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Academic Honesty Policy

At Boyar International, we value originality of thought and creativity, and aim to educate our students to be truly principled thinkers and reflective communicators. Our academic honesty policy is directed towards promoting and encouraging these traits in our community and upholding them in all our practices. We hold our students and our faculty to a high standard of personal integrity and believe that a clear, consistent, and just policy promotes personal accountability and respect for our own work and the work of others as life-long values.

Our policy is inspired by and in line with the academic honesty policy of the IB organization.

What is Academic Honesty?

The simplest definition of academic honesty is doing school work without cheating or seeking unfair advantage over other students in any way. We acknowledge, cite, and give credit to the work and words of others. In this way we take responsibility and ownership of our work and hold ourselves accountable for our actions and their consequences as principled learners defined in the IB learner profile.

Principles of Academic Honesty

The full text of the academic honesty policy is available here.

Code of Conduct (Continue)

Covid Conduct:

-Maintain hygiene of person and place at all times. Wash hands frequently.

-Masks must be worn indoors and in enclosed spaces. Masks are currently not required outdoors.

-Covid conduct changes as circumstances require. All members of the MBHS community are expected to act always with the best interests and well-being of the entire community at heart.

-Students must be fully vaccinated and eligible for Tav Yarok (Green Pass) to participate in the International Program. Students who are unable to be fully vaccinated before arrival must agree to complete vaccination protocol upon arrival in Israel.

Dress Code:

Students must ensure a clean, orderly appearance and appropriate attire that respects the school framework.

Students must wear a solid color shirt with the school symbol during any school activity on or off campus, during class or break, unless explicitly notified otherwise.
School shirts must have a visible and noticeable school symbol. The logo must be printed or embroidered (no stickers) on the upper left and must be a different color from the shirt itself in order to be visible. School shirts should not be altered in any way, permanently or temporarily.
Students arriving without a proper school shirt, or with a school shirt that has been inappropriately altered, will be marked absent from class and this absence will count towards attendance records.
School shirts are on sale in the office. Students will not be permitted to participate in the daily schedule without a school shirt.
All other clothing items should match the spirit of the school and be respectful of ourselves, our peers and our school.

Campus and Classroom Rules:

The unauthorized use of cellular devices during class is prohibited. A student who engages in unauthorized use of a cellular device during a lesson will be required to leave class and turn in the device at the office until the end of the school day. The student will also receive an absence for that class.
Bathrooms are to be used only for their intended purpose and it is expected students will keep all bathrooms clean and in good condition for the benefit of all.
Smoking in and around school grounds, and during any school activity on or off school grounds is strictly prohibited.
The school gate will be locked during the school day in accordance with the safety and security policy. Students needing to leave school grounds before 1:10pm must have permission from a parent, guardian or teacher and must show this permission at the office to receive a pass to exit school grounds.
All students share responsibility for the preservation of school property. Great emphasis is placed on maintaining the cleanliness and integrity of every part of the educational campus. Damages to school property will be charged to students and their families. Media and other classroom equipment is not for private use.
Students should tidy their classrooms and work spaces before and after every class. Lessons will not be conducted in dirty or messy classrooms.
Sitting or surfing railings on balconies or staircases, climbing the gazebo or other structure, sitting on a glass or other roof, playing ball and/or running in the hallways (or other non-designated sports areas) are dangerous and are forbidden.
Students are responsible for their own personal items including laptops.
The teacher’s room is intended for teachers and their work. Students may not enter uninvited.
Student performance including attendance, tardiness, grades, behavior and feedback are reported by teachers through the ManageBac system. Students and families can access this system to stay updated and track student performance.
The Resource Center is intended for browsing and reading books and working on computers. Follow all instructions of the staff while in the Resource Center.

Laptop Use Policy

*The computer is an essential part of your school supplies. Arrive with your computer fully charged every day.

*The computer is your personal property. Take good care of it!

*Use of computers during class is according to the instruction of the teacher.

Examination Conduct

Please review the Academic Honesty Policy for expectations regarding conduct surrounding all assignments and assessments.

The school educates towards integrity and fairness in all aspects of school life, including exams.

Attendance on Internal Assessment days is mandatory.

In extenuating circumstances where an absence on an Internal Assessmentday and cannot be avoided, an application for exemption must be made directly to the Head of the International Program and in some cases to the IB organization.

Do not write exams in pencil or erasable ink. Do not use white-out on exams.

External Exams/Assessments are subject to the guidelines and regulations of the IB organization. These rules will be communicated to all students and families several months in advance of the External Assessment.

Cleanliness and Order:

Students are responsible to maintain the cleanliness of the school and classrooms.

Students should lift chairs onto tables at the end of the school day to facilitate cleaning of floors.

Attendance policy:

We believe that the responsibility for attendance, participation and therefore success ultimately lies with the student. Students may take up to 10% unexcused absences for each subject. These absences may not include assessment periods and other class projects that will defined in advance. Students must carefully consider any absence and decide with full knowledge of the academic and personal consequences. Exceeding 10% unexcused absences may negatively impact School Based Assessment as reflected in the reports at the end of each trimester. Students with excess absence will be summoned to a meeting with their mentor to discuss improvement in attendance. Students that will miss over 30% of a certain class will not be able attend the assessment periods for that class.

A student who is absent from 3 consecutive class days must report this absence to their homeroom teacher.
Absence is entirely the responsibility of the student. It is the student’s responsibility to complete any missed material.
A student who must leave partway through a lesson must notify the teacher in advance, no later than the beginning of the lesson.

Lateness:

Lateness is disruptive to the individual and the group. Every student should be sure to arrive on time.

Lateness will be recorded in ManageBac. 3 instances of lateness will equal one absence on the attendance record.

Students later than 5 minutes will not be admitted to class and this will be recorded as an absence.

Disruptions:

A student asked to leave class by a teacher for disruptiveness will return after 5 minutes. If asked to leave twice in the same class, it will be recorded as an absence. Absence due to disruption will be recorded in Managebac and will influence assessment in the areas of social and academic functioning.

Participation in all school sponsored social activities is mandatory. Any student who knows in advance that they will miss an activity must speak with their mentor and request approval to be absent.

Gym Rules:
Mae Boyar High School is a leader in sharing the culture of healthy living. Physical education teachers are interested in helping all students overcome physical and emotional challenges. Persistence, training and practice in and out of class all contribute to success.

Throughout high school, activities and lectures are held in the field of physical activity and health.

Physical Education and Sports Activities procedures:

Uniform – a green shirt with the school sports logo must be worn in every lesson along with shorts or leggings (black or blue), sneakers and socks. Long hair must be pulled back.
Entrance to the gym is not permitted without sneakers.
Sports shirts are only for sports class and not to be worn in other lessons.
Do not use school equipment without the permission of the teacher.
Do not miss a physical education class without an approval from the homeroom teacher. Those absent with an official approval must make up the lesson with a different class, based on the schedule posted at the entrance to the gym.
Release from sports class is only available in coordination with both the grade-level supervisor and the sports teacher.
Students suffering from chronic diseases such as asthma, orthopedic problems, or any other medical problem must bring written confirmation from a medical specialist to the sports teacher and the grade-level supervisor.
Students who miss tests in sports classes must make up those tests in coordination with the sports teacher.
Students who attend bonus classes, or sports extra-curriculars at least once a week, will receive a bonus for their grade at the end of the year.
Students who work out regularly, twice a week or more, are asked to inform the sports teacher.

The Code of Conduct will be reviewed yearly by a committee of students, families, and educators.

Principles of Academic Honesty

A clear, consistent, and just policy is transparent and communicated to students and parents on an ongoing basis. Accidental infractions are learning opportunities and the policy is designed to help students grow, succeed, and achieve.
All work produced by students is authentic and represents the student’s individual and original ideas, and accurately and appropriately acknowledges the work of others.
Students understand and obey the rules relating to proper conduct of examinations.
Students understand the difference between collaboration and collusion, and that it is unacceptable to present work produced through a process of collusion.
Students understand that academic honesty applies to all methods of assessment, including, but not limited to, the following:
In-class and take-home assignments
All homework
Quizzes, tests, and exams
All written and oral work
Lab work and write-ups
CAS activities, reflection, and documentation
EE and TOK essays
All IB internal and external assessments

The principles of academic honesty are communicated within the school community in various ways.

The MBHS policy is posted along with the IB academic honesty policy on the school’s website and families are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these and other related policies.
The MBHS code of conduct is communicated to the students and posted in prominent areas of the school.
The policy is reviewed in a discussion with students and parents in September of both Junior and Senior years.
Faculty are trained on both school and IB policies of academic honesty.
Teachers emphasize the positive value of academic integrity in all forms of assessment and encourage students to carefully check their work for possible unintended infractions. To this end teachers and extended essay supervisors reinforce academic best practices and provide examples of conventions for acknowledging sources.
Students and families are informed that plagiarism software may be employed in instances where academic malpractice is suspected.

Academic Honesty – Malpractice
Malpractice includes:

Plagiarism: The presentation of the ideas or work of another person as if it is the candidate’s own.
Collusion: Supporting malpractice by another candidate, as in allowing one’s work to be copied or submitted for assessment by another.
Duplication of Work: The presentation of the same work for different assessment components and/or diploma requirements.
Unfair Advantage: Any other behavior that gains an unfair advantage for a candidate or that affects the results of another candidate (for example, taking unauthorized material into an examination room, misconduct during an examination, falsifying a CAS record).

IBO regulations clearly state the responsibilities of each IB student:

“The candidate (student) is ultimately responsible for ensuring that all work submitted for assessment is authentic, with the work or ideas of others fully and correctly acknowledged. Candidates are expected to comply with all internal school deadlines; this is for their own benefit and may allow time for revising work that is of doubtful authorship before the submission of the final version.” Academic Honesty (2011)

Academic Honesty Violations
An academic honesty committee is assembled to address any suspicion of academic malpractice. The student will have the opportunity to address any concerns and clarify any possible misunderstandings and correct course as needed. Incidents that are determined to be academic malpractice on any school-based or IB assessment will be addressed according to the principles of the “Yellow Card, Red Card” system: a first violation results in a warning and a second violation results in permanent dismissal from the school.

An incident of malpractice on any IB internal assessment once a warning has been issued, is addressed in the following manner:

The IB coordinator informs the school administration that a student is suspected of malpractice.
The IB coordinator reports the incident to the IB information desk for investigation.
The IB coordinator and school administrator investigate, including an interview with the student and parent/guardian.
The IB coordinator completes a report that includes: a statement from the teacher for the subject area concerned, CAS coordinator, or extended essay supervisor; a statement from the IB coordinator; a statement from the candidate (student); a summary of an interview with the student regarding the alleged malpractice.
The student is subject to a penalty that will be determined by IB upon receipt of all relevant materials. If a student is found guilty of malpractice:

No grade will be awarded in the subject concerned.
No diploma will be awarded to the candidate.

An incident of malpractice or misconduct during an IB exam is addressed in the following manner:

The IB coordinator informs the school administration and the student’s parent/guardian.
The IB coordinator reports the incident to the IB information desk at the International Baccalaureate Curriculum and Assessment Center.

Resources
International Baccalaureate Organization (July 2011), Academic Honesty Policy, Cardiff: IBO.

International Baccalaureate Organization (September 2016), General Regulations, Geneva, Switzerland: IBO.

Note:
All IB students at MBHS are subject to the regulations contained in the official IBO documents entitled “Academic Honesty Policy” and “General Regulations: Diploma Program.”

Acknowledged as a working document, the MBHS International Academic Honesty Policy is reviewed annually by the IB coordinator, IB teachers and school administration.

The academic honesty policies for various schools available online and those posted on the OCC site were examined, and it was concluded that, in many cases, our policy concurs with the phrasing of some of their policy components.