Cheating Is Seen as Widespread

Orange County residents believe academic cheating is a pervasive problem in local schools, according to a new poll that highlights growing concern over the ethical behavior of students.

The survey, conducted for The Times’ Orange County Edition, interviewed 600 Orange County adults. The results dovetail with recent national reports on student cheating, including one last year by “Who’s Who Among American High School Students,” in which four out of five top students admitted cheating at some point in their academic careers.

A number of high-profile cases have underscored these concerns. Earlier this year about a dozen Sunny Hills High School students in Fullerton were disciplined for using e-mail to share information about a history exam. Last year, two Brea-Olinda student government leaders were suspended from their elected posts after being found guilty of cheating on an honors physics test.

Cheating has been linked to such factors as increased pressure on children to succeed and growing gaps between parents and their children, even though national studies have found no substantial increase in cheating among students over the last 40 years.

Still, the practice is pervasive, the studies have found, and recently led the national Educational Testing Service and the Ad Council to launch a three-year anti-cheating campaign.

The “Cheating Is a Personal Foul” campaign, just underway, uses newspaper and broadcast ads to nudge youngsters 10 to 14 toward making the right ethical choices in their schoolwork, said Ed Tate, spokesman for ETS, a nonprofit organization that administers the SAT, Graduate Record Examination and other standardized tests.

“A lot of what we’re doing is aimed at bringing parents into the mix,” Tate said. “Real conversations can make a difference. It’s essential for parents to let kids know how they feel and reinforce the values that youngsters normally have.”

Yet the Times survey in Orange County, which was part of a broader poll on moral and ethical issues in an increasingly competitive world, found that many adults themselves rely on a sliding moral scale in their own everyday actions.

They also simultaneously embrace seemingly conflicting senses of proper ethical choices.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said it is acceptable for parents to help a child with a class project that is supposed to be done by the child alone. Younger respondents were especially tolerant. Among adults 18 to 34 years old, 70% found such assistance acceptable, compared with 57% among people older than 35.

Yet overall, four of five drew the line at students obtaining test questions in advance or copying another student’s work.

“It’s a slippery issue,” said Cheryl Katz of Baldassare Associates, which conducted the poll. “Overall, people show a fairly high level of concern about cheating in Orange County schools . . . but when it comes down to it, many think there’s nothing wrong with trying to make those student projects look a bit more professional. I guess they ultimately think it’s OK to give their child an edge.”

One survey respondent, though, saw the difference in the details. A student passing off the work of others as his own or procuring exam questions ahead of time constitutes a clear ethical breach, said Robert Pearson, 40, of Fullerton.

But a parent helping direct a child in a research or craft project is proper and no different from a librarian or teacher offering guidance, he said.

“As long as the design was by the kid and the parent was just helping out in the execution, I don’t think it’s a big deal,” said Pearson, an electrical engineer with no children. “A conscientious parent is not going to give the answer to the child. He is going to steer the child in the direction of where he can find the information or make alternative suggestions.”

Yet Janis Jacobs, a developmental psychologist and vice president at Pennsylvania State University, said such subtle reasoning may become lost on a child, who sees in such parental help a precedent for turning to a friend for homework or test answers.

“It’s somebody helping you out in both cases,” Jacobs said.

She believes a more dominant factor in moving children to cheat is increasing stress on success and peer acceptance as children move from elementary to middle school levels and begin to compare themselves with others.

Studies have found little evidence of cheating at the elementary levels but a spike in the practice once students reach middle school. The factors are myriad and can include both the change in school structure--middle school students usually no longer have the same teacher all day--increased emphasis on achieving good grades and blossoming adolescent concerns with self-image.

“Adolescents tend to have a dip in self-concept when they enter middle school, particularly their academic self-concept,” Jacobs said.

Students getting A’s in elementary school often chart more Bs as the classwork gets harder in middle school. “Cheating is another way to get back up to where you think you belong. It may also be that parents, and this is the jaded view, encourage their children not to cheat but to do whatever it takes to get ahead.

“I see it at the university level,” Jacobs said. “I see students who tell me it was their parents who wrote their admission statement to gain entry [to college].”

Although national studies have discovered no substantial change in academic cheating among school-age children since the early 1960s, four in 10 Orange County residents polled said they believe cheating is more widespread now than a decade ago, while three in 10 said they don’t know.

The Times survey also found that women are slightly more concerned than men; 37% of women believe cheating is a big problem in local schools compared with 30% of men.

Some fear the pervasiveness of the practice portends larger problems of honesty and integrity in adulthood.

“They’re taking something that doesn’t belong to them, in the case of plagiarism,” said Cheryl Dumler, a Mission Viejo mother of four children, the youngest still in high school.

“In terms of cheating on tests, they’re trying to get something without putting effort into it. That shows a lack of responsibility and preparation. If it becomes a habit, it may become something that would be taken into adulthood.”

Dumler, who teaches a course on college readiness and study techniques at Chapman University, said she believes two key factors lie behind cheating.

“I think No. 1 is . . . to succeed, to get a good grade,” she said. “Also, some of them just don’t take the responsibility to be prepared. It takes a lot less effort to cheat than it does to prepare.”

Another survey respondent, Michael Robbins of Orange, said economics could be the key motive.

“You got to pretty much get into college now to make any sort of money” later in life, said Robbins, 25, a U.S. Navy medical corpsman and the single father of a 1-year-old. “It’s getting a lot more competitive. Kids are pretty much using any advantage they can to get ahead.”

And they are oblivious to the corrosive effect cheating can have on the attitudes of others.

“I work pretty hard in my life to get where I am,” Robbins said. “I don’t see where anyone else can come out and cut corners. We all should have the same opportunities.”

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About the Poll

The poll was conducted by Baldassare Associates for the Orange County Edition of The Times. The random telephone survey of 600 Orange County adults was conducted Oct. 13 through 17. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Statistically, this means there is a 95% chance that the results would fall inside that range if every adult resident in Orange County were interviewed. For subgroups the margin of error is larger.

About This Series

Today: Orange County adults worry that academic cheating has become pervasive--but many are willing to bend the rules to help their children get a competitive edge.

Monday: People are still making up their minds about new ethical issues raised by the growth of the Internet, holding widely divergent views about right and wrong online.

Tuesday: Many residents believe the pressure to succeed makes people behave less ethically, and experts look to underlying social change for explanations.

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Cheating and Schoolwork

One-third of those polled in Orange County said students and parents cheating in school work was a big problem. Another third thought it was somewhat of a problem.

Q: Do you think cheating is a big problem, somewhat of a problem or not a problem in your local schools?

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Parents with school-age O.C. Children Men Women Big problem 33% 33% 30% 37% Somewhat of a problem 35 34 36 33 Not a problem 14 19 17 11 Don’t Know 18 14 17 19

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Q: Is it always, sometimes or never acceptable ...

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x Always Sometimes Never Don’t Know For parents help on a project 7% 55% 37% 1% that is supposed to be done by the student alone To get copies of test 2 15 82 1 questions in advance Copy another person’s work 1 10 88 1

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Source: Baldassare Associates