Should Schools Maintain Honor Codes

Susan Greenberg, author of “Why Colleges Should Ditch Honor Codes”, discusses the issues behind having an honor-code and why colleges should no longer have this practice. She addresses the conflict at a Stanford University computer science class that brings attention on whether the code is still in appropriate use today. These students enrolled in the course were under questioning about their academic dishonesty and received harsh discipline from their instructor and school. It was a class that related to their future occupational field that involves collaboration with others daily. For some students, the honor-code fails to stop them from cheating and collaborating again outside the classroom.

Honor codes and systems are proudly displayed by high schools and colleges alike. These collections of rules are proposed with the hope of achieving the ideal of education: producing productive citizens with integrity. While these systems do provide incentive to follow the clearly stated rules and assist in lessening the effects of favoritism on student punishment for violating rules, they are also open to interpretation as they do not qualify situations based on the severity of the infringement or take into consideration the he-said-she-said aspect of reporting cheating. At my school, Union High School, we do not have an official honor code which leads to extreme crackdowns of authority at the first glimpse of a broken rule in some classrooms and a near absence of rules in others. Because of these disparities in punishment by teachers, a system of increased punishment severity should be created by each teacher and approved by the principle to help promote equitable treatment and provide incentives to follow school guidelines.

The increasing prevalence of honor codes in schools has changed the way students approach academic integrity. Honor codes are sets of regulations that require students to refrain from any sort of cheating and hold their peers accountable. Schools should continue to uphold their current system of honor codes in order to ensure academic integrity within the school while still respecting student privacy. The key to maintaining school honor codes is to involve the students in participating in the decision making aspect of honor codes, as well as enforcing them.

Abiding by an honor code is nothing new to me. I currently follow the Lake Travis High School football honor code, which demands a life of cleanliness and stresses no consumption of intoxicating substances, as well as academic honesty. My football coaches have instilled a great sense of pride in me; being a Lake Travis football player means holding myself to a higher standard, because I represent both a prestigious organization, my school and a team of other individuals.  I have proudly lived up to these honor codes and led my team by being the first to sign up for the voluntary drug testing program at my school called Leaders for Life.  I am also fortunate to have parents that have always been strict in making sure I stick to my morals, even

Honest. Disciplined. Hardworking. These words or a variation of these words are most commonly used by schools to describe their students. But to have such students, schools have needed guidelines to follow so students could be considered for the values put in place. Anonymous High School is no different. Currently the school possesses no such honor code system but some students do not notice. The rules put out by the school seem to accomplish their goal quite well and there seems to be no reason for establishing any kind of honor code system. No honor code system should be put into place because the school is functioning fine without it and adding it would only complicate things.

Honor codes are the embodiment of two things – trust and integrity. When schools maintain these honor codes, it gives off many advantages. “Unlike the majority of colleges where proctoring of tests and exams is the responsibility of the faculty and/or administration, many schools with academic honor codes allow students to take their exams without proctors present, relying on peer monitoring to control cheating.” (Source F) By allowing non-monitored tests, the honor code instills a better relationship between staff and students. When a student is having a problem with the class, they will more likely talk to the teacher rather than resort to copying. The code makes staff more trust worthy.

If a college campus harbors an environent where cheating is seen as acceptable and an activity many people participate in, even students with correct morals and no desire to cheat themselves are less likely to report fellow students for unsavory behavior. This can also go a step further and that same student who failed to confront a peer for cheating, may give in to the school’s atmosphere and start cheating themselves. This makes them all the less likely to report other students for fear of appearing hypocritical and/or being reported themselves. A study on honor code effectiveness was completed by Sally Sledge and Pam Pringle at a small public university (Source E). Their results showed that only 8% of students would report a fellow student for cheating. Even more surprisingly, 40% of students anonymously stated that they had “violated the honor code and not been caught”. This points to a very cheater-friendly attitude at this particular school and shows that the honor system is not very effective in this

In Source F, McCabe and Pavela report of “an ongoing dialogue that takes place among students on campuses with strong honor code traditions, and occasionally between students and relevant faculty and administrators, which seeks to define where, from a student perspective, ‘trivial’ cheating becomes serious.” Since students can determine more definitively what is right, what is wrong, and what is in the middle, unfair practices occur less frequently. McCabe and Pavela “see significantly less self-reported cheating on campuses with honor codes compared to those without such codes.” The pair of researchers have also confirmed that dialogue and encouraged student involvement are more likely to occur in schools where an honor code is in place. The conclusive and well-defined nature in honor codes allows for meaningful talks on school legislation and supports student involvement in these

When an honor code is strictly implemented, for example by making students sign a paper that states that they will not cheat, it will negatively affect their ethos, or character, when they do cheat. In an environment where honor codes are implemented, if a student get caught cheating, that student will be deemed a bad person and lose everyone’s trust never to gain that trust again fully no matter how hard he or she tries. Increasing the awareness that the students can get caught and reminding them that they have “responsibility to perform honestly in the school environment” (Source B) discourage them to cheat. As a result, implementing an honor code provides an environment “where students and faculty could live in complete trust of one another” (Source B). Students should not have to worry about the consequences they will face just because another student is cheating off of them.

As a student develops the question of a honor system within themselves is based on his or he own integrity. The problem regarding that is it honor codes can range from elementary schools to college. Several may argue honor codes unsuccessful in decreasing cheating or lying in schools. While others may argue that honor codes should be enforced because they promote an honest academic environment within any school. In my opinion, I do agree the honor system should be enforced at my school because it’s only fair to students who do their own work and is also punishing those who cheat while also cheating themselves.

In Source E, Sally Sledge and Pam Pringle both illustrate their fellow peers’ negligence to their own honor code system at the small public university they attend when their chart’s data shows that, “42% of students do not know the range of sanctions that can occur” (Source E). On the one hand, some people would argue that the students’ lack of awareness is attributed to the lack of effectiveness of the honor codes and that the honor codes in place should be eliminated because of their lack of effectiveness. However, the people that would make haste to strike the honor code system down due to the lack of awareness of the honor code would ultimately prove that this black and white solution would not work due to Donald McCabe and Gary Pavela who state that, “The key to their success seems to be encouraging student involvement in developing community standards on academic dishonesty and ensuring their subsequent acceptance by the larger student community” (Source F). According to this view, Donald McCabe and Gary Pavela believe that the success of of honor codes truly relies on the involvement of the student body in the creation of the honor codes because this not only decreases cheating and dishonesty through student awareness of the honor code but also as moral standards rather than a new sets of rules. Although some might

The conflict of whether or not honor codes should be established has been brought up again due to an increase in cheating and collaborating on tests and school work. Recently, a surplus of students have been caught cheating in unexpected places, like Harvard and the University of Virginia. Those colleges are considering using honor codes to counteract the surge of cheating that has arisen. Although there is currently a cheating problem that needs to be dealt with, incorporating honor codes into high schools and colleges is not the most effective way to solve the cheating problem, and will not solve the cheating problem indefinitely. It is very difficult to change a person’s personality and their morals, no matter what paper they sign, but there are ways to make people’s convictions stronger. One of which is student interaction. Like many people, students have a “follow the herd” nature and want to fit in with the crowd. If many students discourage cheating, the “crowd” may choose to not cheat in fear of being shunned. Student interaction is much more effective than honor codes, and is a much less drastic change.

An opinionated piece from McGabe, Donald, and Gary Pavela argue that, while any rule can be made, it is the punishment that comes after it is broken that causes everyone to follow it. However, since high schools cannot enforce a serious punishment that can truly teach students a lesson, the only way to enforce an honor code is to have the students do it instead. Since students will act based on what other students think of them, having the students enforcing the honor code will be the most effective way of incorporating the honor codes (Source F). In order to get the students to enforce the honor codes, the teachers must create a community within the classroom that includes a ratio that has a greater number of honest to dishonest students. Since students are heavily influenced by their peers, having the dishonest students be in a group with the honest student will discourage them to cheat, since they know that their peers will judge them.

Honor codes have been a strong subject of dispute over the last few years. Whether to hold students accountable for their own actions, and allow them to control the cheating in a school is, in all regards, a major decision that could potentially be detrimental to a school’s society and reputation. However, the rewards for a successful honor code are exponentially higher than the cost. Schools should always have some form of honor code in place, whether it be something like a signed contract at the beginning of each semester paired with an honor court to hold violators accountable, or something as simple as a statement of trust on a worksheet.

If the adults don’t set an example for the students, then the students will continue to disregard moral standard and believe that cheating is acceptable. They need to show that it's an unjust crime because the students who cheated are receiving the same grade as those who were honest and hardworking. Cheating is not only fair, but will also grow into a habit that will greatly impede their future. In the end, the students will not be able to function in society if they are incapable of learning. The high grades they obtained from cheating will fulfill their parent’s expectations and gain an acceptance into college, but it will restrain them from progressing in the real world. If the parents truly wanted what’s best for them, then they must guide their children onto the right path by preventing the growth of