Grading Rubric
| All Honors Classes | All CP Classes | All Standard/Modified Classes | |
| Trigonometry & Algebra III | Exploring Algebra & Geometry I | ||
| Tests | 50% | 50% | 40% |
| Quizzes | 35% | 30% | 30% |
| Homework | 10% | 15% | 15% |
| Classroom Achievement | 5% | 5% | 15% |
The Grade you earn for the class is calculated as follows:
[2 * (MP 1 Grade + MP 2 Grade + MP 3 Grade + MP 4 Grade) + Final Exam Grade] / 9
where MP Grade 1 is the grade you earned in Marking Period 1
Students, Do Not Ask me, "What grade do I need in the last marking periods & final to pass?" That is a simple Algebra I question. Hint: Substitute in your known grades, substitute X in for the grades you do not know, and then solve for X.
So guess what... you just used Algebra in a Real Life situation in your life.
VTSD Teacher Grade-books will be Viewable Starting in 2010
Paper Report Cards and Progress Reports are slowly becoming a thing of the past, eventually to be regulated to the annals of a time long past (like why older folk call music collections records, why they call a telephone signal a dial tone, and why they call the ENTER key a carriage return). Sometime during January 2010, VTSD will introduce online teacher grade-books, so parents and students can see just where they stand, what they have missed, and the grade trends/averages telling us areas/opportunities where students can improve in the future.
Because I previously considered the paper progress reports and report cards to provide only minimal information, I sent out Detailed Progress Reports around the time of each School progress report. These reports held all the information in my grade-book. And you could use as much, or as little, of that information as you saw fit. A disadvantage of this was that, although I checked for signatures, some parents said they never saw these detailed progress reports.
Now that everyone has immediate access, there is no continued need for these detailed progress reports, and I will no longer be producing them (starting 3rd marking period of the 2009-2010 year).
Report Card / Progress Report Card Comments
The number of comments teachers at VTSD can select are limited and may be open to interpretation. You may not agree with my comments, so you can ignore them, but here is how I determine what comments to add to the 2 slots (max) I have available.
Please Contact Teacher: I’ve attempted to reach your parents/guardians to no avail, and serious academic or discipline issues exist. You will fail the course unless your behavior is changed.
Behavior Needs Improvement: Your behavior is a major issue impacting your and your peer’s learning.
Incomplete/Missing Assignments: Quizzes or tests are currently valued at zero, since you have not yet made time to make these up. A zero value in a quiz or test grade is very detrimental to the overall grade. Perhaps the quiz/test was just given (so not having made this up is not a “real problem”, but if the assessment was originally given a while ago, this reflects poorly upon you. Officially I can require you to make up work immediately, and be authorized to set the zero in stone. I do not; to help you see you are responsible for your own grade.
In Danger of Failing: If your year-to-date grade is a 70 or below, one bad quiz/test can definitely lower your average to failing.
Homework Unacceptable: If your homework completion rate is below a 80% for CP level courses or below a 75% for modified classes.
Study Habits Need Improvement: If your quiz or test average is below 70%.
Shows Improvement: I have seen a marked improvement in your preparation, performance, or attitude.
Shows Positive Attitude: Classroom achievement grade above 80%, or signs of a positive attitude if you are very shy by nature.
Satisfactory: You are meeting the requirements of the course, and none of the earlier comments apply.
Excellent Student: I reserve this for the best of the best. If you see this you have definitely earned it. There is no false praise here.
NOTE: there is about a week delay between when teachers must enter comments and the report cards/progress reports are delivered, so grades, and situations may have changed in the interim.
Homework Policy
You earn your homework grade by doing every homework problem assigned and showing work. Homework serves many purposes, some of which are identified on the High School website. One key aspect of homework is to facilitate going beyond being able to follow a problem into learning a concept. If you do not see nearly all 100s, you see an opportunity for improved performance.
15% may not sound like a big impact, but consider this. If you never do homework, the best grade you can earn is an 85. That means you threw away 15 points. Consider this, if you would have earned a 79 (just below a B), but did no homework, your final grade is a 64% (F).
Grading for homework is simple in my class. I periodically check homework for the homework assignment that was assigned the night before. You will be unaware which days I check, I randomly select days, except that I check at least once per week (and periodically daily). What I look for is the following: 1) you completed all exercises, 2) you showed work on the exercises. If both criteria are met you get a 100%. If at least a moderate amount is shown to me and meets the criteria, then you get a 50%. If not, a 0%. I average these 0, 50, 100's for the week to derive the weekly homework grade. The mathematics of probability and statistics show this approach works.
If you are out a day I am checking, you do not have to show me the assignment that was due then. It is like a baseball player's batting average. You just didn't get to bat that day. Your batting average does not suffer. Your average is just based on one less time at bat. And if you had been out yesterday and I am checking homework today, then please just show me the last homework assigned when you were here. You were expected to do it. P.S. if you are out of class you still should do homework. Remember you are not doing it for me, you are doing it so that you learn!
It is true that teachers can never tell if you did your homework, all I can tell is if you showed me your homework. However, I expect you to be prepared and bring your homework each day. I'm helping you build organization skills, responsibility, as well as math skills. I want you to stay current, so homework is due on the due date. If you fall behind, you only hurt yourself because we keep building upon prior lessons. Ultimately the homework grade represents a good faith effort made outside the classroom to master the skills needed to succeed.
You have the opportunity to post and answer each other's homework questions. See the online agreement you signed in September. Points earned here will be added to a weekly homework grade. Currently this is reflected in the INFO category.
Classroom Achievement Policy
Every student starts out at 70%; earning additional points for classroom participation, questions and volunteering. Downward earning of points occurs if you disrupt the classroom, distract others or are disrespectful to anyone in the class. In general, students who are focused and actively involved in the classroom learn much better.
Quizzes & Tests
Quizzes are checkpoints in the learning the concepts of a unit and tests cover concepts learned throughout the entire unit. Some quizzes are very short (Mini Quizzes are half weight quizzes) ; others cover concepts of multiple sections and may take an entire period. Quizzes identify if you are keeping up with your learning, or if you try to “cram” for a unit test. “Cramming” often does not result in long term learning, necessary for Math, since new Math concepts build upon the foundation of previously learned skills. If you see low quiz grades and a higher test grade, your study habits may need to be altered.
If my grade book reflects a “0” that means a quiz/test was never taken (I put a "1" in my grade book for the rare student who actually earns a zero). Test and quiz zeros averaged into grades have dramatic negative effects. You are expected to make up missed quizzes/tests within a week. When you do, I replace the zero with the grade you earned.
EXPLORING I ONLY: I expect you know how to do basic arithmetic. It allows you to focus your efforts on the more complex math we are learning, it helps your number sense, it improves future calculator use, it allows me to assess other math concepts, and it speeds your being able to complete problems. You were expected to be able to do this in grammar school, and I know you are more capable than grammar school students. When you pass a short quiz on each of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, I average these grades and set them as a quiz grade. If you do not complete this in the first marking period, this requirement follows you into 2nd marking period. So take care of this early.
TRIGONOMETRY / PRECALCULUS ONLY: You are involved in an online blog project to improve HSPA results and maintain a broad math skill foundation. Every two months I will replace the set of questions. Hint: those who answer early get their pick of the problems, if you wait until the end, possibly only the hardest questions remain, or you will have to come up with a different solution than your friends in answering questions. The grade earned here will be counted as a take-home quiz. Use your resources. If you are a junior, a senior needing to retake the HSPA, or need to study for the SAT, I recommend you review all the solutions and be able to do every problem.
Info Only?
I create an information only section of my detailed progress report to identify information that HAS NO DIRECT IMPACT ON YOUR GRADE because it IS NOT AVERAGED INTO THE GRADE. I save this information because it helps to provide details supporting an overall picture of student performance and effort. Examples of information I save are 1) an early assessment on prerequisite skills students are expected to have brought into the classroom, 2) an indicator whether the rare extra credit opportunity was taken and 3) an indicator showing if a student took advantage of a retake policy (I retain the original score - see below).
Currently I offer you the opportunity of a one-week window to retake a similar unit test. This provides you an additional opportunity to study, learn concepts and do well. However, I do restrict this opportunity to students who have shown past effort (a Homework grade of at least 80% for CP level classes, 75% for modified level classes). I retain this information to track who takes advantage of this opportunity. If there is little or no change in the score, then you may forfeit this privilege. I expect you will study hard for these, and thus make significant improvement.
Extra Credit
In general I offer extra credit very rarely. In those situations, they are extension assignments, that is an assignment more demanding than those normally required at your level. Learning is about knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of concepts. It is not about doing some book report to make up for the lack of the above.
However, I effectively do offer an extra credit opportunity that far exceeds most. If you have applied yourself, as evidenced by a high homework completion average (see above), then you have the ability to retake tests. Of course, it is not the same test, but a test on the same concepts. And the retake must occur within one week of your receiving back the original test (unless we are at the very end of a marking period, where there is insufficient time for retakes). What this provides is a second chance opportunity. Say you did not effectively study for the original test. You have a second chance to learn the material, and use the original test as an additional resource, and prove you learned the concepts. I throw away the first test grade and use the second. Think of this, a student earning a 20% has the opportunity of gaining 80 extra credit points on that test.
However, there is one caveat. If you do not do better, I reserve the right to eliminate this benefit, (it is not a right) for the future. This is my method of making sure students do not just take the retake and hope that they do better. You must do better. I will not spend my time grading if you have not put in an honest and successful effort to learn the concepts.