Cheating becoming a bigger problem for both students and schools

Cheating in school is not a new phenomenon.

In fact, research shows that between 75 and 98 percent of college students surveyed in recent years admit to having cheated in high school. But cheating may be more harmful than just not learning a certain concept, it may cause students to have an over-inflated view of themselves.

A study released in this month's Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences found that students who cheated on tests not only deceive themselves into thinking they did well on the test because of their own abilities, but after cheating, they also become over self-confident about future tests and their academic abilities.

The researchers found that cheating then can have "longer-term costs … a lack of awareness that persists even when these inflated expectations prove costly."

Education Week reported on Thursday that the more students cheat, the more they set themselves up with unrealistic expectations. It also found that students who focus more on grades than on academic learning may be more okay with cheating.

In a nationwide survey of over 40,000 young adults in 2010, 59.4 percent said they had cheated during a test at school one or more times that year, according to the Josephson Institute of Ethics. What may be even more surprising is that 55.7 percent of honors students said they had cheated during a test at school one or more times.

The Portland Tribune reported last month that students are now using a variety of ways to cheat from texting to stealing exams to using the internet on their phones. It went on to say that students are feeling more pressure to get into college and quoted one professor from a New Jersey university as saying, "I think the unique student today is one that never cheats."

Fox News reported last week that some students at a prestigious New York high school are suspected of hiring someone to take the SAT exam for them. A few years ago, a school in Idaho banned iPods after they found students were recording formulas and other items on them to help them cheat on tests. And earlier this month, Upstate Medical University began investigating some of its students accused of cheating on online tests.

Last week, a principal wrote in to the Portland Tribune reacting to an article on the prevalence of cheating called "Cheating easy as A-B-C" and said he thinks the dialogue around cheating need not be focused so much on how to prevent cheating but about "What's so wrong with the American education system that so many students feel a need to shortcut their way through it?"