Academic Integrity Policy

Standard: Culture through policy implementation (0301) Schools develop, implement, communicate, and review effective policies that help to create a school culture in which IB philosophy can thrive.

Culture 3.1: The school implements and reviews an academic integrity policy that makes the school’s philosophy clear and is aligned with IB guidelines. (0301-03-0100)

Culture 3.2: The school clearly describes in its academic integrity policy the rights and responsibilities of all members of the school community, what constitutes good practice and misconduct, and the actions that are to be taken if there are transgressions. (0301-03-0200)

Culture 3.3: The school articulates responsibilities for teaching a variety of practices related to academic integrity, and reflects its five fundamentals: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. (0301-03- 0300)

Culture 3.4: The school ensures that relevant support materials, resources, and structures related to the academic integrity policy are implemented. (0301-03-0400)

Culture 3.5: The school monitors and evaluates the impact of the academic integrity policy to ensure that it regularly informs learning and teaching across the curriculum and that the school’s procedures are transparent, fair, and consistent. (0301-03-0500)

(IB documents consulted in the creation of this policy: PYP: From Principles into Practice, MYP: From Principles into Practice and Academic integrity)

In order for students to act with academic integrity, they must understand concepts of intellectual property and authenticity.

Intellectual property can be defined as a work or invention that is the result of creativity, such as a manuscript or a design, to which one has rights. Intellectual property may include property rights such as patents, registered designs, trademarks, moral rights, and copyright. Intellectual property rights must be respected and are normally protected by law (Academic integrity).

Authenticity can be defined as creating an authentic piece of work is one that is based on the student’s individual and original ideas, with the ideas and work of others fully acknowledged (Academic integrity).

What is academic misconduct?

• Plagiarism
• Collusion
• Forgery
• Duplication of Work
• Other

Digital citizenship is when students are using technology with academic respect for honesty and integrity on the computer or iPad.

Students Responsibility

• Use only approved websites.
• Protect their private information online.
• Academic honesty when referencing sources.
• Only using digital resources at appropriate times with permission.

Steps to prevent Non-Digital Citizenship

• LightSpeed allows teachers to monitor student online activities.
• Technology teachers give lessons on digital citizenship.
• Digital Citizenship, in essential agreements.

Plagiarism is defined as the representation, intentionally or unwittingly, of the ideas, words or work of another person without proper, clear and explicit acknowledgment (MYP: From principles to practice).

It is important that students understand how to appropriately use another author’s work in their assignments to avoid both intentional and unintentional instances of plagiarism.

Students should understand plagiarism as being any of the following:

• Any representation of others’ work as your own
• Non-original work that is not cited and appropriately referenced in submissions.
• Copying information from a book or a website.
• Misuse of quotation marks, paraphrasing, and in text citations makes authorship unclear.
• Failure to identify source of elements of nonverbal work (ie. painting, dance, photo, proof, musical composition, etc) that you’ve derived your work from.

Steps to prevent plagiarism include:

• Acknowledge all material used in the creation of your own work by referencing them accurately
• Items that must be acknowledged include any and all ideas, words, and works of another person, including words, pictures, maps, programs, data, etc.
• Even paraphrased material must be acknowledged with a source
• There are particular rules, or conventions, about how to cite someone else’s work, and those rules must be followed. Examples of acceptable conventions are: MLA, APA, and Chicago. Use the convention assigned by your teacher.

Example APA in-text Citation

Strong organizational communication can enable organizational effectiveness (Gochhayat, Giri & Suar, 2017).

Example Reference

Gochhayat, J., Giri, V. N., & Suar, D. (2017). Influence of organizational culture on organizational effectiveness: The mediating role of organizational communication. Global Business Review, 18(3), 691-702. doi:10.1177/0972150917692185

Collusion is supporting academic misconduct by another student, as in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another (MYP: From principles to practice).

Collusion should be distinguished from collaboration that implies working together to accomplish a goal or complete an assignment (MYP: From principles to practice). While students may be assigned group work and asked to collaborate on certain assignments, they should be careful not to misrepresent other students’ ideas as their own. When completing work that requires some collaboration, students should follow all directions from their teacher(s) as to which parts of the assignment can be completed collaboratively and which parts require independent work.

It is important that students understand the importance of submitting their own original work for all school assignments.

Students should understand collusion as being any of the following:

• Helping someone else cheat both deliberately and through support.
• Allowing your work to be copied and/or submitted by another student.
• Divide and conquer approach where you are not the author of the entire assignment given by the instructor (if not part of assignment).
• Representing significantly unequal work as an equal collaboration.
• Writing a paper or doing homework for another student, both at the time as well as sharing completed work with students who take a course in the future.
• Sharing information about assessment content and questions with other students.

Steps to prevent collusion include:

• Assure students in your class understand that when they submit a task as their own, they are representing that have not received nor given aid on assignments or assessments.
• Helping students understand the difference between legitimate collaboration and collusion
• Minimize temptation for malpractice in assignments/assessment situations.
• Communicate with students, parents, counselors, administrators, with concerns and malpractice offenses.
• Teachers, administrators, and counselors involve students in reflection/discussion in the instance of malpractice.
• Confirm understanding of academic honesty with signature on Code of Conduct form each year.
• Report malpractice violations to a trusted school employee.
• Work to produce authentic work
• Understand that putting name on assignment certifies it as your own work, cited appropriately.
• Minimize malpractice temptation by balancing time appropriately.

Forgery is the action of forging or producing a copy of a document, signature, banknote, or work of art.

It is important that students understand the importance of a person’s signature to imply consent and/or acquiescence.

Students should understand forgery as being any of the following:

• Signing the name of any person other than themselves
• Putting an artist's name on an art so it appears as a genuine or original
• Using a fake form or identification Steps to prevent forgery:
• Maintain open communication between teachers and parents
• Communicate with students, parents, counselors, administrators, with concerns

Duplication of work can be defined as the presentation of the same work for different assessment components (MYP: From principles to practice).

It is important that students understand that duplication of work results in a violation of academic integrity.

Students should understand duplication of work as being any of the following:

• Turning in the same work for multiple courses
• Copying sections of or an entire previous assignment for submission on a later assignment without citing one’s own work

Steps to prevent duplication of work:

• Always create original work for assignments
• When referencing past assignments/work for current assignments, make sure to cite the original work
• Avoid turning in the same work in multiple classes – cite your own work if referencing a past assignment

Any action or behavior that results in an unfair advantage for a student or results in a disadvantage in performance of another student (MYP: From principles into practice).

• Disturbance in class or testing environment
• Use of study aids when not expressly permitted
• Falsifying data
• Creating false reflections
• Use of inappropriate or offensive material in any context

Sand Creek International School believes an essential component to student achievement is academic integrity. The approaches to learning (self-management skills, social skills, communication skills, thinking skills and research skills) and the learner profile present strategies for developing honesty in the Primary Years Programme and Middle Years Program. It is expected that all members of the Sand Creek school community will support and model academic integrity. A working understanding of the learner profile should begin in kindergarten and continue through the students’ academic career. Traits expressed in the IB learner profile detail academic integrity for the Sand Creek school community.

Implementation of the Academic Integrity Policy is a collaborative effort.

Head of School, PYP and MYP Coordinator are responsible for…

• Creating the academic integrity policy in a collaborative manner that includes all stakeholders
• Making every effort to ensure that all stakeholders understand academic integrity and concepts of intellectual property and authenticity
• Modeling and providing clear expectations for strategies that ensure adherence to the Academic Integrity Policy including proper citation of sources, etc.
• Providing clear communication regarding malpractice and the consequences of such malpractice
• Providing resources for the school community that support adherence to the Academic Integrity Policy

Teachers are responsible for…

• Implementation of the Academic Integrity Policy
• Monitoring student work to identify malpractice. This monitoring process should include reviewing student responses for collusion, duplication of work, plagiarism, forgery, etc. Periodic consultation and reviewing of student work with other teachers will aid in the monitoring of academic integrity at SCIS.
• Explicitly planning and teaching approach to learning skills that support skills related to academic integrity including proper techniques for paraphrasing and citing sources
• Modeling academic integrity for students
• Communicating the Academic Integrity Policy with students and families

Librarians and technology teachers are responsible for…

• Supporting teachers and students with best practices regarding academic integrity
• Teaching students how to obtain valid, reliable information from sources and appropriately reference those sources
• Collaborating with teachers to monitor and identify authentic student work and student malpractice including plagiarism and collusion

Students are responsible for…

• Taking efforts to create authentic work that respects the intellectual property rights of others
• Properly referencing and citing sources
• Reviewing work before turning it in to ensure that ideas are properly referenced
• Taking extra care during group and collaborative work to properly cite sources and acknowledge the contribution of others
• Understanding the different types of malpractice and how to avoid malpractice

Families are responsible for…

• Working in collaboration with teachers and students to promote academic integrity
• Modeling and promoting best practices in regards to academic integrity

Preventing Malpractice

SCIS believes that teaching students concepts of intellectual property and authenticity is central to preventing student malpractice. SCIS teachers will explicitly review common malpractice with students and steps to avoid malpractice. Explicit teaching of approach to learning skills across all years of the program in every subject group will help support with the prevention of malpractice.

Consequences of Malpractice

When teachers have a suspicion that a student has committed academic malpractice, they will report the incident to a school administrator.

The administrator will investigate and will make a determination as to whether there is sufficient evidence to take action.

1. If there is sufficient evidence to take action, the administrator will:

• Record the incident in the student’s academic record.
• Contact the parents to arrange a meeting to review the academic integrity policy.
• Set guidelines for appropriate completion of the assignment.

2. In cases of academic malpractice, students will receive a zero for the assignment. At the teacher’s discretion, revised assignments may be graded and/or submitted, assuming that all external deadlines are met.

This policy is a collaborative effort that includes all stakeholders. The policy will be reviewed and revised on an annual basis by the SCIS IB Vertical team. PYP and MYP teachers will review the policy during school PLCs. Students will be invited to provide feedback on academic integrity through advisory. This policy may be revised to reflect student feedback. Parents will be invited to contribute feedback through IB Family Events. This policy will be shared with all stakeholders and available on the school website (Academic integrity, 2019).

PYP
The PYP Coordinator will provide teachers with training during elementary school PLCs to support implementation of the Academic Integrity Policy. The training will cover such topics as standardized benchmark and progress monitoring test administration, resources for teaching students to research responsibly and ethically, and proper citation.

MYP
The MYP Coordinator will provide teachers with training during middle school PLCs to support implementation of the Academic Integrity Policy. The training will cover such topics as proper citation of sources and helping students avoid plagiarism, collusion and duplication of work. The MYP Coordinator will prepare lessons that teachers will deliver during advisory that support students with academic integrity.

Academic integrity (2019)
Academic honesty in the IB educational context (2014)
MYP: From principles into practice. 2014. International Baccalaureate Organization.