Integrity Policy-Plagiarism/Cheating Policy 

We, at Northern Valley Regional High School, provide an environment in which each student seeks answers to questions, challenges assumptions and develops self-worth. The school encourages individual academic excellence, aesthetic appreciation, and moral integrity.  Dishonesty undermines and inhibits Northern Valley’s mission. No form of plagiarism or cheating is acceptable. To ensure the academic integrity of all students at Northern Valley Regional High School, this honor code has been created to promote honesty and responsibility while fostering a community of trust. Northern Valley students have the right to expect academic integrity from their peers.  The goal of our integrity policy is to foster an environment in which all students learn and demonstrate proficiency in their skills and knowledge in an honest manner.  Through this policy, our students will understand the importance of academic integrity, respecting school policy, and at the same time be held accountable for their learning and growth.

All students are required to sign the Northern Valley Regional High School Honor Code. This will occur on the first day of school. By signing the honor code, the student understands the sections below. 

I. Defining Cheating

Cheating is defined as any misrepresentation of one’s self or one’s academic work.

Unless expressly allowed by the department, cheating and plagiarism include but are not limited to:

• Communicating with or copying from another student regarding an examination or assessment

• Introducing  any unauthorized materials (written, printed or blank) into a classroom or examination room or via an air server or “cloud” based resources, accessing links, bypassing safe exam browsers or sharing of devices

• Introducing  any electronically stored information into a classroom or examination room

• Obtaining a copy of an unseen written examination prior to the date and time of its authorized release

• Gaining access to unauthorized material relating to an assessment prior to or during an assessment

• Colluding with another person by submitting work done with another person as entirely one’s own work OR collaborating with another student in the completion of work which is intended to be submitted as that other student’s own work OR allowing another student to copy one’s own work to be submitted as that student’s work or giving another student one’s own work.

• Falsifying data by presenting data of lab reports, projects etc. as one’s own when this data is based on experimental work conducted by another party or obtained by unfair means

• Assuming the identity of another person or having another person assume one’s own identity with the intention of deceiving or gaining an unfair advantage.

• Plagiarizing by passing off the writings and ideas of others as one’s own. Plagiarism includes buying, stealing or borrowing a paper, hiring someone to write a paper, copying from another source without citing, using a source too closely when paraphrasing, copying or building on someone’s ideas without citation.

• Submitting work for a class you previously submitted for credit in another class.

• Using artificial intelligence to create work meant to be original work (Students must submit work in district Google documents linked to their NVNET accounts. Any work flagged as AI where the writing process cannot be verified will be deemed unoriginal). 

• Using artificial intelligence (including Grammarly or similar programs)  to revise work where students are assessed on language, vocabulary, and writing/revision standards. 

• As per College Board requirements, before uploading final drafts to their digital portfolios, students must submit these drafts to turnitin.com and a Google document from their school account, and teachers must verify the work’s academic integrity. Therefore, students must adhere to teacher deadlines for submission.   Student work submitted after deadline/directly to the College Board will be considered in violation of the school’s academic integrity policy; both the College Board and building Administration will be notified.

• **Any portion of the College Board/AP Capstone exam grade on a performance task will be subject to the College Board/AP Capstone policy on plagiarism and falsification or fabrication of information. Any violation of the district’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) directives will result in an academic integrity violation and may result in a loss of credit for the course as well as a reported violation to the College Board. 

II. Procedures

If it is determined  by a teacher that an incident of cheating has occurred, the teacher will:

• Discuss the incident with the student and review the consequences of cheating.

• Contact the student’s parent or guardian.

• Notify the assistant principal or principal with a student discipline form.

• Attend a conference including the student,  guidance counselor, supervisor, parent or guardian to discuss the incident and determine how best to help the student,  if such a conference is necessary.

III. Consequences

• If a student is guilty of cheating or plagiarizing, the student is still expected to demonstrate his or her academic competency by redoing the assignment/assessment or another performance task in a timely manner.  The timeline to complete the work will be established by the teacher, guidance counselor and/or case manager, assistant principal, and student. The student may be required to attend extra help sessions in order to acquire the skills needed to complete the work in an honest manner.  The corrected assignment/assessment/task will be graded, and the student will earn 65% of the new grade (i.e. if a student earns a grade of 90% on the re-do work, they will receive 58.5% in Genesis).

• Failure to take advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate academic competency will result in a zero for that assignment/assessment.

• Any personal/academic misrepresentation will be recorded on the student’s discipline record by the assistant principal or principal.

In addition to parental notification and the following will apply on an individual basis by the nature of the offense:

• 6 disciplinary points and a minimum of 5 detentions will be assigned by the administrator on an incident by incident basis.   Additional actions will result for second and third offenses. Those actions will include a minimum of 12 points and 10 detentions. 

• Any student leader (e.g. captain, officer, editor, class representative) who violates these standards may be removed from that position for the remainder of the school year at the discretion of the principal. If removed, he/she will not receive transcript credit for that leadership position.

• Any student caught cheating or plagiarizing may be prevented from being inducted into the National Honor Society.  The Faculty Council of the National Honor Society may recommend the removal of a student currently in the National Honor Society who has been caught cheating or plagiarizing.  The principal will review all recommendations made by the Faculty Council.  If the recommendation is upheld by the principal, National Honor Society recognition will be removed from the student’s transcript.  Depending on the circumstances, additional consequences may be imposed at the discretion of the principal.

***The student’s discipline record will be provided to a college/school upon request.***