Falcon Academy Academic Honesty Policy
Building an ethical culture and supporting academic integrity across our campuses.
01 Overview & Definition of Academic Integrity
At FA, we work together as a school-wide community to help ensure academic integrity. Practices in support of this policy help to build an ethical culture across our two campuses. It is the responsibility of the entire learning community, administration, staff, students, and families, to understand and adhere to the guidelines in this policy. Supporting academic integrity within our K–8 community will help provide students the ethical foundation “fundamental in their development into responsible and caring world citizens of the future.”
The learning expectation for academic integrity is supported in IB Learning Standard (0402-04) “Students grow in their ability to make informed, reasoned, ethical judgements,” and is explained in the practices below:
- Take responsibility for producing authentic and genuine individual and group work
- Learn how to correctly attribute sources and acknowledge the work and ideas of others
- Responsibly use information technology and social media
- Observe and adhere to ethical and honest practices during examinations
02 Academic Integrity & the IB Learner Profile
At FA, the Learner Profile represents our student learning outcomes. We encourage our students to be:
These qualities, when applied to learning and student work, help establish behaviors and practices that support academic integrity.
03 Approaches to Learning (ATL)
At FA we incorporate Approaches to Learning, which provide the foundational work required in order for students to become lifelong learners. Working together, these five categories help foster academic integrity:
- Thinking skills: analyze and evaluate the ideas of others and create your own
- Research skills: apply informational and digital literacy skills to locate, evaluate, and use information in a principled manner
- Communication skills: use listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills to communicate accurate information and paraphrase ideas across platforms
- Social skills: develop positive, collaborative relationships when working with others and make fair decisions
- Self-management skills: effectively manage time and tasks, take responsibility for one’s own actions
04 MYP Level Academic Integrity (Grades 6th–10th)
As students progress through the PYP and graduate into the MYP, there is growing responsibility and accountability to ensure academic integrity is practiced at a more rigorous level. According to the IBO, academic dishonesty specifically refers to plagiarism, collusion, and cheating:
Plagiarism
The representation of the ideas or work of another person as the student’s own.
Collusion
Supporting malpractice by another student, as in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another.
Duplication of Work
A form of cheating defined as the presentation of the same work for different assessment components.
Monitoring Academic Honesty
Middle school teachers are responsible for using the extensive resources provided to monitor student work, including monitoring students actively using computers in class, checking formative and summative assignments, and overseeing collaborative group work. All FA staff must also model academic honesty and proper attribution of sources in their own professional conduct.
If an instance of student academic dishonesty occurs, monitoring will take place at the grade level team meetings or the academic support committee’s meeting. All grade level teachers will be made aware of the plagiarism incident in order to more closely monitor the student’s work.
Available Resources & Citation Tools
- Technology support team systems in place to support prompt response time
- Separate student Wi-Fi network with content filtering at the firewall level to protect against access to inappropriate content
- Secondary content filter and management system installed on all student laptops
- Utilization of Securly to monitor student online usage during class time
05 Community Responsibilities
Staff Responsibilities
- Share the policy with the learning community
- Connect ATL skills & Learner Profile to academic integrity
- Model academic integrity and proper citation (quoting vs. paraphrasing)
- Nurture intrinsic value in independent thinking
- Provide developmentally appropriate learning on integrity and consequences
- Respond to misconduct with a restorative approach
- Break writing submissions into parts to examine student tone
Student Responsibilities
- Understand and follow the school’s academic integrity policy
- Inquire about elements of the policy they may not understand
- Exhibit the Learner Profile attributes throughout the learning process
- Exercise ATL skills (self-management, social, communication, thinking, research)
- Report any academic misconduct
- Acknowledge the use of AI when used in work creation
Family Responsibilities
- Read, understand, and support the school’s academic integrity policy
- Support children in accessing resources, paraphrasing, and crediting sources
- Hold children accountable for exercising academic integrity in research
- Allow students to be their own agents and refrain from completing assignments for them
06 Examples & Consequences of Academic Misconduct
Examples of Academic Misconduct include:
At the Elementary School Level (PYP)
Consequences for academic misconduct will be decided based upon the severity of the incident and the learner’s developing understanding of academic integrity. Consequences are not limited to, but may include: contacting guardians, retaking or redoing the work, a Behavior Ticket, etc. Repeat offenses will escalate consequences.
At the Middle & High School Levels (MYP)
If a student is found to be intentionally academically dishonest, the teacher will report the incident to their grade level team or the program coordinator, notify the student’s guardians, and provide an opportunity for the student to redo their task in a way that demonstrates their ability to put into practice the FA definition of academic honesty. This may include students having a 1-on-1 session with their academic teacher to monitor their progress/corrections. However, the student’s scores on their Approaches to Learning Skills will be penalized in the areas of self-management and work completion. For any subsequent incidents of academic dishonesty, the grade level team, the program coordinator, and guardians will again be informed, and the case will be referred to the principal for further action.
07 References, Acknowledgment & Policy Review
This policy reflects IB-aligned academic honesty practices. It adapts structures and language from publicly shared IB academic honesty policies while tailoring them to Falcon Academy’s context, committees, and strength-based approach.
Policy Review: Falcon Academy Academic Honesty Policy will be reviewed by the learning community annually.
