Grading Assignments and Assessments (Secondary Grading and Reporting)

Students should:

• Experience frequent and ongoing assessment and feedback throughout each quarter. 
• Receive continual feedback on the quality of work as it relates to the course objectives.

Teachers are required to enter a minimum of seven grades into the gradebook each quarter. These should be a combination of grades in the summative and formative categories. Teachers may enter ungraded assignments as an additional layer of communication of student progress, but these do not count toward the seven minimum required assignments.

Assignments

• Assignments should be assessed and/or graded, returned, and reviewed promptly with the student.
• Teachers are expected to grade each assignment and post grades to the gradebook within seven school days after the due date with the understanding that major projects/papers may require additional time to ensure quality feedback.
  • If more time is required to provide feedback, teachers will notify students in advance of the project's due date.

Grades

• Grades recorded in the gradebook may be numbers, percentages, or letters.
• Letter grades should
  • only be utilized for assignments and assessments that are designed using defined levels of proficiency that are aligned to rubrics (e.g., performance-based assessments, projects, essays, assignments utilizing IB rubrics, etc.).

  • not be used for assignments and assessments that are designed and/or scored to show a percentage or number of points out of total points possible.

    Letter grades entered into the SIS gradebook convert to the highest numerical percentage of the letter grade based on the FCPS grading scale. Because of this SIS feature, an “F” letter grade should not be used for a student who did not make a reasonable attempt at the assignment or did not show evidence of meeting criteria for an “F” based on a rubric. Instead, that student should receive either a zero or a 50%.

• Grade ranges, including those with pluses and minuses, provide clarity around levels of proficiency when designing rubrics for assessments utilizing letter grades.

Reasonable Attempt versus 0

• For assignments or assessments where a student made a reasonable attempt to show evidence of their learning, the minimum score that a student can receive is a 50.
  • A “reasonable attempt” occurs when a student submits an assignment with some evidence that an attempt was made to demonstrate knowledge.
• For assignments or assessments that a student did not attempt, a student can receive a zero.
  • Teachers should follow all related late work policies before assigning a zero.

Communication

School staff should work with families to provide tiered support for students who are not engaging in their learning.

Regardless of gradebook type, teachers should work with students throughout the year to ensure academic support, especially in situations where a student has experienced significant difficulties in demonstrating learning.

Academic Supports by Gradebook Type

Each gradebook type provides a different pathway for teachers to provide students in danger of failing a course the necessary academic supports.

Quarterly Gradebook

• For classes utilizing a quarterly gradebook, before posting quarter grades, teachers must raise any quarter grade lower than a 50% to a 50%.
• Additionally, at the end of the year, teachers must use quality points to determine if this calculation is beneficial to the student.

Rolling Gradebook

• For classes utilizing a rolling gradebook, teachers must provide opportunities to reassess summative assessments from previous quarters to demonstrate proficiency.
• For students who are in danger of failing a course, opportunities must be given during the fourth quarter to reassess summative assessments from previous quarters to demonstrate minimum course proficiency.
• Additionally, close examination of trends in mastery of learning is required to be considered when a student is in danger of failing the course.

Reassessment

For summative assessments, at least one new opportunity to demonstrate proficiency up to 100% shall be provided to any student who completes corrective action determined by the collaborative team.

Teacher teams will determine all guidelines for reassessment and communicate them through the course syllabus. Reassessments are most effective when they focus on the skills, standards, or areas of the assessment that need improvement. Reassessments may be:

• An alternate version of the original assessment.
• A smaller assessment that focuses on the areas that a student needs to reassess.
• Completion of test corrections.
• Oral reassessments or conferences.
• Revision of work.
• Other similar opportunities.

Grade replacement policies that allow later assessments to replace the scores of earlier assessments may be used in lieu of reassessment as defined in this section.

Assignments in the formative category are not eligible for reassessment unless a teacher team or department chooses to allow for reassessment.

In both rolling and quarterly gradebooks, students must be allowed to reassess summative assessments that occur at the end of a quarter.

Final exams and midterms are not eligible for retakes.

Late Work

Late work will be accepted to document learning and mastery. Collaborative teams must set reasonable guidelines for accepting late work to encourage work completion by their students. If a student misses an assignment, a placeholder (such as M for missed, I for incomplete, etc.) should be entered into the gradebook.

Teams are not required to apply a penalty when work is turned in after the due date. However, collaborative teams may choose to apply a penalty when work is turned in late. 

Summative

For summative assessments, late work will be accepted with a maximum penalty of 10 percent if submitted within two weeks after the due date. Teams may also choose to accept assignments beyond the minimum two week window in accordance with the reasonable late work policy set by the school or team.

If a student has been given multiple opportunities to complete work and has not done so, and parent/guardian contact has been made for summative assessments, quizzes, or tests (tasks weighted more than 10%), a zero may be entered in the gradebook in accordance with the reasonable late work policy established by the school or teacher teams.

Formative

For formative assessments, teams may also choose to accept assignments submitted past the due date and may (but are not required to) set a penalty as determined by the team. A zero may be entered in the gradebook for formative assignments that are submitted late.