Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the commitment to honesty and genuine work and effort in an academic setting. The purpose of education is to help students gain important skills and knowledge that will enrich their lives and benefiting their future.
A student who engages with education without cutting corners is said to be practicing Academic Integrity. That work will pay off in their educational and professional careers.
On the other hand, copying, cheating, plagiarizing work and other forms of academic dishonesty undermine this goal. For this reason, academic dishonesty is treated as a serious transgression that carries serious consequences.
The following scenarios constitute some examples of Academic Dishonesty:
A - Copying
A student who copies an assignment from another student AND the student who knowingly allowed the assignment to be copied. This applies to both paper and electronic projects. This applies to both completed files and files in progress and it specially applies to Google Documents or Adobe Project files.
B - Cheating
A student who is found in possession of unauthorized cheat sheets (paper or electronic), answer keys or other evidence of premeditated cheating, wether or not the item was actually used by the student such as test information (ie. topics, answers or questions). This also includes taking pictures or digitally sharing material that facilitates cheating as well as using digital resources or apps that do the work for you, like google translate or PhotoMath.
C - Plagiarism
A student who plagiarizes someone else's work or copies any information from a digital or paper resources and presents these materials without attribution as if they are the student's own ideas or work. Using other people's ideas and doing correct attribution is ok but passing other people's work as your own is definitely not. This also includes passing off other student's projects as your own.
D - Theft
A student who is caught taking, without permission, another student's or teacher's materials or projects. This category also include login in to other people's computer, e-mail, or Synergy accounts as this is also identity theft. In addition to the consequences for academic dishonesty, the student will be disciplined under the provision for theft as specified in the education code.
E - Falsified Records
A student who has been found to falsify school records, access or change grade book data, or is apprehended for taking, without permission, school records.