Okay, so, I’m in quite a sticky situation and would appreciate any advise on what I should do.
I recently just moved to an international high school where I am a college counselor and social studies teacher. Our students are some of the top students in the nation.
However, about two weeks ago (after EA & ED applications), I gave out a pretty simple 2-3 page research-based essay assignment to my seniors and gave them two weeks to finish the short essay. I didn’t think that plagiarism would be a problem at all. However, upon reading the first few essays, I knew that I had been wrong. About 20 students plagiarized… like straight out copy and pasted material from online resources and thought that I wasn’t going to check just because they turned in hard copies.
Some of the kids who plagiarized had applied EA/ED. As such, I’ve already submitted supportive letters of recommendation for them. All the others will need my letter for regular applications…
My questions are:
For EA/ED students: Should I inform colleges, via the Common Application mid-year report, about their violation of our school’s honor code system?
For regular decision students: Should I mention their infraction in my letter?
I don’t want to be seen as someone trying to ruin their chances of getting into colleges… However, I also do not want my credibility to be questioned should these students do the same thing once they are accepted.
It seems as if the first step would be to let your school’s disciplinary process work through the issues. Even if the students in question get an early acceptance, getting that on their record will likely cause them to be rescinded. If that process doesn’t deliver, then, you can think about what your next course of action would have to be.
Our school doesn’t have any disciplinary actions perse… it’s just stated that students are expected to uphold the honor system… but that’s just to keep the school’s image.
You know, when I was getting my masters I was assigned a group project. I was in charge of taking all our info and assimilating into a final paper. I cannot tell you how much of the work I received was a direct cut and paste from online. I think in this case, the students just really didn’t get that it was plagerism. They didn’t copy from one another, just from online. Yes, at the masters level people didn’t get itl! Most of these students were internationals.
How well do your high school students understand the concept of plagerism, that it is not just copying from other people, but from sources? If that many people plagerized, than you may have an eduction problem, not a cheating problem.
I talked about this in English class, and it seems like many non-US kids don’t understand how to do proper researches because they were never exposed to do such thing. My teacher’s friend’s friend came from Saudi Arabia, and she too made a same mistake.
I, too, thought maybe it was just a lack of awareness and or an institutional flaw. BUT I talked with our English teachers and they’ve all said that the students are taught about the differences between “summarizing research information” “paraphrasing research information,” and “using direct quotes” etc. The teachers also said that our students are all taught how to write, quote, and cite in MLA format. The teachers told me that students know they’re not supposed to plagiarize (and they clearly understand what plagiarism is) but that some still just do it. A student (who did not plagiarize) said that most of her classmates didn’t think I was going to check so those who plagiarized just copied and pasted things to turn it in on time.
If they didn’t think you were going to check and went ahead and plagerized then it shows that this school’s teachers have been overlooking things in the past. Sounds like it is time to shake things up with stern repercussions.
At the same time, if this is a school that, in the past, has not bothered to inforce is own rules, maybe making this a learning experience (very poor grade/0), rather than a life altering experience (call to admissions office) is better. Perhaps the threat of a future call would be a good way to insure proper citations. And if future plagerism does occur, follow though is required.
Can you have your students start turning their papers into you through Turnitin?
I’ve been thinking the same thing… but I do teach with a co-teacher and he thought letting them re-submit the essays (albeit with more requirements) would be the best route to go for the sake of their grades.
I’ve been looking at anti-plagiarizing options. Unfortunately, our school will probably not cover the costs required for Turnitin.
I guess I’ll just have to call them in individually to talk about it.
I disagree with letting them off with a warning. They knew it was wrong and did it anyway. How is letting cheaters redo the work with no repercussions fair to the students who didn’t plagiarize? I’d start by knocking letter grades off their scores. The more they plagiarized, the lower I’d drop the score.
Since your school’s policy is that students are supposed to “uphold the honor system” and they intentionally violated it, I’d put it in their record and update the colleges. Cheating is not okay. Letting them get by with it so they can get into US colleges sends a bad message to the rest of the students in your school. Are you an American? If so, I can’t imagine why you would think it’s okay to actively encourage our colleges to accept students who knowingly cheat.
At our large public high school, cheating or plagiarizing means the assignment is an automatic F. That generally gets the message across. A pity that it has to be taught to high school seniors. Sounds like the rest of the teaching staff has let them and you down by not enforcing this simple policy in the earlier grades. Now you are faced with the possibility of enacting Draconian repercussions because of this.
As for those to whom you provided a letter of rec, it’s up to you whether you still want to recommend them. For me, it would throw their entire transcript into doubt and raise serious questions about their overall personal integrity. But if you demand that they withdraw their EA applications with your letter, will your school support you? 20 furious parents can have an awful lot of political weight with the admin. If you give everyone an F instead, it will merely lower their grade for the semester - which seems a lot less punitive.
Again, this shouldn’t have ever ended up in your court because it ought to have been addressed years earlier. But think about asking your school to adopt and widely advertise a general policy about how cheating will be handled in the future so you don’t have to play the bad guy. It’s not fair to the students (especially those coming up behind) or to you.
Personally, I would give all of them 0s and sternly warn them that a future offense would result in a call to the admissions office.
I would also suggest that you assign essays more frequently.
I think failing grade on the assignment will be an appropriate punishment in this case. It is partially a school’s fault that a clear policy was not introduced early on. I personally would not want to have this weigh on my shoulders of altering some 17th years future.
I woudl fail them for the assignment. Talk to the class about what plagiarism is. Talk individually or in small groups (mandatory after school sessions etc.) to those who have pauperized and make sure they completely understand the potential consequences – that you could have scuttled their college plans. Be sure that they know if this happens in college that they could be expelled. Perhaps send a letter home saying that the kids plagiarized a paper that their parents have to sign. Then have them write a paper on the consequences of plagiarism. I would also tell the people you haven’t written a LOR for yet to find another recommender because you would be compelled to mention the plagiarism in your letter. I think some combination of these steps this might scare/embarrass/punish etc. the students without ruining their future… In fact impressing upon them the consequences of plagiarism might save their futures.
1: If they applied already, and you already sent recommendation letters, I do not believe you have any duty to change anything. You acted in good faith previously.
2: Because of the extent of the plagiarism, I suggest having a makeup assignment instead, after a lesson on plagiarism. Give them a chance to stay after school to learn about plagiarism and avoiding it, and make them do an essay on their own, on paper if you have to, during that time.
UNLESS: you already had lessons about plagiarism as part of the class. Then I would throw the book at them.
I have found in my experience as a college student and college instructor that many students are not aware of what plagiarism is. I have disqualified students from competitions due to plagiarism, but in one of my classes, I would generally give a plagiarism warning, and then if I felt there was still plagiarism, have a meeting with the student and depending on the result, either give them a chance to redo it, or give them a zero.
I actually would not report plagiarism to the Honor Board unless I felt there was malice.
An F with “This is plagiarized” written across the top is appropriate for this assignment. Then if you are up for it, assign a redo, for one grade bump, to the whole class. That way the kid who didn’t plagiarize but wrote a B+ paper has the chance to turn it into an A+ paper, and the kid who did plagiarize will be called on it, fix his work, and learn a big lesson. Plus he gets a D if he’s lucky, or a 50, which is still an F, but isn’t as bad as a zero. I would feel no obligation to write letters of recommendation for those who plagiarized. Just tell them it would be a better idea for them to ask someone else because of this issue. For those whose letters have already gone out? How bad was the plagiarism? One paragraph? The entire paper lifted and turned in as one’s work? Although principle is important, to me, the degree of the crime would make a difference on rescinding my LOR or not.
I fully agree with flunking them on the assignment (at most colleges, students who “didn’'t think the teacher would check” – i.e., can’t prove ignorance, would flunk the entire class (at least); however, it seems clear that your co-teacher would not support that penalty. redpoodles has an interesting suggestion. Whether you give an F or a zero, I would urge you to not allow any sort of “make up” that doesn’t also provide some benefit to the kids who didn’t cheat. I advised our institution’s Honor Council for several years and I can tell you that many students at top institutions (ours is in the top 20) are quite bitter about the amount of cheating that went on in their high schools (I would say 75% of the students who applied to be on the HC gave that as one of the primary reasons for wanting to be a member). Please tell your co-teacher that letting them make up the essay without consequence to their grade it is very, very unfair to the other kids and teaches them to go ahead and cheat, you can fix it if you’re caught.
I totally missed that, but I stand by my first point - it is TOO LATE to screw over the ones who he already sent in materials for, and it is unethical to take it upon himself to “correct” when the application was completed. It’s not his job to be ethics police after the fact.
The school he teaches at must have a clear policy on plagiarism and he should follow it.
For the students the OP did not recommend yet who asked for recommendations, he should do what some teachers did at my HS - go back to the students and ask if they do want a recommendation.
If he is a college counselor, and there is a different guidance counselor, he should let the guidance counselor write letters instead if required. If he is de facto guidance counselor, I suggest that he meet with each student with pending applications individually, and talk to them about the situation. If he can report to colleges “Sally Smith messed up, but I spoke with her and feel that she learned a valuable lesson.” or similar, and that is honest, I don’t see an issue with mentioning the breach of school rules (any need to mention it was plagiarism?).
I agree that a zero on this paper assignment is appropriate. Hopefully you will make clear to the students what plagiarism is, especially if they will be coming to U.S. colleges in the future. Try to create a more explicit policy for your current school.