Report card grades will be a combination of mastery on student work products, class participation, and assessments. Students receive final grades in January and June.  The final grade is based on a student’s performance during all the marking periods that make up that term (Term 1- September – January; Term 2 – February- June).  The grade for each marking period will reflect the teacher’s evaluation of the student’s progress in the categories below:

*All courses follow the above policy.*

Teachers must maintain an electronic grade book containing up-to-date progress on the categories of Mastery on Student Work Products, Assessments and Class Participation. Documentation, which forms the basis for grades, must be kept on file and must be available to the supervisory personnel.

Missed assessments should be made up and accepted at any given opportunity. Students and teachers are responsible for arranging times to make up any missed summative assessments.

We continue to emerge from the pandemic and have a large number of students who have been directly impacted physically and emotionally by the pandemic and their rate of submission of assignments has been impacted. 

As a result, students are not penalized for the rate of submission of assignments. This means that all student work assigned must be accepted and not penalized for lateness. 

Our grading policy has always contained an area for mastery learning. The majority of our students come to our school below grade level, and some come to us well below grade level. To best serve our students, we use an asset model and reject deficits and punitive measures in our practice. Student work of all levels is to be accepted and students given credit for that assignment. When scoring/grading assignments, students are to be met where they are, their efforts recognized, and provided the opportunity to revise the assignment to improve the quality of their work by following teacher feedback without penalty. 

Mastery Learning finer points:

1. Mastery assignments are not new assignments. They are simply an opportunity to revise a prior assignment or assessment. Make as many previous assignments/tests available for mastery as possible.

2. Be sure your students know mastery assignments help boost their learning and achievement but are optional. It may help to show them an example or model of how it boosts their grade. Motivate, motivate, motivate. 

3. If an assignment is entered into the mastery learning section of the grade book and a student completes the assignment, enter the grade. By entering the grade, you are recognizing the new work that the student did to improve their understanding. 

4. If an assignment is entered into the mastery learning section of the grade book and a student does not complete the assignment, then please do not enter the grade. Leave the grade blank. Entering the grade of 50 because the student chose not to do the mastery assignment will penalize the student twice for the same original assignment.

All students enrolled in a course that culminates in a Regents exam are scheduled for the exam at the end of the course. In subject classes culminating in a Regents examination, the score may not be included in the final course grade. Course grades and Regents are separate and distinct.

No student who has completed the course can be barred from attempting the Regents exam in that course, including for disciplinary or attendance reasons.

Credit recovery is targeted, intensive instruction in a student’s identified area(s) of deficiency.  It is only for students who have already attended most of the course that they failed, and who mastered the majority of the content, but who need more support and instruction in one or more specific areas in order to pass and master the content. Students eligible for credit recovery will be reviewed each semester according to NYCDOE academic policy.

In credit recovery, the student does not retake the full course, but instead, works with a teacher to make up and subsequently master the particular portion of the course he or she still needs help with.  Credit will be awarded based on NYCDOE Academic Policy requirements and grades will be averaged into the GPA.

Grades are used as indicators of student progress within a content area. All grades are based on the criteria of Mastery on Student Work Products, Assessments, and Class Participation.   It is the responsibility of the teacher of each course to track each criteria for each student throughout each marking period and the school year. Students receive numeric grades ranging from 55% to 100%. 

No child will receive a grade lower than 55%, which is considered a failing grade. Teachers are to keep all information updated online so that advisors, students and parents can track student progress.

Grades from 0-54 are not used in Flushing High School. Further, grades are issued in increments of 5 from 65-90.  Grades are issued in increments of 1 for grades >90.

Science labs are graded with a “P” for passing or an “F” for failing.  All students must complete 1200 minutes of lab time by the end of the course eligible to take the Science Regents exam. The actual number of completed labs is entered in the exam column.  

Similarly, AIS and Resource Room courses will receive grades of “P” for passing or an “F” for failing. 

NS: Students who completely fail to attend a class and do not participate in any of the course work will receive a grade of “NS” indicating that the student is a No Show. This mark should be reserved for egregious situations.  A grade of an NS has a numerical value of 45 on the transcript. Neither long-term absentees (LTA) nor students receiving hospital or home instruction should be assigned an “NS” mark.  Students are assigned this grade if they have never attended a class. In addition, as such, if a student is present for one class, a grade of NS cannot subsequently be used.

NL: New or recently enrolled students who have enrolled late in the semester may be given a grade of “NL” and will signify that the student will have until the end of the following semester to complete the work for a passing grade.  If the NL is not updated by the conclusion of the following semester, it will revert to a failing grade of 55.