John Hardin High School

Academic Integrity Policy

Rationale

It is the mission of the faculty at John Hardin High School to protect intellectual property and strive to teach students correct strategies to avoid plagiarism in class assignments. This policy is designed to:

ü Outline teacher and student responsibilities

ü Define what plagiarism is

ü Outline strategies for teaching students how to avoid plagiarism

ü List consequences for the various levels of plagiarism

Teacher Responsibilities

• Provide clear instructions and requirements on assignments
• Provide a rubric on how the assignment will be assessed
• Require checkpoints during the research process to assist students in time management (different deadlines for various stages of the research process—notes, works cited, check all sources on Works Cited, rough draft, final draft, etc.)
• Provide documents and resources to help reinforce strategies
• Blue Documentation Helper
• Notes page

*Additional help to students is available through ESS tutorials and in the library media center before and after school.

Student Responsibilities

• Meet all checkpoint deadlines
• Submit documentation with all assignments

Plagiarism includes:

q Direct copying of someone else’s work (another student’s, an author of a book, an Internet source, etc.) and submitted as the student’s own

q Fraudulent documentation of sources

q Documentation that reflects unverifiable sources (inactive websites; doesn’t match the Works Cited, etc.)

q Incorrect paraphrasing

q Work that appears on the final product that did not go through teacher checkpoint process or appear in earlier drafts

Levels and Consequences of Plagiarism

Ø Level 1: The student intentionally uses a few lines or phrases of text without proper citation, but most of the work is still the student’s own

First Offense

o Student is given the opportunity to rewrite the assignment in question without penalty for the full grade. Otherwise, the student will receive a grade of 0 on the assignment.

o Parents will be notified by teacher

o Teacher completes a disciplinary referral for the purpose of documentation in the event of subsequent plagiarism occurrences.

Second Offense

o Student receives a 0 on the assignment in question with no opportunity to redo the work.

o Teacher completes a disciplinary referral for the purpose of documentation in the event of subsequent plagiarism occurrences.

o Advisors of school-sponsored honor organizations notified

Ø Level 2: The student uses multiple paragraphs of someone else’s work, thoughts, or ideas and does not have adequate documentation of sources. While some of the work is the student’s own, the majority of it is not.

o Student is given the opportunity to rewrite the assignment by a specified deadline at maximum grade of 70; otherwise, the student will receive a grade of zero on the assignment

o Parents notified by teacher

o Teacher reports incident as a disciplinary referral and student receives Saturday School until assignment in writing portfolio is completed

o Advisors of school-sponsored honor organizations notified