TheCenterforExcellenceinWriting.doc

The Center for Excellence in Writing Tea Topic: Minimizing Academic Dishonesty Friday, February 16, 2007 How prevalent is academic dishonesty? Here are some alarming findings: A study by The Center for Academic Integrity found that almost 80% of college students admit to cheating at least once. A poll conducted by US News and World Reports found that 90% of students believe that cheaters are either never caught or have never been appropriately disciplined. The State of Americans: This Generation and the Next (Free Press, July 1996) states that 58.3% of high school students let someone else copy their work in 1969, and 97.5% did so in 1989. A study conducted by Ronald M. Aaron and Robert T. Georgia: Administrator Perceptions of Student Academic Dishonesty in Collegiate Institutions found that 257 chief student affairs officers across the country believe that colleges and universities have not addressed the cheating problem adequately. A national survey published in Education Week found that 54% of students admitted to plagiarizing from the internet; 74% of students admitted that at least once during the past school year they had engaged in serious cheating; and 47% of students believe their teachers sometimes choose to ignore students who are cheating. (above statistics compiled from P) In a Dec., 2006 Penn State survey at all campuses, ~40% of students say that they know someone whos cheated on an exam. (source: John T. Harwood, PSU Senate Committee on Computing and Information Systems) Some faculty and administrator attitudes toward cheating: A study conducted by Donald L. McCabe titled “Faculty Responses to Academic Dishonesty: The Influence of Honor Codes” found that 55% of faculty would not be willing to devote any real effort to documenting suspected incidents of student cheating. With respect to cheating, Im just in denial. I just dont want to deal with it because I know it is a huge problem. -- San Luis Obispo p