Grading

Sprague’s Grading Philosophy

• Grading practices are fair, manageable, and support effective teaching and learning. Grading practices are bias free, motivational for students, and accurate.
• Grading practices yield grades that are understandable, meaningful, and accurately reflect student learning.
• Multiple opportunities are provided for students to demonstrate knowledge of the standards and to work towards exceeding the standard.
• Growth over time is a consideration for grading. Recent evidence can be more heavily weighted than earlier evidence.
• Teachers exercise professional judgement in their grading practices, seeking to find evidence of learning from students.
• All students are consistently held to high academic standards, which include development of work ethic and social skills.
• Student work should reflect where a student is in the learning process and must be original student work.

Your learning is a joint effort between you and your teacher. This means you both have responsibilities that need to be met to ensure your success. Please note that AP and Dual Credit courses may be exempt from some of these practices due to College Board and/or college credit requirements.

At Sprague High School, we believe:

• Common grading practices make our classrooms equitable and give students consistent opportunities to succeed.
• Grades should accurately represent learning; grading practices should provide hope and increase student confidence.
• Standards based instruction is an effective system for promoting a growth mindset. It allows students to make mistakes, and it enables them to determine how and where improvement can take place.
• It is important to engage in learning and prepare to the best of your ability for all assessments. Learning is a process; opportunities for redos/retakes are available for all students who prepare.
• Student work should reflect where a student is at in the learning process and must be original work.

Grading and Academic Achievement

Teacher Responsibility

• Use a common rubric that is aligned with common scoring criteria within common courses.
• Enter comment codes into the gradebook to communicate the following: Excused and No Evidence (NE)
• Grading information will be clearly communicated within each class syllabus.
• All courses will give a cumulative final at the end of the course; if a student passes the final by demonstrating
  knowledge of the standard, they will pass the course.
• Cumulative Finals will have a study guide for students to use to prepare for the final exam.
• All courses are aligned; all teachers of the same course offer the same summative assessments broken down by
  standards, learning targets, or skills.
• Teachers will assign Professional Skills grades each six weeks and at the end of each course.

Student Responsibility

• Complete homework prior to summative assessment to ensure adequate preparation.
• Monitor grades on a regular basis and seek clarification from the teacher when you have questions.
• Seek clarification when needed prior to the test / assessment / project.
• Meet with your teacher and make a specific plan at progress report checks (weeks 6 and 12 of each semester) to improve your grade.
• Be engaged at all times in class. Take notes or complete daily activities to ensure learning. Students should keep phones and other electronic devices silent and away, unless given permission by the teacher to use personal electronic devices.
• Students should focus on their Professional Skills (which will include personal management, communication,
  accountability and productivity, and collaboration) during the course.
• In order for students to pass a course for credit, students will demonstrate at minimum ⅔ of the standards covered in the course with a score of 1 or higher.

Missing and Late Work

Teacher Responsibility

• Late work: If an assessment is meant to measure learning, then earned credit for that assessment needs to be reflected in the grade. (Homework is mainly for practice/feedback or class preparation, can not be more than 10% of final grade) assignment/assessment.
• No Evidence (NE) will be marked in the Synergy gradebook if a student makes no effort to complete an assignment/assessment.
• In an 18 week semester, all assessments and retakes (revisions) will be accepted at least through the end of week 16 in order to prep for the cumulative final, and may be accepted beyond the week 16 deadline.

Student Responsibility

• In an 18 week semester, all assessments and retakes (revisions) should be completed by the end of week 16 of the semester, in order to prepare for the cumulative final. Additionally, you can request an opportunity outside of this window by contacting the teacher of record.

Redo/Retake (Revision) Opportunities

Teacher Responsibility

• All Sprague teachers will provide redo/retake (revision) opportunities using the “Sprague Redo/Retake Form”.
• Redo/retake (revision) opportunities are available for students in different phases of the learning process:
  • Students may reassess on targeted skills/standards that were previously considered not proficient.
  • Students who have already demonstrated proficiency may complete the retake/redo process to
    demonstrate mastery (a higher summative score).
• A student’s highest score on a standard will be reflected in the grade book.

Student Responsibility

• Students initiate the redo/retake process by completing the “Sprague Redo/Retake Form” either online or via a paper copy which should be submitted directly to the teacher.
• If time allows in a semester, each student will receive 2 attempts to redo/retake each skill/standard plus an opportunity on the cumulative final.

We are excited to practice student-led conferences at Sprague High School. Below is the script that students will follow during their conferences. Teachers will help guide this process as well.

Student Script: 

Part 1: Introduction

Thanks for coming to conferences with me! [Parent/Guardian], this is my teacher for my [class title] class, [Teacher’s name].

Part 2: Highlights

The thing that I am most proud of/excited about in this class is [what your proud or excited about] because [reason].

Part 3: Opportunities

To be a successful learner in this class, I need to [state what you need to be successful].

Word Bank:  attendance, attitude, engagement, focus, motivation, sense of belonging, challenge, growth

Part 4: Conclusion

Do you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me? (Wait for response, then address questions, comments, and/or suggestions.)

Sprague Redo/Retake Form

At Sprague High School we understand that sometimes learning a skill or understanding takes time and mistakes are made in the learning process. As such, we want students to use this moment for growth and we encourage students to seek an additional opportunity to demonstrate understanding through the retake/redo process.

Fill out the Redo/Retake Form