Academic Integrity Policy

Belvedere Elementary School

Primary Years Program

International Baccalaureate Standards and Practices:

Standard B1: Leadership and Structure

The school’s leadership and administrative structures ensure the implementation of the IB programme.

• B1.5 The school develops and implements policies and procedures that support the programme.

Standard C3: Teaching and Learning

Teaching and learning reflects IB Philosophy

• C3.2 Teaching and learning engages students as inquirers and thinkers.
• C3.3 Teaching and learning builds on what students know and can do.
• C3.5 Teaching and learning promotes the understanding and practice of academic honesty.

Mission Statement

At Belvedere, our mission is to create a community of globally-minded, life-long learners who are prepared to face the challenges of a 21st-century world.  Our staff works collaboratively to engage students in challenging, real-world learning opportunities. Through these opportunities, students will become innovative thinkers and problem solvers who value diversity. They will use their knowledge to take responsible action and in doing so, help to create a better, more peaceful world.

Learner Profile

At Belvedere, we strive for our students to develop all attributes of the learner profile.

• Inquirers
• Knowledgeable
• Thinkers
• Communicators
• Principled
• Open-minded
• Caring
• Risk-takers
• Balanced
• Reflective

Academic Honesty in Fairfax County Public Schools

Fairfax County Schools encourage students to demonstrate the ability to work interdependently within groups to increase productivity and achieve common goals. Students should act responsibly and ethically. To develop academic honesty in all students, FCPS views cheating and plagiarizing as unacceptable behaviors that have moral and legal implications. Cheating is violating established rules and codes of ethics. Plagiarizing is falsely claiming authorship. Cheating and plagiarizing are serious offenses.  For more information, please see the FCPS information regarding Student Rights and Responsibilities.

Philosophy and Beliefs of Belvedere Community

At Belvedere, we want our students to demonstrate being principled when it comes to academic honesty. As an elementary school, we believe that it is our role to model and emphasize how to honor others’ ideas. The staff, students, and parents are a community that values collaboration; we understand that there is a need for acknowledging each others’ ideas and emphasizing the importance of group work, which allows ideas to evolve. We believe in the evolution and development of acquiring knowledge. Furthermore, we believe in having a uniform approach throughout the entire school. This will ensure that students are prepared sufficiently for middle school, high school, and the real world.

Role of the Students

Students have the right to receive instruction in appropriate ways to credit sources and have the opportunity to practice these skills prior to being expected to use them for group/individual work. As intellectual property evolves, students need opportunities to inquire and practice different methods of sharing information, as well as the ethical implications. As principled citizens, students need to evaluate sources prior to use. When researching, students will fully participate in the appropriate methods of citation. At Belvedere, we define credibility as citing sources and honoring others’ work appropriately.

• Group work:
  Students have a responsibility to be active participants and honor the ideas of all members. Groups have a responsibility to foster cooperative work and shared ownership. Transparency will be a cornerstone belief, where people feel comfortable and confident in sharing their work.
• Individual work:
  Students have a right to have their ideas heard, honored, and credited. In turn, students have a responsibility to recognize and credit the ideas of others. These ideas can come from peers, as well as from published sources.

Rights of the Students

• Right to clear expectations
• Right to consistency from Preschool through Fifth Grade
• Right to fairness
• Right to explain the situation, apologize, and improve
• Right to an advocate

Role of the Teachers

As teachers, we must model and promote academic honesty. It is the teacher’s responsibility to provide clear and relatable examples for the students to grasp the importance of credibility and honesty. Through various types of opportunities, teachers emphasize the responsible method for honoring sources. Teachers must foster an environment of cooperative work. By building a classroom community founded on trust, students have the ability to actively participate and generate ideas with one another. This community will allow for the recognition of original and creative ideas. Academic honesty must be presented in a way that is not intimidating but instead is part of our daily routine. 

Role of the School Community

This policy was created by the PYP Implementation Team, which includes representatives from across the school. The policy will be consistent and clear throughout all of Belvedere. Families will be informed of the expectations for themselves and for their student(s). In order to be truly successful, families must be consistent at home with this school policy. To do so, there will be a contract at the beginning of the year that the students will bring home, sign with their parents and return to school. Teachers will also sign the contract. The academic honesty contract will be stored in the student’s PYP Portfolio for the current school year.

Measures taken to provide education and support

• Highlight academic honesty on Belvedere News Network to incorporate academic honesty into classrooms.
• Review of the policy during the beginning of the year as classroom communities are being established.
• Focus on the learner profile.
• Model appropriate behaviors and targeted behaviors by reinforcing the positive.
• Demonstrate the appropriate way to site sources within library, tech, art and music.
• Assist fifth graders to use a citation organizer during the PYP Exhibition.
• Reinforce when it is appropriate to copy and when it is necessary to site sources.
• Counselors and administrative staff are available to help the development of principled learners.

Grade Level	Academic Honesty Expectations
Preschool	I can share where I got my ideas.
Kindergarten	I can share where I got my ideas.
First Grade	I can show where I got information for my inquiry with assistance.
Second Grade	I can show where I got information for my inquiry.
Third Grade	I can use my own words. I can cite one source with a fill in the blank form.
Fourth Grade	I can use my own words. I can cite multiple sources (books, databases, magazines).
Fifth Grade	I can use my own words. I can cite multiple sources online (books, databases, magazines, and primary sources).

Procedures for reporting, recording, and monitoring

As an elementary school that implements Responsive Classroom practices, we are concerned with the development of the whole child. Our responsibility as a community is to guide students to become principled learners whose infractions involving academic honesty lead to support in making better choices in the future. Students will be supported with tiered responses ranging from one-on-one conversations with students, conferences with parents and students, and/or work with counselors and administrators as needed. As teachers, we will support one another by bringing up academic honesty concerns during our weekly CLT meetings.