you know multiple days before you are having one and can prepare.” “[Cheating] on homework ... doesn’t matter to me. I try not to cheat on tests because I think that is wrong.”

anonymous senior girl “I say [cheating on anything is] bad because either you put in the effort or you don’t. I think there’s no in between.”

Cheating is dealt with differently by each teacher. One consequence for cheating is receiving no credit for the test or assignment they cheated on. | Photo Illustration by Hayden Resch

“I think the policy is way too harsh because if someone gets a zero on a highly weighted test...then giving them a zero can possibly...ruin their GPA,” the female said. “That will affect them later in life when they apply to college, and I just think that’s ridiculous.”

While administration follows the guidelines set in the student handbook, some teachers report cases of cheating depending on the circumstances. Even though Sides reports major incidents of cheating to administration, such as on a test or a final, she believes that just because a student cheats, it shouldn’t reflect their capabilities.

“Obviously there should be con- sequences, but...you don’t want their grade to be two grades below what it should be...,” Sides said. “I want their grades to reflect what they actually know, not the fact that they cheated.” Waldeck hopes the policy for cheat- ing will help push students to work for their grade.

“It’s our hope that the consequenc- es deter the behavior and students... except the grade they earn based on how hard they work,” Waldeck said. Besides giving students conse- quences to deter cheating, the anon- ymous junior female believes that teachers should also focus on making sure content is understandable.

“Cheating is inevitable, so I really think that [teachers] should work to not just prevent cheating...but make sure everyone understands the con- cepts so cheating can be nipped at the start instead of at the end.” CHEATING POLICY I n the student handbook, the school defines academic dishonesty as “cheating, plagiarism, obtaining an unfair advantage and aiding and abet- ting cheating” on assignments and ex- aminations. While teachers often deal with cases of academic misconduct on their own, according to the student handbook, the highest consequence students can receive is an “in-school or out-of-school suspension and/or loss of participation in extracurricular activities.”

If a student is caught cheating and administration is notified, the student will face a standard consequence de- pending on the offenses severity. If the student is caught cheating again, administration follows a consequence continuum to determine the student’s punishment, according to Waldeck.

“A student who engages in any form of academic misconduct will forfeit credit for the work in question and may be subjected to additional disciplinary measures,” Waldeck said. “You will get a zero...and after that, if the behavior continues or if you were also dishonest with us, we may issue further consequences.”

An anonymous senior female thinks that the policy of giving stu- dents a zero for assignments that they’ve cheated on is excessive, as it will hurt their grade significantly and prevent them from obtaining a rea- sonable grade in the class.

continued from page 14 if you have cheated, how often do you cheat on tests? 60% 31% 9% rarely sometimes always if you have cheated, how often do you cheat on assignments? monthly do you view cheating as morally wrong? yes no 37% 63%

only once

survey of 124 students

staff editorial:

PREVENTING CHEATING The education system should be reformed to disincentivize cheating

ANNA OWSLEY mill valley news editor-in-chief

For many years, the education sys- tem has been built upon the idea of getting good grades. While cheating has always been a problem, in recent years it has been on the rise due to its increasing ease. Between phones, smart watches and the increase of on- line tests, students have been desensi- tized to cheating.

In addition, the increased pressure of school has made cheating increas- ingly common. Whether the goal is entry into a good college, living up to parents’ expectations or simply grad- uating high school, students have had many reasons to get an advantage in any way possible. Despite the steep consequences that students who are caught cheating face, the need to get the grade often outweighs the possible consequences.

Even if students always have the incentive to cheat, the problem could TANNER SMITH assistant editor

be reduced if teachers modified their teaching style. While no one is arguing that teachers are to blame for cheat- ing, they can still take steps to prevent it.

The education system’s focus on memorization allows students to pass tests without having retained the in- formation. This creates students who aren’t prepared for the rigors of col- lege or the workplace. The best way to remedy this is to focus on discussion and written responses, which lessens students’ ability and incentive to cheat. To reshape this flawed system, inclass assignments should be replaced by teacher-led student discussion that better engages students, while still forcing them to stay on topic and learn the material. This would mini- mize mindless Googling and copying, and encourages students to voice their questions, make connections and de- velop opinions about the content. Al- though this class structure may sound more difficult, it will help students find the content more meaningful to their lives so that they are more likely to actually retain the information and put in the effort to learn the content.

Another crucial change would be to restructure tests. Required classes gen- erally use traditional multiple choice tests that emphasize names and dates. Teachers should instead measure stu- dents’ knowledge, as done in AP U.S. History teacher Jeff Wieland’s class, by utilizing written-response questions that require a deeper understanding of the material. While classes would not need to have the same rigor as AP U.S. History, this general teach- ing strategy can be utilized in on-level classes just as easily.

Although these measures will not completely eliminate cheating, they are a step in the right direction. While students will always try to cheat, these changes would disincentivize stu- dents from the practice. Even if these changes may be difficult for teachers, the benefits are worth the cost. By bet- ter engaging students with discussion, they retain information and gain a deeper understanding of the content, while disincentivizing cheating.