The Stony Brook School Guidelines for Academic Integrity — Flint AI Policy Library

Guidelines for Academic Integrity

Academic Expectations

For over a century, The Stony Brook School has championed the “integration of faith and learning” and the idea that academic excellence and authentic Christian faith are inherently compatible. Our students pursue truth, goodness, and beauty in the classroom since we believe that “all truth is God’s truth” and that engaging in the great conversation of learning makes us better citizens and divine image-bearers.

The primary goal of an SBS education is not simply to achieve high grades, but instead to form students morally, intellectually, and spiritually, such that they are challenged to know Jesus Christ as Lord, to love others as themselves, and to grow in knowledge and skill, in order that they may serve the world through their character and leadership.

Because of the high value we place on character formation and the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtue, SBS concerns itself with the way that students conduct themselves throughout the entire learning process, not just with the grades that students earn. SBS considers academic dishonesty a serious offense as it damages the moral character of individual students and violates the trust and equity of the learning community we strive to be. Any steps taken by students, intentionally or unintentionally, to circumvent the process of learning and growth, for themselves or others, will amount to academic misconduct.

SBS requires every submission of academic work by a student to include each of the following:

1. Originality: All work submitted by the student must be an original creation of the student alone, unless otherwise given written permission by the faculty. Representing the words and ideas of others as one’s own, without appropriate credit, is a violation of academic integrity. Similarly, providing or accepting any unauthorized aid amounts to a violation of academic integrity.
2. Source Citation: All student work must include a comprehensive and accurate acknowledgement, in the appropriate format, for all content that is not directly of the student’s sole authorship. Work not including citations is assumed to be authored by the student alone. For information on citing sources, students should consult their teacher or the Academic Office.
3. Transparency: Students must, whenever possible, use platforms and processes that show editing history. As a standard, students are expected to complete all digital work on Google platforms. If students use another platform, then they should be able to produce a version history with timestamps. Version histories that include a rapid addition of text (potentially indicating a copy-paste from another source) will not be considered sufficient.

By completing and submitting an assignment at SBS, students affirm that these three principles have been met.

Definitions of Academic Fraud

Academic fraud occurs when a student does not meet the standards for originality, source citation, and transparency as described above.

The Academic Dean and Dean of Students determine fair standards for establishing that an academic integrity violation has occurred. In instances where definitive proof of academic dishonesty is not possible, reasonable suspicion of dishonesty will count as an academic integrity violation.

The following list illustrates several types of academic fraud. Violations may include one or more of these activities:

1. Cheating: Using unauthorized aid or resources in submitted work, including unauthorized communication with other students.
   • Example: Copying off another student, telling other students what is on the test before they take it; using AI or the internet to answer homework questions.
2. Plagiarism: Representing the intellectual property, ideas, artwork, or data of another as your own without appropriate credit and citation.
   • Example: Including the writing or paraphrasing of another source without use of quotation marks and/or citations; representing another’s work as one’s own; misrepresentation of one’s contributions to a group project.
3. Inappropriate Use of Technology: Using technology, including AI text and image generators or translation tools, without the explicit permission of the faculty.
   • Example: Using AI to complete an assignment, fully or partially; having AI edit or refine an assignment.
4. Inappropriate Collaboration: Unauthorized work with another student, tutor, or parent when the assignment is expected to be completed independently.
   • Example: Unauthorized collaboration on a take home assignment that should be completed independently.
5. Negligence or Fabrication: Failure to follow instructions about the assignment, to the extent that little or no sources are cited or the information is invented without any supporting documentation.
   • Example: Not including any source citations or acknowledgments; inventing or altering data for a lab report.

Academic Integrity and Appropriate Adult Support

Students are encouraged to continue the conversation from the SBS classrooms with their families and community members. While families are encouraged to engage in the learning process, it is imperative that all coursework and assignments are completed by the student. If an assignment was supported by a parent, tutor, dorm parent, advisor, or other community member, then it should be explicitly approved by the instructor and appropriately acknowledged on the assignment.

Sustained dependence on a tutor can hinder the student’s long-term development of the skills and intellectual virtues that the class prioritizes. Students and families should notify the teacher that they are working with a tutor. By submitting an assignment, students are acknowledging that the work is their own creation and not inappropriately influenced or informed by a tutor, AI, or other source. If a tutor authored some or all of the content of an assignment and the student represents that work as their own, it constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

Artificial Intelligence

Students are not allowed to submit work generated, in part or in whole, by AI assistants without the expressed written permission of the instructor. Using such tools will be considered a violation of SBS’s academic integrity policy and suspected use will be reported to the Dean of Students office.

The following chart helps explain SBS’s approach to Artificial Intelligence.

SBS will use criteria to determine if reasonable suspicion exists in cases of potential plagiarism using AI-generated writing. A case will be eligible to move forward if it exhibits three or more of the following characteristics:

1. The paper fails two online plagiarism checkers for AI.
2. The paper has no version history or checkpoints.
3. The student cannot orally defend or explain their writing’s topic, argument, or diction.
4. The writing sample does not favorably compare to a portfolio of the student’s previous work.
5. The writing sample contains multiple characteristics consistent with AI-generated writing.

These guidelines, reworked during the Fall of 2024, outline the Academic Integrity Policies for The Stony Brook School. They were created with inspiration from Northfield Mount Hermon School. An original addition to the guidelines from the Stony Brook team was an AI Checklist for handling plagiarism cases, used to determine reasonable suspicion of inappropriate use.