CheatingThe Kansan State University Junior was desperate. Already on academic probation af

Cheating

The Kansan State University Junior was desperate. Already on academic probation after stumbling through a shaky sophomore year while battling a severe case of asthma, he was about to flunk political science for missing two exams. Another F could mean suspension, which would put at risk the college degree he'd always counted on. He couldn't take that chance. Instead, he took a different one.

Thanks to a part-time job in the university's information-technology department, the young man -- a born-and-bred Midwesterner who loved reading and played trumpet in his high school band had access to his professor's online grade book. with a few quick keystrokes, he was able to give himself passing scores for the tests he hadn't taken. He wasn't clever enough, though, to cover his tracks. He was soon caught and suspended--and has been racked with guilt ever since.

While this student and his professors say the incident resulted from a momentary lapse in judgment, the sad fact is that, in a broader sense, it's hardly an isolated act. There's plenty to suggest that academic cheating is epidemic in the country's high schools and colleges. Consider a few examples: nine business students at the University of Maryland caught receiving text messaged answers on their cell phones during an accounting exam; a Texas teen criminally charged for selling stolen test answers--allegedly swiped via a keystroke-decoding device affixed to a teacher's computer--to fellow students.

Beyond the anecdotes, experts point to a stream of data--much of it from students themselves-- that indicates cheating is rampant. A report last June by Rutgers University professor Donald McCabe for The Center for Academic Integrity showed 70 percent of students at 60 colleges admitting to some cheating within the previous year; one in four admitted to engaging in serious cheating (copying from another student, using concealed notes, or helping someone else cheat). McCabe's high school findings were similarly grim: Of 18,000 high school students surveyed across the country over the past four years, 70 percent of those in public schools admitted to at least one case of serious test cheating; about six in ten admitted to some form. of plagiarism. Just under half of all private school students acknowledged similar lapses.

Cheating isn't new. As long as there have been roles, there have been people intent on breaking them. What's alarming now, says Institute founder Michael Josephson, is how widespread and blatant the practice has become.

"People who cheated were in the minority and they kept it secret, even from their friends," he says. "Now they are the majority, and they are bold about it. Today, if you ask kids about cheating, you will get such cavalier attitudes that the statistics are almost secondary."

Success at Any Cost

Josephson and others grappling with the issue say two forces are behind the erosion in ethics. First, advances in technology--chiefly the Internet and portable digital devices--have made cheating easier. A bigger factor, though, is the way bad behavior. across society--ball players popping steroids, business executives cooking corporate books, journalists fabricating quotes, even teachers faking test scores to make schools look good--signals that nothing is out of bounds when success is at stake.

The pressure to succeed that drives some to cheat starts early, says Tomas Rua, a senior at Friends Seminary, a New York City private school. "Everything that you do and work for is to maximize your potential," he says. "And many people feel driven to use any recourse so that they can get that grade. There is a lot of hysteria about college, and you start hearing about it in the middle school."

Daniel, a student at Turlock High School in California's Central Valley, certainly takes that attitude: "If I want to get the better

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