ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATION - 5131.9
Honest behavior is an expectation of all students in the Irvine Unified School District. The purpose of this regulation is to enforce that expectation and create and maintain an ethical academic environment.
Each school shall work with parents, staff, and student representatives to develop school rules regarding academic honesty that are consistent with the law and with Irvine Unified School District policy. Schools shall notify all students and parents/guardians annually of the rules pertaining to academic honesty and implement preventative measures that reduce the likelihood of academic honesty violations.
Within the Irvine Unified School District, there is a shared responsibility to ensure that grades reflect the knowledge and skill level of each student. Acts of academic dishonesty can inhibit learning and adversely impact the accuracy of grades. When academic honesty violations occur, consequences shall be determined through an evaluation of the specific situation, shall be commensurate with the seriousness of the act, and shall take into consideration the previous record of the student. When appropriate, consequences for academic dishonesty shall be imposed both at the school and the classroom level commensurate with the grade level and developmental needs of the student.
All academic honesty violations, whether handled by a teacher or another school official, shall be documented in the student’s discipline file for future reference. Parents/guardians shall be made aware of each academic honesty violation and consequence.
Prevention / Communication / Education
Students, staff, and parents/guardians are expected to understand and be able to communicate expectations concerning academic honesty. Opportunities to inform students and limit academic honesty violations will include:
- Sharing academic honesty expectations and guidelines defined and outlined in student handbooks
- Defining expectations through Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) behavior matrices
- Teaching academic honesty explicitly in classrooms within the context of learning experiences
- Addressing academic honesty within digital citizenship lessons
- Utilizing anti-plagiarism tools to check work before submittal
- Presenting classroom expectations to parents/guardians and students
- Providing information about academic honesty during the registration process
Definitions of Academic Honesty Behaviors
Specific types of academic honesty violations are defined below. These examples do not represent a complete list of possible violations:
1. Cheating on Tests - Any use of external assistance relating to an examination, test, or quiz without expressed permission of the teacher. This includes looking at another student's paper, sharing answers, possession of materials, or copying another student's paper.
2. Fabrication - Any intentional falsification or invention of data, citation, or other authority in an academic exercise.
3. Unauthorized Collaboration - Collaboration on an assignment between a student and another person, if such collaboration is not expressly directed or permitted by the teacher. This includes copying another student's work, allowing work to be copied or completing assignments for others, giving or "passing" any assessments to other students for the following year, or receiving any assessments from other students.
4. Plagiarism - Any representation of another's ideas, words, or work as one's own. Plagiarism includes the misuse of published material, electronic material, and/or the work of other students. The original writer who intentionally shares his/her paper for another to copy, without the permission of the teacher, has also engaged in plagiarism.
5. Alteration of Materials - Any intentional and unauthorized alteration of student, teacher, or library instructional or assessment materials. This may include changing answers after the fact.
6. Theft - Any unauthorized taking, concealment, or alteration of student or teacher instructional or assessment materials or equipment, including, but not limited to, the district data network, internet, and other on-line resources.
7. Transfer or Use of Unauthorized Materials - includes the use of unapproved translation devices, or any giving or selling of unauthorized materials.
8. Digital Citizenship Violations - Per Board Policy: 6163.4 Technology Resources Acceptable Use Policy, students should refrain from using technological resources for violations that involve academic dishonesty. These include using technology to copy, plagiarize, collaborate inappropriately, sending or receiving test questions, accessing another’s account, or hacking into computer systems.
Responsibilities
Student Responsibility:
- Each student is required to read, understand and abide by their school’s academic honesty policy
- Each student is expected to do their own work on individual assignments. This includes test taking, assignments, class work, and the original creation of essays, research papers, and other writing assignments
- Students should complete each assignment with a focus on what is to be learned
- All work submitted by a student should be a true reflection of his or her own effort and ability
- Students should act with integrity, doing what is right even when it is not acknowledged
- Students should actively discourage and refuse to aid in any form, cheating or plagiarism by others
- Students should abide by district digital citizenship guidelines
Parent/Guardian Responsibility:
- Support his/her student in the understanding of school and district academic honesty guidelines
- Promote and model integrity and core ethical values
- Read, understand and abide by your school’s academic honesty policy
- Dialogue with family members about academic honesty including cheating, plagiarism, etc.
- State clear expectations regarding conformance to the school’s academic honesty policy
- Monitor assignments to be sure students are doing their own work and not copying from friends or relying too heavily on tutors for answers instead of learning.
- Help and encourage students with schoolwork, without doing it for them
- Monitor student’s online and social media activity
- Notify instructors regarding concerns about classroom honesty
Staff Responsibility (Administrator/Teacher/Counselor):
- Reinforce the academic honesty expectations with students
- Set clear (written) academic honesty expectations for various types of homework assignments
- Foster an environment and establish practices that promote academic honesty before, during, and after testing
- Enforce the Academic Honesty Policy and report instances of academic honesty violations
- Promote and model integrity and core ethical values
- Assign work that is intentionally focused on what is to be learned
- Design assignments that provide necessary practice for valuable learning
- Clearly define when collaboration is appropriate along with guidelines for individual student responsibilities
- Keep apprised of legal guidelines
- Enforce the Academic Honesty policy with consistency by department/Professional Learning Community (PLC) team
- Utilize security measures such as anti-plagiarism tools and different versions of assessments
Restorative Practices
Restorative practices are intended to achieve two goals: activate genuine learning that leads to a change in behavior and restore the wrong done to the individuals and communities affected by the student’s actions. All parties involved (teacher, student, administrator) agree to a specific academic honesty action plan for the restoration of harm done, including dates for their completion. If all parties do not agree, consequences per guidelines will be enforced.
Restorative practices may include:
- The student participating in a moderated discussion with the teacher or teachers impacted by the violation
- The student responding to statements made by those harmed by the violation
- The student providing potential solutions to repair the harm presented by the violation
- Self-reflection (Academic Honesty Reflection statements)
- Read, Reflect, Respond (Vignette/Response)
- Blended Learning Module for Academic Honesty
- Conference with teacher (apologize)
- Student ownership and understanding of the impact on others
Academic Honesty Action Plan* components include:
- Description of event
- Communication
- Restorative Practices
- Consequences
The academic honesty disciplinary process utilizes defined categories to outline different levels of academic honesty violations or progressive consequences due to repeated violations.
Category A includes but is not limited to:
- Copying any minor assignment from any other source or a portion thereof, such as a one-night homework assignment (not including tests or quizzes) assigned to be done independently
- Collaborating on a minor assignment in a manner inconsistent with the explicit and implicit expectations of the assignment for individual work
- Sharing work on a minor assignment with another student with the reasonable expectation and intention that the other student(s) might plagiarize that work
Category B includes but is not limited to:
- Any violation on a major assignment (such as tests, quizzes, labs, projects, essays, assignments requiring multiple days to complete, etc.) that is consistent with the descriptions set forth in the Category A violations above
- Submitting plagiarized work, (other than on a minor assignment as defined in Category A)
- Sharing work inconsistent with class/course expectations and instructions
- Looking at another student’s work or paper during an exam, test, or quiz
- Talking to or communicating with another student during an exam, test, or quiz
- Using any unauthorized material or device during an exam, test, or quiz (including translators, calculators, cell phone, etc.)
- Giving or receiving test information, in any form, to or from students in other periods of the same teacher or the same course or from previous school years
- Repetitive deception about completion or submission of work
- Altering a returned quiz, test, or assignment with the purpose of deceiving the teacher about the student’s performance on that assignment
- Accessing exam content, projects, or assignments without expressed consent from instructor
- Multiple Category A violations
Category C includes but is not limited to:
- Distributing exams, projects, or assignments
- Stealing (may include photographing) exams, projects or assignments
- Altering grades on a computer database or in a grade book
- Multiple Category B violations
Academic Honesty Violation Consequences by Category (see below)
| Category A Consequences | Category B Consequences | Category C Consequences |
| Teacher conferences with student. Teacher notifies administrator and has the opportunity to participate in the Academic Honesty Action Plan. Teacher notifies parent/guardian. Administrator logs violation into Aeries Assertive Discipline Screen. Meeting held with student, teacher, and admin to create Academic Honesty Action Plan. Parent/guardian communication included. Student does not receive credit on assignment or assessment pending fulfillment of Academic Honesty Action Plan. If the plan is not successfully completed, student will not have the opportunity to make up assignment/assessment. Restorative practices may be included in the Academic Honesty Action Plan contingent on mutual agreement between teacher and student. If student successfully completes Academic Honesty Action Plan, student may receive full or partial credit as determined by the teacher. Parameters to be determined by the teacher may include student redoing the assignment, replacing with another assignment, or revisiting in an alternative manner by the end of the semester. Options for supervision can include the classroom, detention or Saturday School, or other area by agreement. Student may be assigned a detention, Saturday School or similar consequence where the student may be required to complete an additional assignment that addresses the same skill or content objective being assessed by the initial assignment. | Teacher conferences with student. Teacher notifies administrator and has the opportunity to participate in the Academic Honesty Action Plan. Teacher notifies parent/guardian Administrator logs violation into Aeries Assertive Discipline Screen. Meeting held with student, teacher, and admin to create Academic Honesty Action Plan. Parent/guardian communication included. Student does not receive credit on assignment or assessment pending fulfillment of Academic Honesty Action Plan. If the plan is not successfully completed, student will not have the opportunity to make up assignment/assessment. Restorative Practices may be included in the Academic Honesty Action Plan contingent on mutual agreement between teacher and student. If student successfully completes Academic Honesty Action Plan, student may receive partial credit as determined by the teacher. Parameters to be determined by the teacher may include student redoing the assignment/assessment, replacing with another assessment, or revisiting in an alternative manner by the end of the semester. Options for supervision can include the classroom, detention or Saturday School, or other area by agreement. Student may be assigned Saturday School or similar consequence where the student may be required to complete an additional assignment that addresses the same skill or content objective being assessed by the initial assignment. Student may become ineligible for any academic or scholastic award or honor society within the same year of the violation. Student athlete participants, VAPA extra-curricular participants, or student leadership participants may have additional consequences per the athletic code or participant agreements which may include loss of athletic or participation privilege for a specified number of days. | Teacher conferences with student. Teacher notifies administrator and has the opportunity to participate in the Academic Honesty Action Plan. Teacher notifies parent/guardian Administrator logs violation into Aeries Assertive Discipline Screen and meets with student and parent/guardian. Student does not receive credit on assignment or assessment. Additional consequences may include being dropped from the class with a withdraw/fail or being transferred to another class or program. Student may receive consequences such as Saturday School, in-school or at-home suspension if student has prior Academic Honesty violations and has failed to respond to other means of correction. Student’s teachers and teacher advisor are notified of the violation. Student will become ineligible for any academic or scholastic award or honor society within the same year of the violation. Counselors will report concerns about the student’s academic integrity in college recommendations when required by a college or university. Student athlete participants or VAPA extra-curricular participants may have additional consequences per the athletic code or participant agreements which may include loss of athletic or participation privilege for a specified number of days. Participation in student leadership positions will be re-evaluated with possible revocation of privileges, suspension, or probation for a specified number of days. Student may have the opportunity to be involved with teacher and administrator in developing an Academic Honesty Action Plan, including restorative practices. This may include completing a community service project related to academics or other appropriate consequences. |
Academic Honesty Action Plan Form*
Board Policy 6163.4: Technological Resources Acceptable Use Policy
Revised: June 9, 2020