What is Academic Integrity?

Academic integrity means that a student’s behavior is ethical and their work is their own. Acts of academic dishonesty are serious violations of the trust necessary for a productive educational experience. Being academically honest means submitting your own work, properly citing other's ideas, being ethical during exams, and more. Specifics related to violating our academic honesty and consequences earned are listed in the Student Handbook (see pages 20-22).

Examples of Academic Dishonesty

Copying/Turning in someone else's work as your own
Using an app to give you the answer
Copying and pasting from the internet without proper citations
Cheating on a test
Sharing a google doc with a friend when the assignment is meant to be individual

WHat's In a degree?

What do a high school diploma, a tech school certificate, and a college degree all have in common? Answer: They all certify that you as a student have completed all the necessary graduation requirements and met standards of achievement and excellence. This tells colleges, trade schools, and employers that you have a certain set of skills and experiences that is useful for them. Your diploma, certificate, and/or degree is valuable because it speaks to your achievements and accomplishments. However, academic dishonesty undermines this. When students cheat or plagiarize to earn their certifications, they cheapen the value of that accomplishment for everyone who has it.

Consider this situation: An employer is looking to hire a new employee, and they narrow the choice down to two different candidates. One student earned their degree from a school where cheating is rampant, while the other came from a school that is known for enforcing academically honest behavior. All things held constant, the employer will certainly choose to hire the student from the academically honest background because that degree seems to have more value...even though both students had to meet the same graduation requirements! Both students might have been academically honest in their work, but the reputation of the other school made that diploma less valuable. In fact, even if the student from the dishonest school was a better candidate, the reputation of that school gave that student a disadvantage.

Why does it matter?

Our school strives to create a learning environment in which students can pursue a quality education. Our faculty and staff take on the responsibility of providing appropriate instructional experiences, materials, encouragement and the guidance necessary for our students to be successful. Students bear responsibility in this process as well. Students’ responsibilities include coming to school prepared to learn, putting forth an honest effort in every class, and showcasing behavior that is ethical and turning in work is their own.

Acts of academic dishonesty are serious violations of the trust necessary for a productive educational experience. The following outlines what constitutes a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy, as well as the possible consequences for such violations.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES:

The integrity policy shall be accessible to students and parents via the student handbook and in an electronic link on the school website.
It is the students’ responsibility to read and understand the academic honesty policy. Not knowing the rules does not excuse dishonest behavior.
Violations of the honesty policy will be determined by reviewing students’ actions alone. A student’s thoughts or intent will not be considered. Since it is impossible to know whether a student intended to cheat or not, only a student’s actions and behavior can be judged.
It is a student’s ethical obligation to report violations of the Academic Honesty Policy. Students may report violations anonymously.
An honor pledge for students to sign will be included on the course syllabus and will apply to all coursework and assignments. Teachers may choose to include the pledge on other assignments. The honor pledge is as follows:

“I have not given or received any unauthorized help on this assignment.”

CONSEQUENCES FOR VIOLATION OF ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY:

There are a range of consequences for violating the Academic Honesty Policy; the number of violations will have an influence on which consequences are applied.

1st Offense: Student is referred to administrator

Required to complete an independent training on academic honesty within 10 school days.

2nd Offense: Student is entered for a referral in Infinite Campus AND...

Receives a discipline referral for academic dishonesty.
Has a conference with parent, teacher, and administrator.
Receives a grade of zero for the assignment.
MUST write a 600-700 word paper on the following topic: Identify a person who has made ill-advised choices and has paid a price for the decision. Research this person and the choices. Write about the decision and how it adversely affected the person. Give the person advice on what he/she could have done differently that would have resulted in more positive outcomes. Be sure you cite sources if you paraphrase, summarize, or quote.

3rd Offense: Student is entered for a referral on Infinite Campus AND...

Student will receive a discipline referral for chronic academic dishonesty.
Community Service (6-10 hours)

Failure to comply with consequences for 1st, 2nd, or 3rd offense will result in IC referral for failure to comply with administrative directive and additional consequences.

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