Believe it or not, the majority of high school students have reported that they have cheated. A recent survey reported that 60-70 percent have cheated, 90 percent have copied another student’s homework, and 61 percent of undergraduate students admitted to cheating on examinations and assignments or plagiarizing papers. Why do they cheat? Students cheat for two types of motivation. First, these students thought they were entitled to good grades, and secondly, they do not think cheating is wrong or do not care. In a recent online honesty exam, students said they felt cheating was an appropriate strategy for reaching one’s goals. They reported that they were not afraid of punishment, and, subsequently, were not morally inhibited.

One student wrote that he felt justified, even ethically obligated, to cheat because his teachers had cheated him out of a good education. He justified his cheating as an act of retaliation. He said he received the grade he deserved by cheating because his teacher did not teach him effectively.

Students have always been known to cheat in school, but today's high-tech gadgets have made it easier than ever before. With nearly half of teens and tweens carrying cell phones, answers to test questions can bounce around a classroom in minutes. "There's more high-tech cheating than ever," say a business professor at a prestigious university.

Some students have reported they prepare for pop quizzes by inputting math formulas or history dates into their programmable calculators. Others use camera phones to picture-message tests to students outside the classroom. Plus, it takes a mere one or two keystrokes to buy term papers from an increasing number of online "paper mills," such as schoolsucks.com

However, technology is not solely to blame for the cheating epidemic. Experts believe it is also the result of a winner-take-all society. Society seems to say that it's okay to step on others, and parents have not done a good job when it comes to teaching values like honesty and integrity.

Experts also agree that parents have contributed to the problem by constantly pressuring their children to excel. Nearly one-third of teens and 25 percent of tweens say that their parents excessively push them to excel academically, according to a recent national survey. One mother whose daughter attended a prestigious high school knows many parents who are satisfied only when their kids get straight A's. She noted that she overheard a voice mail message from one mother who was merciless when her child got B's in an advanced placement class. The mother told her child that he was lazy, and, "your grades were unacceptable,” and that he would be, “grounded for the summer.”

How Parents Can Help

Your children need constant guidance and support to keep them from cheating. Education experts have offered this advice:

A. Ask school administrators to create ways for students to identify cheaters anonymously so they don't fear retaliation from others. Make grades Pass/Fail so the number grade is less important.

B. Read your student’s essays to make sure that they appear to be original. Check the computer history to see if your students are using Web sites that sell written papers, and confront them if they are.

C. Talk to your children about the importance of ethical behavior and how cheating will hurt them in the long term. Point out negative examples when you see them and explain the consequences those people will suffer.

D. Help manage your children’s schedules so they have time to write papers and prepare for examinations. Participate with them in the studying process. Being prepared may help them feel less of a need to cheat.

E. Stop and ask yourself, as a parent, whether you're putting too much pressure on your children to succeed at school. Explain to your children that ambition is fine, but honesty and integrity are more important than academic success achieved through deceit.

F. To reduce plagiarism, demand that your school include lessons on proper paraphrasing, how to write papers successfully and ethically, and how to cite Internet sources.

G. Suggest that teachers develop multiple versions of tests to deter students from sharing answers via text messaging.