South Orange Maplewood Board of Education

1.  Students are expected to be honest in all of their academic work. This        means that they will not engage in any of the following acts: 

1. Cheating on examinations, including but not limited to, the nonauthorized use of books or notes, the use of crib sheets, copying from other students' papers, exchanging information with other students orally, in writing, or by signals, obtaining copies of the examination illegally and other similar activities.

2. Plagiarism is not permitted in term papers, themes, essays, reports, images, take- home examinations, and any other academic work. Plagiarism is defined as stealing or use without acknowledgment of the ideas, words, formulas, textual materials, online services, computer programs, etc. of another person, or in any way presenting the work of another person as one's own. 

3. Falsifications, including forging signatures, altering answers after they have been graded, the insertion of answers after the fact, the erasure of grader's markings, and other acts that allow for falsely taking credit. 

B.  A student found guilty of academic dishonesty may be subjected to a full  range of penalties including, but not limited to, reprimand and loss of credit for               all of the work that is plagiarized.

C.  A teacher who believes that a student has been academically dishonest  in his/her class should resolve the matter in the following manner:

1. Reprimand the student orally and/or in writing. The teacher is also authorized to withhold credit in the work tainted by the academic dishonesty. 

2. If warranted, the teacher shall file a written complaint against the student with the Principal, requesting a more stringent from of discipline. The complaint must describe in detail the academic dishonesty that is alleged to have taken place, and must request that the matter be reviewed by the Principal.

3. The Principal will determine if further discipline of the student is appropriate, and will determine the nature of the discipline on a case by case basis.

4. If the student is not in agreement with the disciplinary action of the Principal, they may appeal the action to the Superintendent.  If the student is dissatisfied with the Superintendent’s disposition of the case, they may grieve the action in accordance with Policy No. 5710, Student Grievance.

Artificial Intelligence: The Board of Education also realizes that new and emerging technology blur the lines between what is considered plagiarism. AI-based, Large Language Models (LLM) such as Google’s LaMDA, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT will continue to progress and be integrated with many computer programs that we use every day. These advancements bring productivity benefits as well as pedagogical challenges. Teachers in the South Orange/Maplewood school district are encouraged to continually adapt to and embrace the use of advanced technologies. AI has the potential to contribute to teaching and learning in meaningful ways, and in other instances be a deterrent when skill development requires that its use be restricted. With that in mind we offer the following options to educators. We have included suggested languages for inclusion in the teacher syllabi: 

1. Option 1 (NO AI): In this course and/or projects, my expectation is that you will not use any artificial intelligence (AI)-powered programs such as ChatGPT or DALL-E to help you with your assignments. Any use of AI-generated work to outline, write, create, or edit your assignments will be considered an academic integrity violation. My reasoning for this is that these programs may provide inaccurate or biased information, but more importantly, they do not serve your development as a student. In this course you will learn valuable skills from outlining, generating, and editing your own work. If you have any questions about this policy or are not sure if a resource you have found will violate this policy, please ask.

2. Option 2 (some AI): In this course and/or projects, I encourage you to use artificial intelligence (AI)-powered programs such as ChatGPT or DALL-E to help you with some assignments. When you use these tools, it is your responsibility as a scholar to make sure you are clearly communicating the AI involvement in your work. 

Adopted:  2 April 2001

Revised:  30 March 2023