Dear Staff,
Students, and Parents,
After three years
of great work on instruction and assessment at LCSS, and with the province of
BC poised to move forward with Personalized Learning, it is time to start
looking at school grading policies that support the kinds of practices we know
improve student learning. Please take some time to review the following sample
taken from St. Patricks Regional High School as
a starting point for our future discussions.
The policy sections
you see below represent several years of dialogue at the school, and are
well-grounded in the research of Ken O'Connor,
Doug Reeves,
and Mike Schmoeker. (St. Pat's Principal
Johnny Bevacqua would also like to thank Saint Michael's
University School in Victoria for sharing their policy.)
I look forward to
resuming conversations with staff regarding this and other topics in earnest.
In the meantime, it is important that all school stakeholders have adequate
opportunity to reflect on any possible changes to our policies and have the
opportunity to discuss them. Please be encouraged to contact Ms. Garner or me
at the school if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Peter Jory
LCSS
Principal
Purpose of Assessment
Assessment serves
a variety of purposes throughout the learning process from start to finish. Assessment
practices should be employed in order to pre-assess, direct instruction,
identify gaps in understanding and to guide further learning. Formative
assessments, designed to guide the learning process will be offered in advance
of major summative assessments.
When determining
grades, teachers need to account for the following:
a) Missed
assessments: When a student misses a particular assignment or test, a mark of I
(incomplete) will be assigned and an alternative plan devised to provide
evidence of mastery (a mark of zero should not be recorded and averaged into
the grade). If a student has missed a number of significant assessments, the
teacher may be unable to accurately assess the student’s performance and should
record a grade of I (insufficient evidence available) on the report.
b) Incongruent
assessments: Where a significant disparity or anomaly in student performance
over time is evident, a interventions by teacher need to
be implemented to address the gap in understanding. This will
allow for another assessment to confirm the student’s mastery of the outcomes
in question.
c) Weighting
performance over time: Teachers are to ensure that a student’s grade accurately
reflects his/her best understanding of particular outcomes. Where a student has
demonstrated significant improvement in terms of mastery of particular outcomes
through the year, the more recent evidence should be emphasized in the
determination of the grade. This eliminates the need to “average” marks in any
calculation.
Work Habits
We expect that all
students will put forth their best. Work Habit skills will be reported on
based on our work habits rubric. When necessary, teachers should provide
anecdotal comments regarding specific work habits.
Attendance
Attending class in
a timely, regular fashion is the shared responsibility of the student and
parents and an expectation of the school. Regular attendance demonstrates
commitment to learning in a community and prepares students for higher learning
and for life. When frequent absences lead to an insufficient amount of
assessment evidence, a mark of “I” will be assigned.
Late or incomplete student work
Late or incomplete
work is often symptomatic of other, more serious issues for student learning.
Teachers should show compassion in trying to identify the root causes. In
most cases, the consequence of not completing an assignment will be completing
the assignment.
The consequence
for late assignments will not be applied using mark penalties.
Lateness will be reported on in the anecdotal/behavioral section of the report
and carry other behavioural consequences as outlined below.
When an assignment
is late or incomplete, at the discretion of the teacher and/or administrator, a
student will be held responsible to:
a) work with
their teacher to create a timeline for completing the work and/or
b) come in
for extra help and/or
c) work
towards completing the assignment during their free time either before or after
school or at lunch/recess and/or
d) design an
alternative assessment piece which demonstrates their mastery of learning
outcomes.
In the absence of
sufficient evidence of the attainment of learning outcomes due to a number of
missed assessments, a grade of I or incomplete will be reported until
such time as sufficient evidence is made available by the student.
Plagiarism and academic dishonesty
Using content and
values appropriate for the grade in question, teachers at all grade levels will
seek out opportunities to inform students about plagiarism and other forms of
academic dishonesty
Academic
dishonesty and plagiarism will be treated as a behavioral issue. In some
instances the student’s mark will be impacted. When an incident has been
discovered;
a) the
student may be required to re-submit the work in question in order to demonstrate
mastery of the skills and content.
b) the format
and timing of the submission will be at the discretion of the teacher and will
likely result in a loss of discretionary time privileges for the student.
c) Teachers
will communicate the incident to parents and an member of the principal team
Students who are found to have committed academic dishonesty may also be
subject to sanctions outlined in our school agenda.
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