Middle School Academic Integrity Practices

An honest student:

The following section was prepared by 8th-grade students as advice for all students

Academic honesty is respecting your teachers, peers, and yourself by completing your work individually, when requested by your teacher. Complete your work truthfully, by avoiding asking/using any source for help when extra help is unauthorized. If you are struggling and considering cheating, it is better to:

• Try your best and set realistic goals
• Ask your teacher if you do not understand topic/assignment
• Keep your work to yourself; other students need to learn as well
• Work without using online tools unless teacher authorized (not all online tools are reliable)
• Manage your study time as well as manage your time during summative assessments
• Keep yourself away from distractions and methods of cheating. Understand the difference between authorized collaboration and help from outside sources.
• Show your steps/processes of your work and honestly report your own results. This helps you understand your weaknesses and helps the teacher evaluate your misunderstandings as well as your strengths.
• Remember to cite your sources properly so that you prevent plagiarism. It is simple, easy, and teachers can know where you got your information. Ask teachers for clarification on assignments.
• Be a thinker and use appropriate material.

Academic honesty definitions and possible infractions (to be reviewed explicitly in advisory or whenever appropriate)

• Cheating on classroom tasks: intentionally using or giving outside assistance before/during/after an assignment, exam, lab or other summative task without permission of teacher. This may include:

  • Copying another student's work on any assignment without consent of teacher and/or student
  • Giving/requesting information from another student on summative tasks or discussing exams
  • Turning in summative task that has been written or edited by a peer, parent, tutor, or others without consent of teacher
  • Copying a “cheat sheet” of another student
  • Google translate when not appropriate for assignment
  • Storing notes, formulas, or other information on a calculator or other PDA device
• Unauthorized Collaboration: discussing summative tasks when expressly forbidden by teacher. This may include:
  • Asking for help from peers, parents, or tutors on take-home summative tasks
  • Using unauthorized electronic collaboration
•  Fabrication: manipulation or falsifying data, information, or citations of any academic work. This may include:
  • Using another student’s lab data without permission
  • Fabricating/changing data on math and science tasks to fit assignment
  • Using shortcuts instead of doing the work
•  Plagiarism: taking work, pictures, or ideas as one’s own without proper citation. Failing to properly note paraphrased or quoted material.
  • Turning in papers without quoting sources.
  • Citing nonexistent sources
•  Ethical Use of Media: Using music, images, and video that is copyrighted and authorized for use by school members
• Forging a signature

Consequences to infractions

• No evidence on assignment (“0” achievement level) and redo another or a similar task
• Conversation with adult reporting the infraction with student, advisor, and parents
• Infraction report and In-school suspension

French International Middle School Responsible Use Agreement for digital tools

At French International School of Oregon (FI) we are committed to providing a learning environment that encourages the use of digital tools as essential to support our academic offering. We believe that technology can be used to learn new things, foster curiosity,  create new ideas, and produce  work in a variety of formats.  Receiving a school-owned device is both a privilege and a responsibility. Here are the expectations for using your school issued device,  whether at school or outside of school. Digital tools refers to hardware (including chromebooks, desktop computers, printers) and to software applications, FI network and internet resources.

When I receive a school-issued device I agree to: 

Be a principled digital citizen

• I will use FI-issued devices  and school apps and accounts for school work and school-related activities only.
• I will not use any digital device,  school issued or personal, during Early Arrival in the gym. 
• I understand that everything I post can be seen by others and can be re-sent by anyone to anyone in the world.
• I will consider with whom I am communicating and think of how they can interpret my words.
• I will use respectful  and appropriate language in all my digital communications:  without swearing,  name calling,  or causing others to feel uncomfortable due to their gender, race, appearance,  behavior or beliefs.
• I will not try to trick people into thinking something I created was done by someone else.
• I will adhere to the FI Academic Integrity policy.
• I will  follow copyright laws, and give credit to the creator of materials, ideas, photos, images, music or videos I use in my school projects by creating a properly formatted bibliography.
• I understand that failure to properly cite my sources of information is called "plagiarism" and is a form of cheating.
• I will fact-check the information I am sharing digitally.

Be respectful

•  I will respect the work and files of others, and agree not to open, copy, change, delete or damage files or folders that are not mine.
•  I will communicate and collaborate online responsibly and respectfully.
• I will be kind and avoid making threats or insulting,  gossiping or teasing while I am online or collaborating on a document. 

 Be responsible

• I will use and handle my school issued device carefully: carry with two hands, not throw, leave outside,  no food or drink
• I will not damage, change or tamper with the hardware, software, settings of computer hardware or the network.
• I will print only what is needed for my school work on campus.

Be safe

• I  understand that I am responsible for all activity in my FI accounts and will not share my login credentials.
• I will log off and close the lid or shut down a chromebook before I step away.
• I will not give out personal information about myself, my peers or my school on a public Internet site, including full names, passwords, home address, phone number, photos, audio files, or videos.
• I will not sign in or create new accounts for online resources not provided by the school.
• I will contact a teacher or advisor immediately if I cannot access my own accounts.
• I will contact a teacher or advisor if I access content that is not appropriate,  especially in the course of completing an assignment
• I will report evidence of cyberbullying to a teacher, counselor, advisor or administrator.

Take care of my school issued device

• Restart chromebook every day.
• Charge chromebook every night.
• Bring chromebook to school each day.
• Clean screen at least once a week.

We all make mistakes. When I do something with my device that is not in line with this agreement, I will let a trusted adult know and ask them to help me make it right. If I can’t consistently keep my part of this agreement, I understand that privileges may be removed for a time and that I may face additional consequences.
 Consequences may include:

• temporarily disabled FI account
• behavior report
• loss of digital privileges
• other consequences as deemed appropriate by the administrator