Obviously, the honor code forms that students were forced to sign at the beginning of the year isn't working. Cheating is becoming a normal part of high school life. It is the norm for some kids now to take out their phones in the middle of a test, or find a way to communicate across the classroom. Student cheating seems to be on the rise, but little know why.

A few of the reasons may seem obvious. The rising competition students love to complain about is an obvious factor for many students who feel they need to gain an upper hand. But competition itself can't be blamed for the substantial increase in dishonesty. The only viable explanation would be the rise in technology.

Many of the cheating cases that high school teachers and college professors report are related to technology. From plagiarizing articles online to using a phone on a test, it seems that technology is making it much easier to cheat. The mass cheating caused by technology sparks a vicious cycle. Some students cheat more often because they find more ease and less risk in using technology to con the system. This in turn causes other students who were initially less inclined to be academically dishonest to feel a pressure to cheat as well. As this plague of cheating affects more people and becomes ingrained into the education system, it feels almost impossible to stop. But there is a way to curb it.

Many try to target cheating at what seems to be the root of the problem, the students. Social media pages like the Prism Project aim to give an inside look of the competition and anxiety in schools today that drives many to cheat. Others blame the new generation's lack of moral judgement for the rise in cheating. Although all of these methods are effective, it doesn't put enough blame on an integral character in this new era of cheating: teachers.

As technology is adapting, teachers should be adapting too. The main deterrent of many to not do something wrong is not their morals, but their fear of punishment. Therefore the best way to stop this epidemic of academic dishonesty is to train teachers into finding new ways to prevent cheating. First and foremost, making tests with original content rather than from material online could prevent some students from being substantially advantaged over others. Asking students to put phones in a designated area during a test and giving different forms for a test are all effective methods that teachers have used in the past that could be implemented on a larger scale.

If teachers find ways to curb cheating in the context of technology, a large part of cheating in schools today could be stopped. In that sense, it is up to the teachers to decide whether everyone will have a level playing field.