ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Academic Integrity Background: At Worthington Schools, we believe the students, staff and community are stakeholders in the climate and culture of our school. The school was founded on the belief that all students can and must learn in order to achieve success in our society.  The community and staff further believe that success begins with personal and academic integrity, which are grounded in honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Academic and personal integrity are built upon continuous conversations about how these five values are embodied throughout our school.  It is our belief that the pursuit of truth, the promotion of learning and the development of lifelong learners are indeed the conduit to personal success in our school and our democracy. Raising the level of student integrity should remain our highest priority as a community of lifelong learners. In the spirit of that pursuit, the Academic Integrity Committee of Worthington Schools offered the following:

Culture - The values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility are worthy of our pursuit at our school. We strive to ensure success, exhibit integrity and serve humanity through these five essential values. Any lapse in exhibiting these values by any stakeholder does not condone misconduct of another stakeholder.

Honesty - Honesty is the foundation of teaching, learning, research and service. It is the prerequisite for full realization of trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.  Policies at our school uniformly deplore cheating, lying, fraud, misrepresentation, theft and other forms of dishonest behaviors that jeopardize the rights and welfare of our learning community.

Trust - Mutual trust is formed in an academic community that celebrates the free exchange of ideas. Trust enables us to reach our full potential as human beings. Our school believes people respond to consistent honesty with trust. Only with trust can our learning community believe in the social value inherent in academic inquiry, scholarship and integrity.

Fairness - Fairness evolves from predictability, clear expectations, consistency, careful listening and just responses to dishonesty. All students and staff have a role in ensuring an environment embracing fairness.

Respect - Respect is one of the rich rewards of an environment built on fairness. Teaching and learning demand active engagement and mutual respect.  Students and faculty must respect their individual roles in order to appreciate diversity, learn and test new skills, build community and grow from failures.  The antithesis of respect is being rude, sarcastic, demeaning or disruptive to others.

Responsibility - Responsibility requires that each stakeholder protect the integrity of the learning climate.  Each person in the school community must be responsible for his/her own honesty and personal responsibility and to encourage positive conduct by others.

Guidelines:  Absolute integrity is expected of everyone in our schools.  Academic and personal integrity entail a firm adherence to a set of values essential to an academic community grounded in honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility for all.

In honor of the five essential values, the faculty commits to the following:

• develop procedures for constructive feedback on all student endeavors
• give no student unfair advantage or disadvantage;
• be open to all student concerns;
• keep students and parents informed of student progress;
• set clear guidelines for assignments and evaluationof work;
• collaborate with each other to assist learners and notparticipate in gossip;
• follow school policies in responding to dishonesty;
• cultivate and model respect through regular attendance,punctuality and preparedness;
• incorporate current knowledge and practices;
• respect others work by citing sour

Faculty, staff and parents expect students to honor the five essential values.  Students will:

• model, encourage and support each other in maintaining academic integrity;
• treat all individuals, ideas, environment and property with respect, courtesy and dignity;
• respond honestly when asked about issues of fairness for themselves and others despite peer pressure, fear, loyalty, or compassion;
• cultivate and model respect through regular attendance, punctuality and preparedness;
• follow school rules in responding to dishonesty;
• prepare and submit their own work including that which is cited;
• collaborate with others when appropriate;
• use their positions, roles or memberships fairly and honestly.

Violations - The following are examples of activities that violate the CODE of ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. This is not a definitive list:

• knowingly representing the work of others as one’s own;
• using, obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on examinations, papers or any other academic work;
• fabricating data in support of laboratory or fieldwork;
• forging a signature to certify attendance, completion of a course assignment or any other gain for any purposenot authorized;
• advancing one’s academic position unfairly by hoarding or damaging library materials;
• misrepresenting one’s academic accomplishments;
• communicating, copying materials, allowing another tocopy your materials, using unauthorized materials during a quiz, test, project or homework assignment;
• submitting falsified information for grading purposes;
• removing examinations or parts of examinations without the knowledge or consent of the faculty member;
• impersonating or having another person impersonate astudent to assist the student in some academic gain;
• stealing, using or accepting stolen copies of tests or answer keys;
• changing answers and seeking credit on an assignmentor examination after work has been graded or returned;
• altering a teacher’s grade book or computer records;
• falsifying information on applications such asscholarships, etc.;
• using computers, programmable calculators or theinternet for violations of guidelines established by the faculty;
• committing any other violation intended to obtain credit for work that is not one’s own.

The faculty of our school will include the statement below on all course syllabi:

In this class you will neither give nor receive unauthorized aid in class work, quizzes, examinations, preparation of reports or projects, or in any other work that I use to evaluate you without specific permission for collaboration or without proper citation.

Our School’s Code of Conduct Honor Statement:

“As a student of integrity at our school, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment.” This statement means that the student understands and has complied with the requirements of the assignment as set forth by the instructor. It is the faculty’s intent that we will incorporate the above statement at the beginning or end of tests, quizzes and other assignments as a visible and external reminder of our highest expectations for all.

At our school we know academic integrity requires our attention to detail, vigilance in routines and clarity of expectations.  The above work synthesized from the Kenan Ethics Program, the Center for Academic Integrity, student input and faculty conversations make us a richer, stronger and more vibrant school for learning.