Two High School Cheating Scandals
Plus, more essay mill ads. Plus, sponsoring "The Cheat Sheet."
Issue 120
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High School Cheating Story I
If you think academic misconduct in college is bad - and it is - avert your eyes to what’s happening in high schools. Two stories this week highlight cheating in high school. Both are bad.
The first is from Palo Alto High School in Palo Alto, California - the heart of the West’s technology and innovation psyche. The student paper has a story about students cheating in “Chemistry Honors” and how that incident “reveals larger scheme.”
The cheating itself was both common and predictable. Students took photos of exam questions and answers and shared them in a group chat, across multiple classes. The reporting says at least 30 students were implicated.
The story goes on, however, that there were multiple photos of multiple tests and some students were selling them to classmates. According to the story, a student said
systematic cheating existed long before the most recent test.
“Cheating has been going on for at least this semester, if not last semester too,” the sophomore said. “This was a repeat occurrence where people would take pictures of the tests, and they never got punished for it.”
Stress and pressure to succeed, the story says, are motivators for cheating. Here, that’s probably at least partly true. When students know their peers are cheating and getting away with it, not cheating becomes both illogical and self-destructive.
Anyway, cheating in high school is certainly more common and more widespread than most people want to imagine. This past year, surveys have put cheating in high school in the 80% range (see Issue 93 or Issue 27).
High School Cheating Story II
The second high school cheating story this week is from Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, Arizona, which the AP described as a “prestigious private high school.”
According to the reports, the school’s principal sent a notice to families about:
“widespread even pervasive” cheating among students in several math sections
In this case:
an unspecified number of students devised a system in which students were paid by others to complete online homework and tests
Outright impersonation in online homework and tests. Yikes.
Of note is that it seems the school did not catch, or even know about, the cheating. It was uncovered by a local TV station which contacted the school, prompting the principal’s letter. The principal told the TV station,
Our internal review will include a thorough audit of our assessment strategy across every department to ensure the integrity of our academic program.
I should think so.
Anyway, cheating in high school is certainly more common and more widespread than most people want to imagine. This past year, surveys have put cheating in high school in the 80% range (see Issue 93 or Issue 27).
More Essay Mill Advertising
This “story” - which is actually and obviously an ad - is another reminder (see Issue 52) that essay mills and other contract cheating companies are aggressively, cleverly marketing their services.
It’s billed, as we’ve seen before, as a review of essay services but it’s really just a menu. Note that these essay companies offer plagiarism reports and brag about how easy they are to access and how they “cooperate with PayPal.” If you have not seen these, this one is a good example.
What’s troubling about this one is that it ran in The Guardian, Nigeria - the namesake of The Guardian, a legitimate paper in the U.K. So, as you may expect, it’s an ad disguised as an article in what’s probably a shill paper, disguised as a real one. Classic.
Note: I did e-mail the U.K.’s Guardian to ask if they have any affiliation with The Guardian, Nigeria. So far, no one has replied. There was no contact information for an editor or other authority at the Nigerian outlet that I could find.
You Can Now Sponsor “The Cheat Sheet”
Please contain your excitement; this is a professional space.
But it’s true. Now, if you’re so inclined, you can sponsor “The Cheat Sheet” - putting your logo and short message in front of more than 500 professors, administrators, industry leaders and interested observers of academic integrity worldwide - twice a week.
Sponsors get a “brought to you by” with your logo and message. It even includes a slobbery thank you from me at no additional charge. I am new to this but my initial thought is that a sponsorship would be $250 for four Issues, covering two weeks. Seems wildly expensive and yet somehow entirely reasonable.
If you or your company, institution or organization is interested in being a sponsor, please reply to this or e-mail me directly at Derek (at) NovemberGroup (dot) net. And if being a sponsor is not an option for you, you can always hit the Patreon link up top and throw a few bucks in the hat. Whether you do or not, please know that your readership and support on this important topic remain important to me. Thank you.