Purpose of Grading - A Philosophical Basis

The community of learners at South County Middle School, in alignment with the best practices of FCPS, believe that grades and grading policies should:

1. Be based on student achievement, knowledge, and skill proficiency demonstrated through content standards.
2. Be a reflection of content mastery rather than behavior, attendance, effort, or attitude.
3. Encourage a growth mindset where students have the opportunity for improvement despite past outcomes. 
4. Provide communication between students, staff, and parents about learning progress.

Key Terms

Behavior:

• actions of a student that are not directly tied to progress towards content standards including effort, attendance, attitude, or compliance.

Content Mastery:

• based on students demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their education. Student progress toward content objectives is usually measured by formative and summative assessments. If students fail to meet expected learning standards, they typically receive additional instruction, practice time, and academic support to help them achieve proficiency or meet the expected standards.

Equity:

• is a measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education. The study of education equity is often linked with the study of excellence and equity. Educational equity depends on two main factors. The first is fairness, which implies that factors specific to one's personal conditions should not interfere with the potential of academic success. The second important factor is inclusion, which refers to a comprehensive standard that applies to everyone in a certain education system. These two factors are closely related and depend on each other for an educational system's success.

Formative Assessment:

• a wide variety of methods that teachers use to conduct in-process evaluations of student comprehension, learning needs, and academic progress during a lesson, unit, or course. Formative assessments help teachers identify concepts that students are struggling to understand, skills they are having difficulty acquiring, or learning standards they have not yet achieved so that adjustments can be made to lessons, instructional techniques, and academic support. The general goal of formative assessment is to collect detailed information that can be used to improve instruction and student learning while it’s happening. Common examples of formative assessments include class work, or planning tasks (check points) as part of larger projects. While homework is often considered a formative assessment, it is a separate category in FCPS grading.

Summative Assessment:

• used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period, typically at the end of a project, unit, course, semester, program, or school year. Common examples include unit tests, long term projects, presentations, Socratic seminars, and essays.

The Grading Scale

FCPS courses use a uniform gradebook design with a 100-point scale.

Grade Calculation

FCPS courses use a uniform gradebook design with set category weighting. This weighting uses a mix of graded process and product assignments in the following categories:

Traditional (Quarterly) Gradebook

South County Middle School utilizes a traditional quarterly grading system. Each quarter, students receive a grade that reflects their overall performance during that specific period. These quarterly grades provide a snapshot of the student's progress in the course at that point in time. The final grade for the year is then determined by averaging the four quarter grades, offering a comprehensive view of the student's overall achievement in the course.

Equitable Grading Practices: Minimum Grades and the Elimination of Zeros

Per FCPS guidelines, zeroes can be recorded in the gradebook for assignments that are not turned in. Additionally, a minimum grade of 50% will be entered for assignments where students make a reasonable attempt. A reasonable attempt is when a student demonstrates knowledge and understanding of assessed content to some extent. Furthermore, South County Middle School utilizes a traditional gradebook and will use reassessment and grade replacement practices that allow students to update learning from the current quarter. 

Gradebook Codes

• “AB” placed in the gradebook for work not completed due to an excused absence. An “AB”  has no point value and does not negatively impact a student’s grade.  The teacher may include more information in the public notes.
• “EXC” placed in the gradebook for excused work; this assignment does not factor into grade calculation.
• “NTI” is placed in the gradebook for daily homework assignments that are not turned it; calculated as F (0%) in the gradebook

Collaborative Team (CT) Expectations

• CTs (teachers teaching the same content ) shall create a common syllabus containing a method of determining grades in the same fashion.  CTs will be consistent as to the method of calculating quarter grades (weights) and end of year grades.
• No category can be left blank in the gradebook because it will change the assigned weights of other categories.
• CTs are to set grading design so that no one assignment/assessment counts more than 35% of the quarter grade. 

Homework

• We expect that all students complete 100% of their work 100% of the time.
• Homework is an important part of the learning process and takes a different form and has a different purpose per content area.
• Homework for practice or preparation for instruction may account for no more than 10% of quarter grade.
• Homework will not exceed 25 minutes per class block.
• As a best practice, teachers should limit or avoid assigning homework over long weekends and holiday breaks.

Late Work

• Students are expected to keep up with assignments and turn in work on the assigned date. However, late work will be accepted because a grade is reflective of demonstrated content mastery and not work habits.
• The timeline for the submission of late work will be differentiated based on the type of assignment:
  • Homework and Classwork (formative assignments) will be accepted for full credit until the date of the summative assessment associated with the work. 
    • Students must come during learning seminar or after school to work on the assignment with their teacher.
• If the student has had opportunities to complete the work but has not, the teacher will record “NTI” (Not Turned In) in the grade column. 
• If a pattern of late or missing work is noted (3 or more assignments in a quarter), teachers will communicate (phone call and/or email) with parents/guardians.

Reassessments

Students who do not score up to 100% on a summative assessment can be afforded one opportunity to demonstrate mastery of content through reassessment. Teachers will post and clearly communicate the reassessment deadlines.

• Any student earning a grade of 73-99% on a summative assessment may prepare independently and/or with a teacher and participate in a reassessment within two weeks once the original assessment is returned.
• A student receiving a grade less than a 73% on a summative assessment will be supported by the teacher with additional instruction and will be required to participate in a reassessment in collaboration with the teacher.  
• Reassessment to demonstrate mastery of content should be completed within two weeks of the date the original assessment is returned to students with flexibility around school breaks or if the student requires additional support.

The teacher will:

• Identify the specific standards for which the student did not meet proficiency on the assessment.
• Provide intervention/remediation on those standards for students during the school day or after school.
• Provide targeted instruction and remediation for any student receiving below 73%.

Before participating in a reassessment, students will: 

• Complete work supporting standards assessed as determined by the teacher (e.g. test corrections, review assignment, reflections, outstanding homework).
• Attend a review session (during class, Learning Seminar or After-School) designated by the teacher (required for grades below 73%).

To the greatest extent possible, the reassessment will be a similar format and difficulty as the original assessment.  In certain cases, performance assessments (i.e Fishbowl debates, TED Talks, etc.) may require an alternative format given the nature of the assessment. However, these will also be consistent with the level of rigor of the original assessment.

The highest level of mastery, up to 100%, will be recorded in the grade book. The original grade earned will be noted in the “notes” section in the grade book. If students have not met the set criteria for reassessment, the grade entered into SIS will reflect the original score (with “IE” as the lowest score possible).

Academic Integrity (Cheating)  

Cheating and plagiarizing are inappropriate behaviors and shall result in disciplinary action as outlined in Regulation 2601, Student Rights and Responsibilities Booklet.

Teachers have the responsibility to:

• Specify the types of collaboration that are discouraged and those that are encouraged.
• Teach or review the correct use of sources and citations when assigning work.
• Structure conditions during testing to reduce the possibility of cheating.

Students have the responsibility to:

• Avoid situations that might contribute to cheating or plagiarizing.
• Avoid unauthorized assistance.
• Use sources in the prescribed manner.
  • Phones should not be brought to the classroom.
  • No other tabs open on the computer.
• Document borrowed materials by citing sources.
• Avoid plagiarism by:
  • using quotation marks for statements taken from others.
  • acknowledging information and ideas borrowed from any source.
  • consulting faculty members about a questionable situation.
  • Avoid “cutting” and “pasting” from computer text without proper attribution.

Students who violate “the spirit or the letter of the law” as regards cheating and plagiarizing must accept responsibility for their actions and the accompanying consequences. Consequences may include:

• Parent notification.
• Students determined to have cheated on an assessment will take the reassessment at the time designated by the teacher and forfeit their right to another reassessment opportunity. 
• An alternative assignment (of equal format and difficulty to the original) or recompletion of the original assignment. 

Artificial Intelligence

The FCPS Honor Code includes an expectation for teachers to specify when it is acceptable for students to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) on any part of an assignment. 

• Tools approved for use can be found in the FCPS Digital Ecosystem Library (DEL).
• Teacher(s) will specify when it is acceptable to use AI on any part of an assignment
• Students need to check with teachers to see if it is acceptable to use AI on any part of an assignment, how to show work, and how to cite and/or explain their use of AI. 
• Students need to check with parent(s) / caregiver(s) for permission before using other AI tools (not approved in FCPS) on personal devices.
• Students should not enter any of the following into AI Tools: personal information (name, date of birth, etc.); education records (grades, transcripts, etc.); and work that belongs to others.

Student use of technology (including AI) needs to comply with the SR&R, Acceptable Use Policy, and Honor Code.

Extra Credit

• Students are given multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of skills and concepts; therefore, extra credit is not an expected or acceptable component of any teacher’s grading policy at South County Middle School.

Final Grade Calculation

• South County Middle School utilizes a traditional quarterly grading system. Each quarter, students receive a grade that reflects their overall performance during that specific period. These quarterly grades provide a snapshot of the student's progress in the course at that point in time. The final grade for the year is then determined by averaging the four quarter grades, offering a comprehensive view of the student's overall achievement in the course.
• For high-school credit courses, a final exam may be administered and will count towards the final grade.  CTs will determine the weight of the final exam on the overall final grade calculation, not to exceed 20%.
• Further detail on the calculation of Final Grades is available in the FCPS Secondary Grading and Reporting Handbook