Cheating in American Schools - A National Disgrace

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Cheating in American Schools - A National Disgrace

Cheating by students in American schools has become a serious and growing problem. A 2005 poll of 12,000 college graduates in the contiguous United States with a 62% response rate showed the following: 45% of all students cheated on an examination that counted toward 10-20% of their grade and 51% cheated on an exam that counted toward 33-50% of their final grade. When asked why they cheated, 70% of cheaters stated that they did not fear failing the exams on which they cheated and that cheating for a "higher grade" was the primary motive. The most common method of cheating involved electronic technologies such as instant messaging via telephone, e-mail, internet searches, and other devices holding electronic versions of material covered on an exam. For outside classroom work, 71% of all poll responders admitted to copying homework from someone they considered "smarter". Of all the reponders, 43% of students stated that they had turned in an essay copied from the internet. Of the cheaters, 88% had turned in an essay copied from th...

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