The Cheating Epidemic at East High School

BY JESSE MAXFIELD, EVERETT OLSEN, ISABEL KINIKINI, AND CELESTE VAIFOOU

The Problem
High school students who cheat are not aware of the long term effects it has on their future education. The popular trend of cheating at East High School is not only leading to unprepared students, but could also be leading to unprepared civilians. Like in areas of the workforce, family responsibilities, and taking part in the community. Having these characteristics as a citizen will only prevent us from progressing towards a greater society.

What we think
We believe the lack of rigorous coursework (also known as busy work), lack of motivation to learn, no real world application and no appreciation for a free education system all promote the cheating empire.

Our goal
Our overall goal is to raise awareness to both teachers and students about the seriousness of cheating in their classrooms and the effects of cheating for their students success in education.

Our plan of action

To address this large issue, we went straight to the students and teachers themselves regarding their opinion on the severity of cheating. To do this we created a survey and gave it to a total of 100 students, along with interviewing two students (both male and female) from each grade about their experiences with cheating.

Interviews

Data
CLASSES MOST FREQUENTLY CHEATED IN
Dont cheat 10% Language courses 8%

Science 20%

Math 58%

L.A. 4%

Data
how often do You Cheat?

FEMALE

31%

MALE

50% 0% 10% 20% 30% how often do You Cheat? 40% 50% 60%

Conclusion
The sample taken of 85 (some were unusable) East High Students revealed that 58% of students cheat the most in their math class, 20% cheat the most in their science class, 4% cheat in their Language Arts class, 8% cheat in their language class and 10% claimed that they dont cheat. In gender category, males were found to cheat 50% of the time and females 30% of the time.

Conclusion continued..
The conclusion we unearthed was that students cheat the most in their math & science class due to the fact that the work is more based on a single answer, unlike English where students are challenged to create their own answers.

What we hope for the future..

What we hope to see is a change in teachers perspective, that cheating is present in their class rooms and to eliminate the issue starts with replanning of courses, changing assignments and challenging students with more rigorous & applicable work. By doing so, cheating will decrease, students will gain the drive to learn once again, and become well prepared for higher education.