Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity Policy

Academic integrity is an integral part of the East High International Baccalaureate Program.
Maintenance of academic integrity is a requirement of students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program as stated in the IB Academic Integrity Policy: “In the context of academic integrity, one of the most important attributes is to be "principled" and all students participating in IB programmes are expected to act honestly, responsibly and ethically.” (IB, Academic integrity policy, 2019/2023 revision, p. 14). In the Admissions Agreement students sign when they apply to the East IB Program, they agree to “understand and abide by the East High IB Academic Integrity Policy and manifest the highest degree of academic integrity.” The purpose of this policy, therefore, is to clearly communicate these specific expectations of students and how the faculty will work with students to ensure they maintain this ideal.

Definition: Academic integrity
“Academic integrity is a guiding principle in education and a choice to act in a responsible way whereby others can have trust in us as individuals. It is the foundation for ethical decision-making and behaviour in the production of legitimate, authentic and honest scholarly work.” (IB, Academic integrity policy, 2019/2023 revision, p. 3)

Definition: Student academic misconduct
“The IB defines student academic misconduct as deliberate or inadvertent behaviour that has the potential to result in the student, or anyone else, gaining an unfair advantage in one or more components of assessment. Behaviour that may disadvantage another student is also regarded as academic misconduct. It also includes any act that potentially threatens the integrity of IB examinations and assessments that happens before, during or after the completion of the assessment or examination, paper-based or on-screen. This includes behaviour in school, out of school and online.” (IB, Academic integrity policy, 2019/2023 revision, p. 3

Responsibilities
​​​​​​​The IB Coordinator is responsible for:

• ensuring that all school and IB policies are applied fairly and consistently
• ensuring compliance with secure storage of confidential IB material policy and the conduct of IB examinations
• ensuring that teachers, students and parents and legal guardians have a copy of, read and understand the school’s academic integrity policy and the programme-relevant IB regulations
• reporting suspected instances of student academic misconduct and school maladministration to the school administration and/or the IB
• supervising all activities related to the investigation of student academic misconduct and school maladministration cases according to the school and/or IB policy. (IB, Academic integrity policy, 2019/23 revision, p. 10-11)

IB Teachers are responsible for:

• ensuring that students have a full understanding of the expectations and guidelines of all subjects ensuring that students understand what constitutes academic misconduct and its possible consequences
• planning a manageable workload so students can allocate time effectively to produce work according to IB expectations
• giving feedback and ensuring students are not provided with multiple rounds of editing, which would be contrary to instructions described in the relevant subject guides
• ensuring that all student work is appropriately labelled and saved to avoid any error when submitting assessment to the IB developing a plan to cross-reference work across multiple groups of students when they are preparing to submit final pieces of work for assessment in order to prevent collusion
• keeping electronic copies of students’ past work for three years in case a plagiarism check is required responding to student academic misconduct and supporting the school’s and IB’s investigations
• responding to school maladministration and supporting the school’s and IB’s investigations (IB, Academic integrity policy, 2019/23 revision, p. 13)

IB students are expected to:

• have a full understanding of their school’s and the IB’s policies
• respond to acts of student academic misconduct and report them to their teachers and/or programme coordinators respond to acts of school maladministration and report them to their teachers and/or programme coordinators complete all assignments, tasks, examinations and quizzes in an honest manner and to the best of their abilities
• give credit to used sources in all work submitted to the IB for assessment in written and oral materials and/or artistic products abstain from receiving non-permitted assistance in the completion or editing of work, such as from friends, relatives, other students, private tutors, essay writing or copy-editing services, pre-written essay banks or file sharing websites
• abstain from giving undue assistance to peers in the completion of their work
• recognize that they are accountable for actions and behaviours online, and show a responsible use of the internet and social media platforms, including but not limited to:
  • not discussing IB examinations and questions for a 24-hour period after the examination concludes, to respect students who may not yet have finished their examination
  • not using inappropriate language or sentiments that may be aired at a future job or university interview
  • not expressing views, behaviour or language that brings the IB into disrepute. (IB, Academic integrity policy, 2019/23 revision, p. 15)

Process for investigating alleged malpractice
If a teacher has reason to believe that student academic misconduct has occurred, the following steps will be taken:

• The teacher will investigate the suspected malpractice.
• The teacher will communicate the outcome of his/her investigation to the IB coordinator.
• If the teacher and IB coordinator are in agreement that malpractice has occurred, then the student will receive no credit for the assignment in question and disciplinary consequences will be enacted by the IB coordinator.
• In addition to receiving no credit for work that involves malpractice, disciplinary consequences may include, but are not limited to, the following actions: recompletion of work (with no credit), academic probation, detention, formal apology, suspension, or dismissal from Pre-IB courses, each depending on the severity of the infraction and the student’s history of infractions.
• The IB coordinator will communicate disciplinary consequences to the student and his/her parents. A note will be placed in the student’s file in the coordinator’s office but this will not become a part of the student’s permanent academic record.
• If a student is allowed to remain in Pre-IB courses following a first incident of academic malpractice, additional infractions could jeopardize the student’s entry into the IB Diploma Program as junior.
• In the event that a student with incidents of malpractice in Pre-IB is allowed to continue in the Diploma Program, cumulative infractions from Pre-IB coursework will be considered a first incident of malpractice in application of the IB Academic Integrity Policy. Note: a second incident of malpractice is cause for removal from the IB Diploma Program.