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2.60 - Grading and Promotion

The decision to promote a student to the next grade level is based on successful completion of the curriculum, attendance, performance on standardized tests and other testing. A student may not be promoted based upon age or any other social reason not related to academic performance.

Instruction & Grading Guiding Principles 
In Round Lake Area Schools the instructional and grading practices include four intersecting key features focused on learning:

  1. Assessing learning
  2. Using feedback to further learning
  3. Motivating to improve to further learning
  4. Communicating expectations to support learning


Key Terms & Definitions

Mastery Learning     
A teaching approach that emphasizes the importance of providing students with multiple opportunities and modalities to learn and demonstrate mastery of content or skills.  This model is based on the idea that every student can achieve mastery if provided with appropriate learning experiences and additional time to learn. Part of the process of mastery learning is where students receive feedback on levels of proficiency throughout instruction and additional learning experiences are completed to ensure teachers can evaluate progress and provide feedback on learning prior to completing a retest.

Standards Based Grading
Standards-Based Grading is a grading system designed to report levels of mastery on specific content and skills identified through standards. This system gives students a number of scores that represent their proficiency in each of the standards assessed. The idea is that at the end of the class a student has mastered the essential concepts and skills necessary for the next level. There is a focus on levels of learning, not on points.

Formative Assessment (10% of overall grade calculation)
A planned process where teachers use assessment to check for learning and to adjust their instruction to prepare students for success on the summative assessment.  There are two types of formative assessment. They are defined below.
Classroom Formative - used by individual teachers to inform their instruction based on their students’ learning progress.  Not added to the gradebook.
Common Formative - used by all teachers within a course team based on the common summative assessment.  Used by the team to support the use and creation of correctives and enrichments within the course.  Added to the gradebook.

Summative Assessment (90% of overall grade calculation)
Any method of evaluation performed at the end of a unit or a predetermined
point in learning that allows a teacher to assess student learning of a standard.
Summative assessments are common within the course curriculum and
entered into the gradebook based on the assessed standards.  Summative
assessment added to the gradebook and weighted at 90% of a student’s
overall grade.

Key Grading Parameters

Attendance and behavior are excluded from the academic grade.
Extra credit is not given because students have the opportunity to improve grades through retesting.
Homework must ensure that all students have optimal conditions in which to demonstrate their learning. (e.g. do they have the materials needed at home to complete the activity, do they have time to complete the work based on other possible after school responsibilities, etc.)

Grading

High School Grades
The High School uses the Grading Scale below to calculate student scores from a rubric score of 0 to 4 to a letter grade to provide a GPA (grade point average).  

Grade Revised Scale
A 3.3 - 4.0
B 2.7 - 3.2
C 2.0 - 2.6
D 1.7 - 1.9
F 0 - 1.6


Elementary and Middle School Grades
 
Grades kindergarten through 8th grade use a 0-4 point rubric score to provide a level of mastery.  The scale is provided below:

0= No evidence of learning
1 - Developing
2 - Basic
3 - Proficient
4 - Advanced

High School Final Exams

Mastery Exam Structure: Students are required to complete a final assessment in all courses, with the exception of exemptions for early graduating or 2nd semester seniors.  These exams are completed during the final days of the semester, either as part of a full day of instruction or a final exam block schedule.  The final exam schedule will include no more than three exams per day.  

* *Seniors will have the opportunity to be exempt from a final assessment on a particular course taken during second semester if they meet the following criteria:

  1. No unexcused absences in that class
  2. Five (5) or fewer excused absences in that class
  3. Completion of all required common formative and summative assessments
  4. No “0” or “1” scores on any standard within the course gradebook

For more information regarding the distribution of report cards, please contact your child's teacher.

Cross-reference:
Round Lake Area Schools Community Unit School District 116 Policy 6:280, Grading and Promotion