ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY

As part of our SLE - LEARN, students will continue to be Committed to Academics:

• By embracing persistent curiosity.

• By attempting their best work with integrity.

• By demonstrating a strong foundation in academics.

All SJW students and families are expected to act with integrity in their educational pursuits.  Integrity is a character-driven commitment to honesty, doing what is right, and guiding others to do the same. All submitted and/or presented assignments must be original student work and not plagiarized.

We understand that pressure to get good grades can sometimes create the incentive to cheat. However, we firmly believe that cheating denies the value of education, damages the ethical character of the individual student, and undermines the integrity of our SJW school community. Our Academic Integrity Policy affirms that we value learning for its own sake, and that we therefore demand personal integrity and intellectual honesty in all academic work. 

DEFINITION 

What is cheating? Cheating is defined as seeking to obtain (or aiding another to obtain) credit or improved scores through the use of any unauthorized or deceptive means. The administration reserves the right to determine possible violations of the policy on a case-to-case basis; however, some examples of what cheating looks like are:

• Presenting information collected, organized, or envisioned by someone else as your own (with or without the author's permission) or allowing someone else to present your work as his or her own.
• Taking shortcuts (such as unauthorized use of study aids) that allow you to bypass steps of an assignment.
• Using forbidden material to "help" on an assignment or during an exam, such as cheat sheets, answer key, graphing calculators, or cell phones.
• Asking about or sharing questions and/or answers to quizzes and exams.
• Submitting the same work for more than one assignment without express permission from your teacher(s).
• Altering corrections or scores with the intent of changing your grade. 
• Misrepresenting yourself in any way to your teachers in regard to the work you have done, such as saying you've turned in an assignment when you did not, or that you've worked hours longer than you actually did to complete an assignment.
• Fabricating information to try to earn more time, more credit, or grading leniency on an assignment, project, or exam.
• Missing class in order to avoid turning in an assignment or taking a test.
• Doing more or less than your share of a group project without permission from your teacher. 

TEACHER, STUDENT, PARENT, AND ADMINISTRATOR RESPONSIBILITIES 

Students’ Responsibilities:

• Read and know the school’s Academic Integrity Policy.
• In addition to observing our school’s Academic Integrity Policy, observe all course-specific rules and consequences established by your teachers.
• Report to the teacher if cheating is taking place and how it is being done.
• Do not copy homework or let someone else copy your homework.
• Do not use study aids (such as Sparknotes) as an alternative to completing an assignment.
• Only work with others when the teacher has specifically given permission.
• Seek only appropriate help from parents, tutors, or other students; check with the teacher prior to receiving the help to know what help and assistance is appropriate.
• If collaboration has not been specified as permissible, the assignment must be your individual honest effort.
• Take responsibility for doing your fair share on a collaborative assignment.
• On papers, do not summarize, paraphrase or quote without proper documentation.
• During tests and quizzes, keep your paper covered and your eyes on your own paper.
• When in doubt, clarify with the teacher what aids may be used on the test (calculator, notes, etc.).
• Do not talk during tests except to the teacher.
• Do not discuss any aspect of the test until the teacher has returned it or given permission to discuss it.
• Under no circumstance should another individual assist in answering questions related to any assessment (standardized tests, formative or summative assessments).

Teacher Responsibilities:

• Be precise about expectations for students by clearly stating the Academic Integrity Policy, orally and in writing.
• Communicate the range of consequences for Academic Integrity Policy violations to the students.
• Address the use of study aids (e.g., SparkNotes, tutors, etc.) in course work.
• Clearly specify when collaboration with other students is permitted on an assignment.
• Review student work regularly for violations of the Academic Integrity Policy.
• Report violations of the Academic Integrity Policy regarding your own class assignments to an administrator.
• Report violations of the Academic Integrity Policy regarding another teacher’s class assignments to that teacher (i.e., when an English teacher observes students copying Math homework in English class, the English teacher should report that to the Math teacher).
• Tell students when they are allowed to discuss a test after it has been given.  

Parent Responsibilities:

• Read and know the school’s Academic Integrity Policy.
• Help the student understand you value academic integrity and expect the student to comply with the school’s Academic Integrity Policy.
• Support the imposition of consequences if the Academic Integrity Policy is violated.
• Require students to do their own work.
• When helping students with assignments, ensure that their work remains their own.

Administrator Responsibilities:

• Make available to all students, teachers and parents a copy of the school’s Academic Integrity Policy.
• Facilitate ongoing conversations and reflection about the Academic Integrity Policy.
• Administer fair and consistent consequences for offenses of the Academic Integrity Policy.
• Maintain records of Academic Integrity Policy offenses. 

PROCEDURES AND CONSEQUENCES

Procedures:

All parties concerned—students, parents, and administrators—are to understand that the teacher’s professional judgment will determine whether a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy has occurred. Whenever a student is found to have violated the Academic Integrity Policy and/or course-specific rules, these procedures will be followed: 

1. The teacher will document the violation and report it to the Grade Level Dean via email.
2. The Homeroom Teacher will record the violation in Gradelink as part of the student’s disciplinary record.
3. The Grade Level Dean will review the student’s disciplinary record and determine whether the violation in question is the student’s first (or subsequent) offense.
4. The teacher will confer with the student and may contact the student’s parents. 
1. The purpose of the teacher-student conference is to review the Academic Integrity Policy, clarify why the work or behavior in question constitutes a violation of it, and help prevent future violations. 
5. According to the stated expectations of individual teachers, an appropriate penalty for the offense will be imposed. 

Consequences:

• Consequences for a first-time violation may include (but are not limited to):
• Point deduction on a quiz, test, paper, project, or homework assignment, a zero or negative points assigned as the grade.
• Detention(s)
• Behavior/Conduct grade lowered one (1) letter grade on report card.
• A teacher may decline to write a letter of recommendation or report it in a letter. A teacher may also rescind a recommendation after it has been sent.  

• Consequences for subsequent violations may include (but are not limited to) any of those above as well as the following:
• Repeat offense in same class: 
• Conference called by Administrator with student, teacher, parent, and Grade Level Dean.
• Repeat offense, but not in the same class: 
• Appropriate action taken by Administrator (e.g., detention, suspension, expulsion).
• Behavior/Conduct grade lowered several letter grades for the report card.
• Suspension and/or exclusion from extracurricular activities including, but not limited to, all SJW Athletics, all SJW Clubs, our California Junior Scholarship Federation (CJSF), etc... 

Honesty is a value that holds each person to tell the truth and to defend the truth, 

while supporting intellectual growth and a fair learning environment.

Integrity is firm adherence to our Christian values with or without the presence of others.

In an environment of honesty and integrity, the work we turn in as our own is our own. 

Having academic integrity means valuing and demonstrating positive regard for:

• Intellectual honesty
• Personal truthfulness
• Learning for its own sake
• The creations and opinions of others (i.e., intellectual property) 

I, _______________________________________, will act with academic integrity to the extent that I will demonstrate these values, and in particular:

• NOT plagiarizing (copying others' work)
• NOT copying and pasting from the Internet.  
• Taking full credit for your own work, and giving full credit to others who have helped you or influenced you, or whose work you have incorporated into your own.
• Representing your own work honestly and accurately.
• Collaborating with other students only as specifically directed and authorized.
• Reporting breaches of academic integrity to a teacher.

I, ______________________________________, also understand that if academic dishonesty continues, I may be suspended from any online accounts associated with St. Joseph the Worker School and I may be given alternative assignments.

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Student’s Signature Date

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