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A Student’s grade will measure the degree of skill mastery and not volume of work submitted.
Emphasis is placed on the knowledge and not the grade, fostering principles for reflective learning.
Students are provided regular feedback and given strategies on how to reflect on and apply that feedback to maximize learning.
There will be assignments that are not weighted, but they are not optional as they are a necessary part of the learning process.
There are no opportunities for extra credit, but pathways are provided for students to reassess on tests after unsatisfactory performances. The student must reflect on and apply feedback, and in most cases attend re-teach sessions or work with peer mentors to qualify. Reassessment scores replace previous scores, not average them.
In order to qualify for re-assessment, students must maintain satisfactory performance on all assessments going forward. (There is no point to spend time retaking a past test if in the process the student neglects preparation for the current test.)
Zeroes in the gradebook are replaced with scores of 50% when they post at the end of the grading period. This accommodates a math distortion. (If two assessment scores are an A and an F the average should equal an overall C grade. However, if a student has a ‘0’ posted to the grade book, it works as a Super F. In this case, an A and an F would equal an overall F grade.)
There are no late penalty reductions to assignment scores. To conform to sound grading practices, all grades will reflect skill mastery and will not be muddied by behavior penalties.

Your Child’s Notebook and Planner: There will be times when an assignment is verbally expressed and not posted to Google Classroom. This typically occurs when students need to complete a project or activity that we did not finish in class. These assignments should be recorded in the student’s notebook and/or be photographed with iPad from a slide that was projected in the classroom. It is the student’s responsibility to have written the assignment in their schedule and complete the work.
Google Classroom ‘Stream’ – This is the first place you should go to access what is going on in class. This is where the day-to-day projects, activities, and assignments are posted and it should be the first place you check to know what is going on in class and to prepare for upcoming assessments and project due dates. Here you will find agendas, assignment process updates, and links to important resources.
Google Classroom ‘Classwork’ Tab Once time is spent building the necessary skills, projects will be posted with a due date in the ‘Classwork’ section of Google Classroom. This section is important to monitor as it contains assignment directions and necessary resources.
Parentvue/Studentvue Most families are familiar with ParentVue and they monitor it regularly. Please be aware that by the time information is posted here, it is often towards the end of the intervention process. This is why it is important to access Google Classroom as your primary source for monitoring your child. For a detailed breakdown of how the Room 12 Grade Book is laid out, please refer to the video called Navigating the Grade Book.

I hope that from this presentation you will be better prepared to stay informed with what your child is doing in class, and thus be better positioned to stay involved with your child’s learning. Every student has been informed that it is their responsibility to share their Google Classroom account information with their parents. For the purpose of boundaries, I like to think of it as a ‘Family Account.’ I understand that you may want to respect privacy but this is not where we should do this. As we navigate through the year, we are a team, with parent and teacher on the side of the field, and your child the star player. Let’s all stay involved in the game.

Grade Books can be confusing, particularly between classes as the nature of the curriculum is often very different. Quantitative assessments, like math quizzes, may involve a specific score. A response to an operation is either right or wrong. Language Arts and Social Studies involve broader thinking and expression with opinions and complex layers of reasoning. Qualitative assessment is typically measured with a rubric and degrees of mastery of a learning target.

Each Entry in the Gradebook is a Learning Target and a Mini-Rubric: For example, in the unit of Discussion, there are three skills: Broadcasting, Building, and Yield & Facilitate. Each skill is worth 5 points. The points correspond to degrees of mastery. 5 = Mastery (they’ve got it!), 4.5 = Approaching Mastery (almost there but not quite), 4 = Developing (clear evidence of progress), 3 = Emerging (evidence of some learning), 2.5 = no evidence of learning. There are no scores below 50% - Please see section on Grades and Assessment Policy
Granular Skill Representation: Scores are entered into the gradebook for important skills and standards and not listed as specific projects. For example, your child may have submitted an essay, but the essay itself might appear in the gradebook as four separate entries titled: Structure, Development, Conventions, and Content. This will better identify where your child is strong and where they are struggling, rather than getting a generalized score for the essay. It is important to keep this in mind when trying to match up grade-book entries with assignments that are posted in Google Classroom.
Items will appear that are posted as ‘not for grading.’ To keep with the philosophies of ‘Sound Grading’, the grade is established by measuring mastery of a learning target and is not weighted by process work. (We are calling process work, any assignment that is part of the learning process associated with the skills and standards.) The assignment may be the practice of concepts and therefore not weighted in the grade. At no time should students interpret a ‘not for grading’ item as an optional assignment. Additionally, homework checks may be posted as not weighted. These appear here as data to track a student’s preparation for an upcoming assessment. There is a strong correlation between 0’s in a homework check, and a low score on an assessment, so they should be taken seriously, especially if it becomes a pattern.
Sample One, Sample Two, Mastery: You will sometimes find multiple entries listed for the exact same skill or standard. The idea is that each instance of assessment is recorded (as a data sample). The higher score of the samples appears in a third column titled ‘Mastery.’ The score in the ‘Mastery’ column identifies your child’s current level of mastery and is dynamic; it will change as your child grows into the skill. Note that the second score overwrites the first score; it is not averaged. A student who puts effort into their learning, who applies feedback (and who perhaps tests multiple times) receives the same score as a student who mastered the skill on the first try.

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