Honor Codes In High Schools

Words: 496
Pages: 2

Honor codes have been a huge discussion topic for high schools, colleges, and universities, where they have been implemented to reduce cheating, stealing, and plagiarizing among students. Others argue that honor codes should not be implemented, however, studies show that honor codes prevent students from cheating and plagiarizing their assignments and tests. In my opinion, honor codes should be implemented in high schools, colleges, and universities because they promote academic integrity and it creates a fair environment for students as read in Alyssa Vangelli’s “The Honor Code Vote: One Student Senator’s View”, Jennifer Dirmeyer and Alexander Cartwright’s “Honor Codes Work Where Honesty Has Already Taken Root”, and Donald McCabe and Gary …show more content…
By implementing an honor code, students at her school will be provided with an explanation of the importance of behaving with integrity, which they will reflect through their school work. Additionally, in some cases, honor codes are deemed to be ineffective because students don’t expect their peers to be complying with the honor codes. According to research by Donald L. McCabe, students that attend colleges with enforced honor codes “[.] cheat less than their counterparts elsewhere do.” Therefore, students don’t take their chances to disobey the honor code because of the high risk of getting caught. Essentially, the more students that obey their schools honor code, the more they enforce a feedback loop, which will create a culture of trust and integrity. Furthermore, many students live through their high school years with the perception that it is okay to cheat because everybody else is.