Academic Integrity Policies

We all want to do the right things. We want to work hard and to do well. Academic integrity is very important to us. We trust you and we want you to trust us. That trust is based on mutual understanding and respect.

We consider cheating to be highly immoral. While collaborative work is encouraged, we want you to know the difference between collaborative work and copying another students’ work and presenting it as your own. Below is a quote from the Handbook that explains the school rule regarding Plagiarism.

“What you present as your own work must be exactly that, your own. Whenever you directly quote, paraphrase, or summarize the words, ideas, creative works, theories or interpretations of others in your own writing, you must credit the source. This holds true for all borrowings, whether they be from a published work or not, or from a computer file or the Internet. Failure to do this is plagiarism and a serious academic offense. Any instance of cheating or plagiarism may result in failure of the exam, test, paper or homework assignment in which it occurs, and possible failure of the course, suspension, or dismissal from the school. Parents and tutors are reminded to guard against the more subtle insertions they might add to students’ work. These are also unacceptable.”

In the table below, we have highlighted further expectations that we have regarding moral behavior in the classroom.

You may...... / You may not.....
1...... call your buddy to find out what homework was given on a day that you were absent from school. / 1.....ask your buddy to complete this work on your behalf and then turn that work in with your name on it.
2...... ask your peer(s) to go over the class notes WITH you in order to help you under-stand it. / 2.....ask your peer(s) to do the homework for you because you did not understand it and therefore could not do it yourself. At that point, please make an appointment with your teacher to go over the material.
3...... ask your teacher for an extension on homework, tests, projects etc. / 3…..ask your peer(s) to complete the work for you because while you understand it, you have been too busy to get it done.
4. ....ask your parents to help with “dangerous” equipment when building a project, but be sure to note that help during your presentation. You will not be penalized for this. / 5...... pass off your parents’ work as your own.
5...... share ideas when working in groups. Those ideas will be used and or presented as GROUP findings. / 6...... take the ideas discovered in group work and present them as if they were yours only.
6...... divide the labor in group, but be certain to be in agreement with any final decisions that are made. In other words, while one person might be coordinator, (s)he is only responsible for writing down the ideas on behalf of all of the members of the group. / 7...... have one student do all of the work at home and then present it as group work.
7. ....raise your hand during a test to have a question or questions explained by the teacher. / ...... a. ask a peer to explain the question
...... b. look at your peer’s sheet to see how he or she approached the question.
8. ... stare to think clearly during a test. / 9...... stare at someone else’s work and then write down what you have seen.
9.....ask a teacher to allow you to take the test at a different time. / 10..... lie to avoid taking a test.
10...... Conduct research from the Internet. / 11. ....quote a source from the Internet and present it as your own.

When in doubt about the right thing to do, ask us!

Any time you copy work from any source and present it as your own, you will automatically receive an 0 for the assignment. If the person from whom you copied willingly allowed you to do so, (s)he too will be give an 0. You will also be sent directly to the Dean’s Office. There (s)he will decide what further steps to take regarding the matter.

ALL AUP policies regarding use of the computer in school are to be followed implicitly. When you sign the AUP contract, you agree to the latter.

Name (print):______

I have read and understood these Academic Integrity Policies.

Your signature:______Date: ______

Parent’s signature:______Date: ______