Stanford University is probing a “troubling” increase in academic dishonesty among students, made easier by their use of technology, Provost John Etchemendy said in a letter to faculty.
As many as 20 percent of students in a large introductory course may have cheated, Etchemendy said, adding that the school’s Office of Community Standards received an “unusually high number” of such reports at the end of the winter term.
This is pretty big news.
I am surprised there aren’t posts on this.
What should be done with these students?
We have a theoretical thread on cheating. This is real. 
http://www.statecolumn.com/2015/03/massive-cheating-scandal-rocks-stanford-university/
There are a lot of cheaters at stanford…and other schools. Some of these people are our future leaders.
This cheating raises a lot of issues. Maybe some of these kids cheated their way into the school?
@dstark Maybe we should wait and see what the facts are before making too many big decisions.
We do know there is cheating going on…
If you know something, shouldn’t you step forward and tell someone involved with the investigation?
Seriously?
I have no time for crap.
Dstark, here’s a reaction
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME
Inasmuch as you can expect a swift reaction from The Farm, it would be disingenuous to claim this is confined to Stanford. Cheating, and especially, through technology is rampant in secondary and tertiary education. In some parts of the world, everything associated with a U.S. education is poisoned by rampant and condoned cheating. You mentioned cheating on applications? Do not be surprised that a majority of international applications are fabrics of weaved exaggerated accomplishments and dubious test scores.
The reality is that there is little incentive for all parties to ferret out cheating. Every school loves to crow about AP scores, high SAT scores, and successes in the highly selective college admissions game. If you want to identify the bulk of the cheaters start looking at the subgroups who place considerable pressure on academic success at all cost and undue pressure to land a spot at the most prestigious schools.
In a way, it would take a miracle for Stanford to remain immune to the diseases that exist at the local high schools. And it would be extremely naive to think that it is not worse on the other side of the bay. The cheating culture is a direct result of the pressures to succeed and climb the social ladder through academic successes and a very different notion of ethics in a particular culture.
Xiggi, I am pretty sure there is cheating going on at my alma mater and other places.
I guess I am supposed to dislike Stanford but I like Stanford. I think Stanford is a great school.
20 percent of a class suspected of cheating is a lot. We will see how many are accused of actually cheating.
I took a jazz appreciation class at ccsf. A large percentage of the class was caught
cheating. Blew me away.
I will check out your link when I get home.
DS, liking Stanford or not is not the issue. It is a general problem that exists everywhere. It just gets more ink when it happens at HYPS.
There are certain classes that lend themselves to perennial cheating.
One of my favorite movie clips…
Xiggi, So…can anything be done? Or are people just people?
I’ve thought for some time that changes in assignments in high school and the emphasis on projects and group learning has led to some muddy thinking on what is permissible and what isn’t. Frankly I think the shift in thinking is also, at least partly, responsible for the criticism of standardized tests. Add to that the rise of the internet and the ability to cut and paste and colleges today are operating in a completely different environment than they were decades ago.
That said, its important to impress upon students that you won’t tolerate cheating.
DS, plenty can be done. The starting point is spending the resources to create tests and assignments that are not repetitive. A model that is hardly compatible with delegating the creation and grading of tests to untrained and unqualified assistants. In the secondary education, it requires people who can do a bit more than copying from the test banks and needing the answer keys to be able to grade the HW and tests.
Xiggi, yeah…you are right.