Honor Codes In Schools

For centuries, American children have heard the stories of George Washington’s cherry tree and Old Honest Abe. They have memorized sayings such as “Honesty is the best policy” which praise the character quality of honesty. But in recent years, another ability has taken the place of honesty: the ability to cheat. Cheating is widespread in American schools. Source F states that two-thirds of high school students admitted to cheating at least once in the past year. This trend doesn’t stop when students go to college. Studies have found that half of college students acknowledged at least one serious incident of academic cheating, while more than two-thirds admitted to engaging in ‘questionable behavior’ such as collaborating on assignments intended to be complete separately (Source F). In order to combat cheating, schools and universities have considered implementing honor codes. But will this method work? Will honor codes motivate students to be honest, or will they find other ways to cheat? After examining the evidence, it seems that the success of an honor code is dependent on the culture at a particular school.

Some list specific violations as well as the punishment for each. Others are more general. For example, the honor code at the University of Virginia is one pithy statement: “On my honor as a student, I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment/exam (Source D).” In the same way, implementation of an honor code varies from school to school. Some require students to sign the honor code after each test and with each paper submission, while others require signatures only once a term. Despite these differences, the goal of each honor code is the same: to encourage students to practice academic honesty. However, the similarity in the goal of honor codes does not mean that honor codes will be successful at every