Concern about academic cheating in the schools has been persistently expressed in the scholarly and mass media literature for several decades. Much of this concern derives from studies that show cheating as a widespread problem in American schools, behavior that clearly runs counter to the ethic of intellectual honesty. In this study cognitions were examined by a questionnaire method for comparable 11th-grade students in Costa Rica (N=114), Germany (N=121), and the United States (N=87) for the purpose of describing similarities and differences associated with culture, achievement status, and gender. Most results indicated that German students differed substantially from both Costa Rican and U.S. students in cheating problem perceptions, critical attributes of cheating, causal factors in cheating, and beliefs about effective ways to control cheating in the school, although some important similarities across all three samples were observed. Achievement and gender effects were less substantial, but uniform across cultures. This study has provided both original findings and provocative cues for continued cross-cultural study. Consistent differences in the way adolescents think about academic cheating have been observed, with German students most clearly distinct from their U.S. and Costa Rican counterparts. Further research is recommended, with special attention to school type, administrative policy, and goal structures to clarify the relationship between school and ethics in academic development. (Author/ABL)