Relay regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism (including self-plagiarism), cheating on assessments, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records or official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual integrity. Assignments at Relay are designed to support students’ growth and development as teachers, therefore students’ work products should be unique.
As such, Relay will treat any deliberate use of others’ work without citation as plagiarism. Students who use school- or district-provided materials, or materials from a published curriculum, must cite their sources in the text in such a way as to make clear which portions of the work came from sources other than the students themselves. The majority of a submitted assessment should be students’ original written work.
Additionally, Relay will treat any submission that is proven to be authored by students, and reused, or repurposed from a previous submission or publication, without the consent of the course instructor as self-plagiarism.
Any suspicion of academic dishonesty will be carefully examined in the following manner:
- If faculty members suspect students have committed an act of academic dishonesty, faculty members will alert the dean as soon as possible, including all relevant documentation.
- After alerting the dean, faculty members will confer with students, ensuring documentation of communication throughout the process.
- If students admit to the violation, faculty members — in consultation with the dean — will administer a sanction commensurate with the offense. The sanction could range from a professionalism deduction to dismissal from the program.
- If students contest the allegation of academic dishonesty, the case will be reviewed by the dean.
- Repeated violations of the academic honesty policy will result in dismissal from the program.
Teaching is a highly collaborative profession. Therefore, verbal collaboration with colleagues is permitted, provided that all collaborators share equally in the completion of the assessment and that all collaborators demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary to complete the work. All collaboration should be verbal in nature, and students should submit unique, individual written work for each assessment. Students must list collaborator(s) on the assessment template. Failure to list a collaborator on an assessment will, at minimum, negatively affect students’ assessment scores and may lead to additional academic sanctions (e.g., overall course-score penalty, resubmission of an assessment, etc.).
If students feel that there is a compelling reason to turn in portions of the same written work as a colleague, or portions of a previously submitted assignment, the students must email their faculty members a request for permission, including rationale, for the collaboration or reuse at least one week in advance of the submission. Exceptions to the academic dishonesty policy will be made on a case-by-case basis by the campus Dean’s Office. Appeals of academic dishonesty policy decisions may be made to the Office of Student Affairs.
edTPA Originality/Plagiarism Policy
This policy applies to students enrolled in programs leading to educator certification in the following states who are submitting the edTPA: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and Texas.
During official scoring by Pearson, portions of a candidate's submitted edTPA materials are screened for originality by official scorers and detection software. Portfolios are identified for administrative review if screening indicates a match of identical or similar language with other sources. At the conclusion of the administrative review, if the reviewers are unable to confirm the originality of any part of the submission, all scores related to the portfolio under review will be voided and the candidate will be ineligible for a refund of assessment fees. (Source: edTPA )
If edTPA scores are voided as a final determination of the administrative review process, the candidate, the state agency, and Relay will be advised of the score void via email. If their edTPA portfolio is flagged for originality, they will be required to meet with their academic advisor to confirm or contest within 15 business days. Their academic advisor will take their case to the campus dean, who will have the final decision on whether their case warrants the terms outlined in Relay’s Academic Honesty and Collaboration policy.