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Academic Honesty

A high sense of personal honesty and integrity is expected of all students in the completion of NDCDE courses. Course work is intended to be completed without cheating, plagiarizing, or knowingly giving false information.

Tests and final examinations must be completed in the presence of an approved learning coach who must certify that the test or exam was completed without the assistance of books, notes, or any other outside resources.

The consequences for academic dishonesty will be determined in consultation with the NDCDE teacher, the student's local learning coach, and the NDCDE principal.

Cheating

To help students, parents, and learning coaches understand, NDCDE defines cheating as:

  • Allowing another student to copy your work.
  • Copying or attempting to copy from another student's test, exam, or assignment.
  • Having someone else complete your assignment.
  • Giving information in an unauthorized manner to another student for a test, exam, or assignment.
  • Using unauthorized materials, information, notes, study aids, or other devices for a test, exam, or assignment.
  • Using an online translator. NOTE: Online translators are NOT to be used by a student in any foreign language course at any time. If an online translator is used to complete either a non-password protected activity, or a password protected activity in a foreign language course, the student will receive a zero for the entire test, exam, or assignment.

Consequences

  • 1st time offense: If cheating has occurred, the student will receive a zero on all or part of the assignment or exam (teacher discretion). The parent/guardian, school of record and learning coaches will be informed, and the offense will be documented in the student’s file.
  • 2nd time offense: If cheating has occurred, the student will receive a zero on the entire assignment or exam. The parent/guardian, school of record and learning coach will be informed, and the offense will be documented in the student’s file.
  • 3rd time offense: If cheating has occurred, the student will receive a zero on the entire assignment or exam. NDCDE administration will be informed of the offenses and disciplinary action will be enforced. (See list of potential disciplinary actions below.)

Plagiarism

To help students, parents, and learning coaches understand, a student commits plagiarism when he or she:

  • copies text “as is” from a source without quotation marks or a proper citation.
  • reorders the elements of a source text without citation.
  • copies pieces (sentences, key phrases) of the source text without citation.
  • paraphrases without citation.
  • reproduces information that is not common knowledge without citation.
  • uses his or her own past coursework without the previous and current teacher’s approval.
  • uses another student’s material without citation.
  • pays another person to contribute to his or her work without citation.
  • asks another person to complete his or her work.

Consequences

  • 1st time offense: If the instructor believes the student plagiarized an assignment and it is the student’s first offense within the course, the instructor may use that first offense as a teachable moment and allow a retry on the assignment. The instructor will explain to the student what plagiarism is and why it’s important to not copy someone else’s work. The parent/guardian, school of record and learning coach will be informed, and the offense will be documented in the student’s file.
  • 2nd time offense: If the instructor believes that the student plagiarized an assignment in the same course a second time, the student will receive a zero without an opportunity to redo the assignment. The parent/guardian, school of record and learning coach will be informed, and the offense will be documented in the student’s file.
  • 3rd time offense: : If the instructor believes that the student plagiarized an assignment a third time, the student will receive a zero without an opportunity to redo the assignment. NDCDE administration will be informed of the offenses and disciplinary action will be enforced. (See list of potential disciplinary actions below.)

Disciplinary Actions Resulting from Academic Dishonesty

If a teacher or administrator at NDCDE finds that a student has committed any act of academic dishonesty, the student will be subject to consequences, that may include but are not limited to:

  • No credit (a grade of zero) for the entire test, exam, or assignment.
  • A failing grade for the entire course and forfeiture of tuition.
  • Dismissal from NDCDE.

NDCDE will follow up with the student, parent, learning coach, and school administration, as appropriate. A new learning coach will be required if it is determined that the student's learning coach was neglectful of his or her learning coach duties.

Turnitin’s Write Check was used as a reference in creating NDCDE's Academic Honesty Policy.