English Education Project Why is cheating rampent 
Dylan Meyer
Mrs. Howard
Advanced Placement English III The Cheaters Mentality: a Look at the Reasons for Increased Academic Dishonesty in American
Schools
Dylan Meyer
Introduction
Academic dishonesty has been, and will continue to be ever present that occurs in schools, in the past several years however cheating has seen an increase in all demographics especially through the use of technology. The age old idea that cheating was for the struggling is no longer a realistic view on the issue, in fact, quite often it’s the most achieving students that are caught cheating, a chilling concept that has cast a shadow over the American education system, begging the question, why do students cheat, and what can be done to both change the mentality of the cheater, but also protect the innocent from being considered cheaters?
It’s impossible to accurately trace the origins of cheating, it is however possible to trace certain trends and students mentalities toward the act. I n the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cheating was widespread at college campuses in the United States, and was not considered dishonorable among students.
(Simmons, 45) It has been estimated that as many as twothirds of students cheated at some point of their college careers at the turn of the 20th century. (Stephens)
Fraternities often operated socalled essay mills, where term papers were kept on file and could be resubmitted over and over again by different students, often with the only change being the name on the paper. As higher education in the U.S. trended towards meritocracy, however, a greater emphasis was put on anticheating policies, and the newly diverse student bodies tended to arrive with a more negative view of academic dishonesty.
The first scholarly studies in the 1960s of academic dishonesty in higher education found that nationally in the U.S., somewhere between 50%70% of college students had cheated at least once. While
Mrs. Howard
Advanced Placement English III The Cheaters Mentality: a Look at the Reasons for Increased Academic Dishonesty in American
Schools
Dylan Meyer
Introduction
Academic dishonesty has been, and will continue to be ever present that occurs in schools, in the past several years however cheating has seen an increase in all demographics especially through the use of technology. The age old idea that cheating was for the struggling is no longer a realistic view on the issue, in fact, quite often it’s the most achieving students that are caught cheating, a chilling concept that has cast a shadow over the American education system, begging the question, why do students cheat, and what can be done to both change the mentality of the cheater, but also protect the innocent from being considered cheaters?
It’s impossible to accurately trace the origins of cheating, it is however possible to trace certain trends and students mentalities toward the act. I n the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cheating was widespread at college campuses in the United States, and was not considered dishonorable among students.
(Simmons, 45) It has been estimated that as many as twothirds of students cheated at some point of their college careers at the turn of the 20th century. (Stephens)
Fraternities often operated socalled essay mills, where term papers were kept on file and could be resubmitted over and over again by different students, often with the only change being the name on the paper. As higher education in the U.S. trended towards meritocracy, however, a greater emphasis was put on anticheating policies, and the newly diverse student bodies tended to arrive with a more negative view of academic dishonesty.
The first scholarly studies in the 1960s of academic dishonesty in higher education found that nationally in the U.S., somewhere between 50%70% of college students had cheated at least once. While