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Academic Integrity

Academic honesty is an important part of the climate of integrity and fairness that exists at James Fowler. It is important that all members of the school community maintain high standards of integrity and that student’s achievement reflects their own ability, knowledge, and skill.

Academic Honesty

Students act without academic honesty when they:

  • Plagiarize – the unacknowledged use of another person’s work and the presentation of that work, in whole or part, as one’s own or assisting in the act of plagiarism by allowing one’s work to be used in this fashion. This may include presenting the words or ideas of another as one’s own or submission of the same work to more than one teacher without the teacher’s consent. 
  • Obtain or provide unauthorized information concerning all or part of an assignment or examination prior to or during the examination, take an examination for another student or arrange for another person to take an exam in one’s place. 
  • Alter or change test answers after submission for grading, alter or change grades after grades have been awarded or alter or change other academic records, making any other attempt to alter grades using means that have not been or would not be approved by your teacher. 
  • Use unauthorized materials including unauthorized electronic information or devices during an exam or assignment. 
  • Provide materials for another student to copy. 
  • Intentionally miss a quiz or test or submit an assignment late in order to obtain information or gain an advantage over other students.

School Response to Academic Dishonesty

When a student acts with academic dishonesty, a referral will be made to his or her Counselor. The following steps will be taken:

First Incident

  • The teacher will meet with the student and discuss the circumstances of the academic dishonesty. Together, they will set a plan to prevent future acts of academic dishonesty; 
  • The teacher & Assistant Principal will ensure that the incident is recorded in the student’s file.
  • The teacher will notify all the student’s Teachers and Assistant Principal that an entry has been entered into Activity Tracker; 
  • The Assistant Principal or the Teacher will contact the student’s parent and discuss the incident; 
  • The Teacher will provide for the student to complete honestly the assignment or assessment and to receive an assessment of their work. The grade that is recorded will reflect the late submission policy in that course; and
  • If the Assistant Principal feels it is warranted, the may result in a suspension.

Subsequent Incidents

  • The Counselor will meet  with the student and discuss the  circumstances of the academic dishonesty. Together, they will set a plan to prevent future acts of academic dishonesty; 
  • The Counselor will refer the incident to the student’s Assistant Principal; 
  • The Teacher will allow the student to complete the assignment or test honestly and to receive an assessment of their work. While they will find out what grade their work would have received, a grade of zero will be recorded for that item; 
  • A meeting will be arranged with the student, his or her parent and the Assistant Principal to discuss the incident in particular and academic honesty in particular; 
  • The Counselor will ensure that the incident is recorded in the student’s file. The Counselor will notify all the student’s Teachers and Assistant Principal that an entry has been entered into Activity Tracker; 
  • A letter will be given to the student’s parent by the Assistant Principal, outlining the incident and clarifying the school’s academic honesty policy; 6.The Teacher will provide for the student to complete honestly the assignment or assessment and to receive an assessment of their work. The grade that is recorded will reflect the late submission policy in that course; and 
  • The Assistant Principal will oversee a program of progressive discipline when a student continues to act with academic dishonesty. This program may include: 
  • Suspension; An instruction to all staff to include a description of the student’s academic dishonesty in all letters of reference; 
  • Removal from school teams or extra-curricular clubs; and 
  • Mandatory attendance in special workshops directed at encouraging academic honesty.

Resources

Plagiarism.org

Find out what plagiarism is, what specific actions make a student liable for plagiarizing, why it is unethical and how to avoid doing it. As with many sites (such as www.grammarly.com) Plagiarism.org connects students to paid sites that will check their papers for grammatical issues and instances of plagiarism.

Writecheck.com Plagiarism Quiz

Check how well you understand plagiarism with this short quiz!

Finding Dulcinea

“Why not Wikipedia?” Read up in this article from www.findingDulcinea.com—the Librarian of the Internet ,“The Top Ten Reasons Students Cannot Cite or Rely on Wikipedia” by Mark Moran, October, 2011.

Open Education Database 

Use this site to connect with repositories of authoritative content (such as databases and speciality search engines) not indexed on the visible web (Google). “Research Beyond Google: 56 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources”.

Wiki Beneath Surface

Watch this short video from the NCSU Library site on how Wikipedia works—“Wikipedia: Beneath the Surface - What is a wiki? How does the information get into Wikipedia? Find out what goes on behind the scenes.”

Purdue Writing Lab
Use the Purdue Writing lab pages on Research and Citations to guide your research, including how to use primary and secondary sources, avoid plagiarism, and format your citations.

Media Smarts 

Media Smarts is a centre for digital and media literacy. (formerly Media Awareness Network)

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​​Plagiarism Policy

When ideas are taken from other sources without giving credit, this is known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of somebody else’s words or ideas.

We expect our students to act with academic integrity, and to use their own knowledge to demonstrate authentic learning. We expect our students to be honest and ethical in their schoolwork and in how they deal with others. Our teachers support students' authentic and ethical learning through teaching when and how to cite resources, by using online tools like Turnitin, and a variety of other ways.

When To Give Credit in Your Work

Need To Give Credit​

  • When you are using or referring to someb​​ody else’s words or ideas from a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other source.
  • ​When you use information gained through interviewing another person.
  • When you copy the exact words from somewhere.
  • When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, and pictures.

Don't Need to Give Credit 

  • ​When you are writing your own experiences, your own observations, your own insights, your own thoughts, your own conclusions about a subject.
  • When you are using common knowledge, common sense observations, or shared information.
  • When you are using generally accepted facts.
  • Whe​n you are writing up your own experimental results.

Academic Expectations

Students are expected to behave according to the CBE Student Code of Conduct. Students who knowingly misrepresent the work of others as their own, or allow their work to be copied, act outside of the parameters of academic integrity. If this happens, we use Progressive Student Discipline so that teachers, parents, and school leaders can help students take responsibility for their learning to achieve their academic goals. ​