Details of 50% policy

On another post Anonymous wrote:

New Post: This is a memo that went out to all teachers about the 50% grading rule by the office of Technology.

If you must change a grade after the deadline, use a Grade Change Request Form to notify your administrator and SDSS. There is an additional step that the SDSS must take to correct the GPA and honor roll status of any student whose grade is changed after grades are exported on the district level. Make sure that you have also applied the 50% rule to both assignments and final grades.

50% Minimum Grading Procedures:

1. Teachers must ensure that all student assignment grades are either 50% and above or a no-effort zero. Any student who refuses to complete an assignment or opts to not complete an assignment may receive a no-effort zero on that assignment. However, any student putting forth a legitimate effort but whose actual earned percentage is less than 50% should have the assignment or graded task recorded as a 50%.

2. Teachers must ensure that a student’s quarter and semester grades calculate in Gradebook are 50% and above. See page 22 of the attached document on how to override a grade in Pinnacle Gradebook to account for the 50% minimum.

a. *A special note about the impact of overriding an “E” for interim reports*

1. If you override a grade of below 50% for 4th quarter interim reports, you must first set your grades to calculate normally before confirming a student’s grade for the quarter. There is still a chance that you’ll have to override the grade again for their 4th quarter grade, but you’ll never know if the student’s grade improved beyond 49% if you don’t remove the override to see what their quarter grade would calculate out to be on its own. Not sure whose grades you overrode? Gradebook bolds those grades in the far right column so you can spot them easily. Page 22 of the attached Gradebook teacher guide provides full instructions on completing this important task.

3. Remember, if a teacher overrides the grade using a letter grade, Pinnacle Gradebook will automatically apply the highest percentage possible in the grade range percentage. For example, if a C is entered as an override grade, the system would automatically give the student a 79%. The document that outlines how to override a grade is attached.

4. The grades of F (fail) or P (pass) may not be used as an override grade. I (incomplete) can ONLY be used for Standards-Based Math 12.

And of course, before you leave for the summer please print and turn in the Grade Summary Report for all of your classes.

Please see the attached End-Of-Year Gradebook Guidelines memo for details.


Thank you all for your hard work!

Sincerely,

The Office of Instructional Technology