Inside Westwood’s Battle Against Academic Dishonesty

A student furtively glances around a brightly lit classroom. Pulling out a phone under the cover of tall privacy shields, he quickly snaps a picture of the test. Later, he might trade his picture for a picture of another exam, or post it on a hidden Discord server for multiple students to access. No matter the method, a number of students in subsequent blocks will have an unfair advantage. 

This is not the only type of academic dishonesty that occurs at Westwood. Ranging from discussions about exam questions to receiving entire tests over social media, cheating has become more frequent and creative in every type of class. The current consequences introduced by the district, administrators, and teachers have done little to deter the student population from engaging in academic dishonesty.

“The consequences haven’t necessarily fixed anything,” Assistant Principal Bradley Walker said. “Because at the end of the day, that [student] will choose to do whatever, whether they get a consequence or not. I can give one kid a warning, and they will never cheat again, and I can give a kid [In-School Suspension], and they will still cheat.”

Student and staff surveys conducted by Westwood Student Press through email yielded 212 student responses and 31 teacher responses in a period of 3 days. The survey revealed stark contrasts between student and teacher opinions, but also surprising points of agreement in terms of consequences and solutions.

• On average, students believe that 61% of the student body engages in academic dishonesty, while teachers estimate closer to 44%.
• When given a list of motivators for cheating practices, both students and teachers rank college admissions and familial pressure as the most common reason.
• While 51% of student respondents consider Westwood to be “too difficult” to get through without cheating, only 16% of teacher respondents are of the same opinion.
• When asked if they have cheated in high school before, 45% of student respondents said yes, 20% said no, and 35% did not answer.
• Of the students who said they have cheated before, 51% said they would cheat again, 28% would not cheat again, 14% may cheat depending on the situation, and 7% did not answer.
• 43% of students stated that they have never seen someone receive consequences for cheating, 13% said they have seen consequences, and 44% did not answer.
• 32% of teachers believe the current policies towards academic dishonesty are too lenient, and 26% believe they are fair. No teacher stated that the current policies are too harsh.
• More than 50% of teacher respondents would give a referral and a zero if they caught a student cheating. 39% would inform the student’s parents. 35% would have a discussion with the student. 

In Round Rock ISD (RRISD) policy, “academic dishonesty” constitutes any form of malpractice (receiving unauthorized help on individual assignments to gain an unfair advantage), collusion (assisting someone to cheat), plagiarism, copying, exam cheating, duplication (submitting the same work in different courses), falsifying data, and falsifying documents. When asked to give a personal definition of “cheating,” most students gave far more lenient definitions than teachers. 

“Asking if the test was hard isn’t cheating because the advantage isn’t major, and ‘cheat sheets’ of formulas aren’t cheating as long as you show work, because the test isn’t a memory game, it’s a test of application,” one anonymous student said.

The definitions of academic dishonesty provided by students demonstrate a lack of consistent knowledge as well as an acceptance of certain forms of cheating in daily academic life. Questions such as “How was the test?” and “How much do I need to study?” often serve as conversation starters in the hallways, but many of these seemingly harmless inquiries may turn into “There were many hard questions about topic X,” or “I found the entire test on this website.”

“​​I have asked people things like ‘What was on the test?’ or ‘What should I study?’ and honestly I would keep doing that,” an anonymous student said. “I feel a little bad, but to me it’s worth it to keep my grades up. I don’t really consider those questions punishable offenses nor do I think that there’s any way my teachers would find out. I’ve also googled questions while taking a test, and so far I haven’t been caught, but I’m more hesitant to make [that] a habit.”

When asked to suggest scenarios when cheating may be considered ethical, many students mentioned circumstances where the student would otherwise fail. On the other hand, the majority of teachers came to the conclusion that cheating is inherently unethical, and no circumstances merit dishonest behavior.

“I’m far more understanding of people who might steal food or money, because they actually need those things to survive, than someone who steals a grade for an assignment because they didn’t want to do the work or because they didn’t want to suffer the penalties for not being honestly prepared,” an anonymous teacher said.

According to RRISD policy, when a student is found guilty of academic dishonesty, their teacher must submit a referral form and contact their assistant principal and parents. The student would receive a “0” on the assignment, and their teacher would decide if the student can earn back credit. The assistant principal must also inform the student’s other teachers and activity sponsors, and determine if the student should receive additional consequences. These additional penalties include Saturday School, suspension, and reports to colleges during the college application process.

“We address every situation,” Mr. Walker said. “We follow RRISD academic dishonesty policy, but as far as consequences, it can look different. We consider all the facts, how many people are affected, and we find out if there are multiple people involved. We have flexibility to get creative with things and figure out what we feel would be the best way to remedy this problem, [because] sometimes there is no black and white. But we don’t like to make knee-jerk reactions to something before having all the information.”

When teachers take cases to the administration, the assistant principals operate on a tiered system, where each repeat offense merits a more severe consequence. However, teachers sometimes choose to handle cases on their own. Some are lenient for the first offense, some refuse to write letters of recommendation, and some have in-depth conversations with students to understand their reasons.

“If I knew that all other teachers were following the district policy, I would follow the policy,” one teacher said. “Since I am not confident that teachers enforce the rule in accordance with the policy I handle each incident on a case-by-case basis.”

Additionally, five teachers expressed that problems exist with enforcing consequences. 

“The policies are fine,” Spanish teacher Luisa Rice said. “The problem is that we need to implement them. Some teachers don’t want to deal with it and ignore the cheating in class. Some parents find all kinds of excuses to protect their kids. Some AP’s just don’t want to deal with it or the parents.”

Students are also generally unaware of the consequences for cheating, making them more inclined to engage in such behavior given that the benefits appear to outweigh the potential risks.

“[I’ve] known some people who’ve been caught cheating several times in the highest level classes, and only got off with a slap on the wrist, a redo, and sometimes a zero, no referrals,” an anonymous student said.

In addition to inconsistencies in enforcement, the policies for public schools tend to include less strict codes of conduct than private schools, limiting suspensions or expulsions to specific acts of assault or threats rather than extreme cases of academic dishonesty. For most universities and private high schools such as the Kinkaid School in Houston, TX, the penalties are much more severe for students who cheat.

“Your case would be presented to the Dishonesty Council,” Kinkaid graduate and current University of Texas at Austin student Ryan Karkowsky said. “There’s a combination of students and adults that talk about your case, and think about what your punishment should be. They think about what you’ve done in your current environment, how much of a negative effect it had on others, and how much of a benefit it gave you. The punishment is usually an In-School Suspension. But for repeat offenses, you’re kicked out of the school.”

While expulsion may not be possible in a public school setting, certain changes have been suggested to hold dishonest students accountable and discourage others from cheating. The most common solution put forward by students and teachers alike is maintaining consistency and ensuring awareness.