Topic 3: College of Education Ethics Quiz

Describe one way a school administrator could take preventive action to avoid a staff member
committing unprofessional conduct.

Answer: According to Principle 1: A, something that a school administrator could do to take preventative
action to avoid unprofessional conduct by a staff member would be to make sure all staff have
“awareness, knowledge, or understanding of the Code.” This can help prevent unprofessional conduct.

Describe the relationship between integrity and ethics.

Answer: Integrity is the ability to be honest and having strong moral principles. Ethics is defined as moral
principles that help govern a person’s behavior and/or activity. Ethics is the governing factor behind
integrity. Integrity is our actions that is based upon a code of ethics established by our society. For
example; the ethics of care, when we show compassion to our students, we are showing integrity.

How would you briefly outline your definition of professionalism to your faculty? Provide at least three
examples to illustrate your definition.

Answer: 1. Demonstrate responsibility to oneself. Ex: Admitting to a weakness and work on developing
that by working with colleagues who may have that as a strength.
               2. Fulfills obligation to address and resolve issues. Ex: Meeting with your team members first to
fix problems within your grade level community.
               3. Promote and advance the profession in and beyond school community. Ex: Take part in
professional organizations.

Describe how a teacher might violate professional ethics in facilitating state-mandated testing. What
happens to a teacher who would be caught violating testing procedures?

Answer:  An example of a testing violation would be if a teacher new some students hadn’t completed
their test and logged on to finish it for them. I know of a school this happened at. In Utah the
consequence would be, may subject licensed educators to disciplinary action under applicable board
policies and the Utah Educator Standards. A violation of these procedures may result in a referral to the
Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission.

Which of the following areas of ethics might be the most complex for an educational leader: staff
relationships, procurement, student achievement, or community relations? Explain your answer.
Answer: I feel that staff relationships would be most complex. Making sure that fellow colleagues are
treated as fellow professionals is important and not always done. In a career that is predominantly
women, ensuring that all conflicts are dealt with respectfully and privately can be a challenge.
Maintaining student’s privacy.
 
Scenarios 
 
Respond to each of the following scenarios in a well-crafted paragraph of 100-150 words using
appropriate sentence mechanics.
 
Scenario 1:
A parent reports that his daughter, a student at your school, has exchanged more than a dozen personal
emails over the last two months with her social studies teacher who is using his school-issued computer.
The latest email included an invitation for the student to have lunch with the teacher on a Saturday. The
parent is very concerned that an inappropriate relationship between his daughter and the teacher is
forming or has formed. What actions will you take based on this report?
Answer: I would immediately contact the parent and ask him to send me all of the emails that have been
shared between his child and the teacher. As soon as I could, I would notify my supervisor and human
resources and wait until I was notified by my supervisor of what action I should take. I would not want to
contact the teacher who is being accused. I want to make sure that I maintain confidentiality. It is
important that no one is to be told. I must document who I have notified and when and where I was
notified.
 
Scenario 2:
A salesperson from the company that provides your school’s copy paper invites you to join a group that
is going to spend Spring Break in Mexico, all expenses paid. You have vacation time and are not required
to report to work during Spring Break. Will you go on this trip? Why or why not?
Answer: First, you have to decide if this is a gift or a benefit. A gift can be accepted if it has no real cost
attached to it; such as, being given your favorite candy bar. Something that is less than $50 is usually
considered a determining factor of what a principal can accept. A benefit becomes something that has
large monetary value to it; such as a Rolex watch.  Because of this trips’ monetary value, this may not be
appropriate. But, if a company offers an administrator a trip with food, lodging, transportation, and
entertainment, it can be accepted if the administrator has direct contact with the company throughout
the event. In this situation, it would not be appropriate to go because I wouldn’t have direct contact
with the company, it would just be for pleasure.
 
Scenario 3:
A parent who frequently volunteers at your high school is asking you to give her sophomore student a
parking pass, even though sophomores are prohibited by school policy from receiving a parking pass.
What will you tell the parent and what will you do next?
Answer: I would call in the parent and set up a time for her to come into my office and meet with her. I
would then explain to her that it would not be appropriate for me to give her daughter a parking pass
because it is against school policy. I would be making an ethics violation if I allowed her daughter to park
at the school. I would also document this meeting just to be safe. I would email a copy of this email to
the mother so we would have a hard copy of our meeting as well and it would be documented what was
said and the decision made.
 
Scenario 4:
You are addressing the group of first year teachers at your school on their first day of employment.
Some of these teachers graduated from a traditional teacher preparation program, while others did not.
What would you tell them about ethics, as it applies to their job as a teacher, so that all levels of
experience and professional backgrounds are considered?
Answer: I would give them a discussion on basic ethics and would include a discussion on insuring that
they come to me before they made any decisions if they were not confident in if it is correct or not. I
would also assign each of them a mentor and have them there so they could know who there were and
get to know them. I would have a printout ready for each of them so they could have it at hand to refer
back on whenever they needed to. I would print off the Model Code of Ethics of Educators and have
them sign off after they have read through this. I would commit to ongoing professional learning for
them as well.
 
 
Scenario 5:
You have been asked by a parent to review the final semester grade of a student in Algebra 1. Dad
believes that his son should have gotten an A, even though he was three points from the minimum
number of points needed for an A. You know the student and believes that he works hard in his classes.
What should you consider in reviewing the grade? What would you decide?
Answer: First, I would ask the parent if they have discussed their child’s grade with the Algebra 1
teacher. That is the first person they should have this conversation with. If they had, then I would call in
the teacher and we would all sit down and review the students grade together. When reviewing the
grade, it would be important to explain to parents that whatever the assignment scores added up to,
that should be the child’s grade. It would be important to make sure that every student in that teacher’s
class were graded in the exact same manner and no biases would have been a result in the student’s
grade.