The Oak Park High School Parent Faculty Committee has purchased a site license for Turnitin.com, an Internet-based plagiarism detection service available to all teachers and students on our campus. Academic departments and individual teachers will determine the best use of this program for their classes. Turnitin.com reviews student work that is submitted electronically by the student to a teacher’s online class account. The system screens the student’s work comparing it to extensive digital databases of Internet resources, books, and journals. The teacher receives the paper and a report, which shows instructors any text matches found in the databases along with the sources of those matches. Instructors then decide if plagiarism has occurred using their professional judgment and the best available evidence.

As students prepare for the future, it is essential that they build the reading, writing, and research skills required for a lifetime of learning. Colleges and universities currently using Turnitin.com services include the California State University System, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Irvine, Dartmouth University, Rutgers University, Georgetown University, and the United States Military Academy, West Point. Turnitin.com operates within relevant laws and underscores the value of privacy and intellectual property. We encourage you to visit the Turnitin website at: www.turnitin.com to learn more about this service.