NCCS Grading and Reporting Guidelines

Revised: 8/13/06

Through district committees; surveys of staff, students, and parents; and review of literature, the North Canton City School District has developed and will continue to develop guidelines for grading and reporting.

In each section there may be the following items:

SECTION #1: Criteria Referenced Grading v. Norm Referenced Grading

Definitions:

Guidelines:

Students will be assigned grades based upon their achievement of academic content standards, not on how they compare to the performance of other students.

Suggestions:

If the scores on a major assessment are generally low, a teacher should not simply add points onto the grade for all students.  Suggested alternatives include:

SECTION #2: Extra Credit

Guidelines:

What Extra Credit is:

What Extra Credit is Not:

Application of Extra Credit:

  1. A teacher is not required to offer extra credit in any given course.
  2. In any given class in which extra credit is offered, all students in that class are eligible to earn extra credit.
  3. No more than 2% of the total quarterly grade can come from extra credit
  4. Extra credit should encourage learning throughout the grading period, as opposed to a last–minute effort to raise a quarterly grade.

Bonus Points

Bonus points cannot affect more than 5% of the grade on a given assessment.

Acceptable examples of bonus points could include the following:

  1. Practice OGT / Proficiency / ACT / SAT questions
  2. Material from previous course work
  3. Information discussed or covered in class that was not asked on the assessment
  4. Written explanation of an objective type answer on the assessment
  5. Higher-level question than expected on the assessment itself

SECTION #3:Academic Practice and Academic Achievement

Definitions:

  Academic Practice Academic Achievement
Purpose: to monitor to judge
Time: during process end of process
Types: informal formal
Use: to improve judge process/product

Academic Practice and Academic Achievement may include the following types of assessments. Please note, however, that the definitions provided above are the best guide for determining if an assessment is Academic Practice or Academic Achievement, since the items below may be used differently between subjects and grade levels.

Academic Practice

Academic Achievement

Guidelines:

Academic Practice and Academic Achievement are to be recorded separately in the gradebook, and reported separately on interim reports and report cards. The format for this will vary depending upon grade level and is explained further in “Section #6”.

The completion of Academic Achievement is not optional.

SECTION #4: Missing Work/Late Assignments/Zeroes

Guidelines:

These guidelines apply to all subject areas and grade levels:

These guidelines are to be determined by each grade level or subject area:

Suggestions:

To assist students with the completing of work, the following interventions and strategies are suggested:

  1. Set clear and reasonable timelines for assignments.
  2. Ensure that the expectations for the task/assignment are clearly established and understood.
  3. Support the students who will predictably struggle with the task without intervention.
  4. Find out why a student’s work is late.
  5. Contact their parent(s) about the missing work.
  6. Require the student to complete the missing work at school, such as during academic assist, study hall, lunch, before school, after school, a free period, or during class.

SECTION #5: Ingredients in a Grade

Guidelines:

Course grades can include Academic Practice and Academic Achievement. The reporting of these different grades depends upon the grade level and is explained in “Section #6”.

Course grades cannot include attitude, extra credit for non-academic behaviors/activities, effort, behavior, attendance, punctuality, or tardiness. Some of these items may be reported in separate sections of the report card, but they are not to influence the course grade in any way.

As needed, interim reports and report cards will be expanded to accommodate the reporting of additional information.

SECTION #6: Reporting Grades

Grades 1-5

Guidelines:

Beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, Academic Practice grades will count for 20% of the marking period grade, and Academic Achievement will count for 80% of the marking period grade for Grades 4 and 5. The standard formula for grade calculation will be:
Course grade = (80 X Academic Achievement grade + 20 X Academic Practice grade) / 100

In the near future, a method will be developed for using Academic Practice and Academic Achievement grades to arrive at the course grade for Grades 1 through 3.

Suggestions:

Grade 1 through 3 Staff are encouraged to distinguish between Academic Practice and Academic Achievement in their gradebooks, although such reporting will not occur until a later school year.

Grades 6-8

Guidelines:

Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, Academic Practice grades will count for 20% of the marking period grade, and Academic Achievement will count for 80% of the marking period grade. The standard formula for grade calculation will be:

Course grade = (80 X Academic Achievement grade + 20 X Academic Practice grade) / 100

The breakdown of Academic Practice and Academic Achievement will be included on the interim reports, but not the 9-week report card. In the near future the 9-week report card will be modified to show the breakdown of Academic Practice and Academic Achievement.

Grades 9-12

Guidelines:

Beginning with the 2003-2004 school year, Academic Practice grades may account for a maximum of 15% of the marking period grade. The standard formula for grade calculation will be:

Course grade = (85 X Academic Achievement grade + 15 X Academic Practice grade) / 100

Lower percentages may be used for the Academic Practice at the discretion of the teacher, such as “90-10” or “95-5” splits.

The breakdown of Academic Practice and Academic Achievement will be included on the interim reports, but not the 9-week report card. In the near future the 9-week report card will be modified to show the breakdown of Academic Practice and Academic Achievement.