5.15—GRADING
Parents, legal guardians, persons having lawful control of a student, or persons standing in loco parentis shall be kept informed concerning the progress of their student. Parent-teacher conferences are encouraged and may be requested by parents, guardians, persons having lawful control of a student, persons standing in loco parentis, or teachers. If the progress of a student is unsatisfactory in a subject, the teacher shall attempt to schedule a parent-teacher conference. In the conference, the teacher shall explain the reasons for difficulties and shall develop, cooperatively with the parents, a plan for remediation, which may enhance the probability of the student succeeding. The school shall also send timely progress reports and issue grades for each nine (9) week grading period to keep parents/guardians informed of their student’s progress.
The evaluation of each student’s performance on a regular basis serves to give the parents/guardians, students, and the school necessary information to help affect academic improvement. Students’ grades shall reflect only the extent to which a student has achieved the expressed educational objectives of the course.
The grades of a child in foster care shall not be lowered due to an absence from school due to:
A change in the child's school enrollment;
The child's attendance at a dependency-neglect court proceeding; or
The child's attendance at court-ordered counseling or treatment.
The grading scale for all schools in the district shall be as follows:
A =100 – 90
B = 89 – 80
C = 79 – 70
D = 69 – 60
F = 59 and below
For the purpose of determining grade point averages, the numeric value of each letter grade shall be:
A = 4 points
B = 3 points
C = 2 points
D = 1 point
F = 0 points
The grade point values for Advanced Placement (AP), approved courses for weighted credit, International Baccalaureate (IB), and approved honor courses shall be one (1) point greater than for regular courses with the exception that an F shall still be worth zero (0) points.
The final grades of students who transfer in for part of a semester will be determined by blending the grades earned in the district with those earned outside the district. Each final grade will be the sum of the percentage of days in the grading period transferred from outside the district times the transferred grade from outside the district plus the percentage of days in the grading period while in the district times the grade earned in the district.
For example: The grading period had forty (40) days. A student transferred in with a grade of eighty-three percent (83%) earned in ten (10) days at the previous school. The student had a grade of seventy-five percent (75%) in our district’s school earned in the remaining thirty (30) days of the grading period. Ten (10) days is twenty-five percent (25%) of forty (40) days while thirty (30) days is seventy-five percent (75%) of forty (40) days. Thus the final grade would be (0.25 X 83) + (0.75 X 75) = 77%.
Legal References: A.C.A. § 6-15-902
A.C.A. § 9-28-113(f)
Standards For Accreditation 5-A.1
Division of Elementary and Secondary Education Rules Governing Grading and Course Credit
Date Adopted: 7/1/2004
Last Revised: 6/25/2018; 11/14/2022