Grading Practices

Grading Scales

Below is the grading scale. You may see this system when checking a student’s grade in a class in Infinite Campus or on a school-issued report card.

A = 100-90
B = 89-80
C = 79-70
D = 69-60
F = Below 60

Types of Grades

What is the difference between formative homework and summative grades?

Formative Work

Formative work is any assignment that will be unweighted in the grade book (i.e., pre-assessments, practice work, and skill development). The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. Formative assessments may include but are not limited to study guides, rough drafts, journals, pre-assessments, and other practice items.

Homework

Homework is any practice work completed in school or at home. Homework will be weighted as 10% of the student’s overall grade for the quarter. Homework is used to show a student is prepared to show mastery for any upcoming summative assessments.

Summative Assessments

The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark (i.e., Mastery of skills and Essential Learning Targets). Summative assessments will be weighted as 90% of the student’s overall grade for the quarter. Summative assessments are often high stakes, which means that they have a high point value. Examples of summative assessments include a midterm exam, a final project, a paper. Examples of summative assessments may include but are not limited to quizzes, tests, exams, major projects, research papers, major essays, presentations, performances, and anything that a teacher may grade to make a judgment of a student’s ability level or their mastery of curriculum and content.

Due Dates & Deadlines

Establishing, maintaining, and holding students accountable for due dates and deadlines is necessary to assist students in the development of skills such as organization, time management, problem solving, and collaboration, as well as in the development of individual responsibility and self-discipline. Establishing, maintaining, and holding students accountable for due dates and deadlines are also necessary for teachers to adequately and efficiently manage their workload. The staff has determined the following:

The due date is the date upon which the assignment is expected to be submitted to the teacher in complete and final format.
Students that have missing formative work or homework will not be eligible to request and complete a redo/retake for a summative assessment.
Missing work will be recorded with a “M” which calculates as a zero.
All late work MUST be submitted within one week of its due date.
No late work will be accepted during the last week of the quarter (weeks of September 30, December 18, March 3, and May 19).
Students with missing work will not be allowed to attend the end of the quarter PBIS incentive Day.
It is vital that students complete work on time because it will support the preparation for summative assessments.
In unusual circumstances, due dates may be extended, and/or grading adjustments may not be necessary. Students need to be encouraged to discuss unusual or extenuating circumstances directly with teachers – learning and practicing good communication skills.

Retake of Summative Assessments

All teachers at Apollo are to allow students the opportunity for retakes of summative assessments IF they have no missing formative work or homework that relates to the summative assessment. All students will be allowed a minimum of one attempted retake per summative test. One retake opportunity is the norm. If the student’s summative grade score is less than a 70%, the minimum retake will be mandatory. In unique and unusual circumstances, an additional retake opportunity may be provided at the teacher’s discretion.

Summative assessment retakes require the following guidelines:

Student completed all the required formative work and homework (readings, in-class assignments, etc.) prior to the date of the summative test.
Students scored below a 70 on the summative assessment. As a result, the student will automatically be eligible for a mandatory retake of that assessment. The score earned on the retake of the summative test will replace the original score if higher than the original score.
Students must complete the retake process prior to the date of the next unit summative test. This may not apply to all types of summative assessments, including long-term multi-step assessments such as an essay, research paper, project, or presentation.
- In many of these cases, such as a research paper, students receive feedback on each step of the process and have multiple opportunities to redo portions of the paper or project before final submission.
Retake opportunities are not available for semester or final course exams.

Extra Credit

Extra credit is not allowed to be entered as a part of a student’s academic classroom grade. Extra credit artificially inflates grades and in doing so does not accurately measure what a student knows and can do within the provided curriculum.

Minimum Grading Expectations

Students should have at least 15 grades per quarter.

Progress Reports

Homework – 5
Summative – 3
Total – 8

Report Cards

Homework – 9
Summative – 6
Total – 15