ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY FOR NOTRE DAME PREPARATORY SCHOOL AND MARIST ACADEMY
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is committed to and values the highest level of academic achievement and integrity. It is the school’s objective to work together as a community of teachers, students, administrators, and parents to ensure that our students have access to resources of the highest academic standings that are then in turn properly credited and cited by the students. Additionally, students are required to create wholly authentic work on their assignment, tests, and research papers as teacher guidelines require. Referenced work that is quoted or paraphrased must be clearly acknowledged in the body of the paper and again in the bibliography. To understand academic honesty it is important to first examine academic fraud.
Academic fraud includes the following academic choices:
Plagiarism
According to Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, Fourth Edition, by Diana Hacker, “Plagiarism is the unattributed use of a source of information that is not considered common knowledge. Forms of plagiarism are failure to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, failure to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, failure to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words, and submission of someone else’s work as your own.”
Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to:
- Not citing as a quote exact words from an author.
- Not giving appropriate credit to passages that you reword or paraphrase from another author.
- Purchasing a research paper, take home test, or assignment.
- Turning in a paper written by someone else.
Cheating
According to the Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, to cheat is a means “to get something by dishonesty or deception.”
Examples of cheating include but are not limited to:
- Copying another student’s assignment.
- Using restricted books, notes, cheat sheets, calculators, or other programmable electronic devices during a test.
- Putting your name on and turning in an assignment or test completed by another.
- Obtaining answers during a test from another student with or without their consent.
- Submitting the same work for different assignments. All submitted student work must be wholly authentic, original, and unique to the assignment upon completion.
- Using “cheat sheets” during a test.
Collusion
According to the International Baccalaureate’s Academic Honesty: Guidance for Schools, collusion is “defined as supporting malpractice by another candidate, as in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another.”
Examples of collusion include but are not limited to:
- Allowing someone to copy your assignment.
- Giving out test questions or answers after you have taken a test to someone who is yet to take the test.
- Allowing someone to copy from your test.
- Writing a paper, completing a test or assignment for someone else.
Fabrication
According to the Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, to fabricate is “to make up for the purpose of deception.”
Examples of fabrication include but are not limited to:
- Making up results or statistics that are not true to support your argument.
- Padding your bibliography with sources you really didn’t use.
- Inventing resources that don’t exist.
Teachers will continually promote and encourage wholly authentic work by reviewing expectations, teaching the importance of not only citing the work but proper citation, discussing the value and importance of academic honesty, preparing students for the challenges of the classroom, actively proctor tests/quizzes, model academic honesty in the classroom and school, and report all cases of academic fraud.
Administrators will enforce the Academic Honesty policy by determining cases of academic fraud. Administrators will make the Academic Honesty policy available to all students, teachers, faculty, staff, and parents. They will record all violations and make determinations of discipline to ensure fair and appropriate enforcement. (Please see the school handbook section under “Academic Honesty.”)
Media Specialists will work closely with students and teachers to provide the highest level of academic materials. The Media Specialist will facilitate the exploration of resources, research skills, and the proper acknowledgement of intellectual property.
Students will follow the guidelines of the Academic Honesty policy, avoid situations that would create distrust, cite all resources, and seek guidance when unsure how to cite a source or if an action will violate the Academic Honesty policy. Additionally, students should be willing to work independently, exhibit confidence in their work, and extend credit to group members for individual contributions in all projects.
Attachment: AUP&AH2012