Course Placement and Acceleration
Course placement and curriculum progression is carefully planned and supported by student achievement data. In the following sections of the course catalog you will find information from each department about their coursework and what class is suggested after completing certain classes. Grade performance in all courses is important. Many courses taken in grades 9 and 10 introduce foundational information for courses taken in grade 11 and 12. As such, Tahoma High School uses the following guidelines in recommending placement and discussing the pros and cons of acceleration with students.
Course Placement
Each course description will include important information for students and families to consider before selecting it as a schedule request. Placement will be determined in many cases by grade level and prerequisite completion. There are several checks along the way to be certain students are placed accurately according to course information and staff recommendation. This is why there may be slight differences between courses requested during the course request timeframe and courses that are scheduled for the following school year. Several different school staff will review requests for a variety of factors to be sure placement is in the best interest of the student and of the student’s post high school plan.
Course Failure
A course is failed when the final grade at the end of semester one or semester two is posted as a letter grade F. This F letter grade typically represents an overall percentage point earned equaling less than 60%. 60% is a common standard point for passing or earning credit. This is typically a letter grade D. D grades and higher will result in credit earned toward graduation requirement areas at the end of each formal semester.
Two student platforms are used by our teaching staff to work with and evaluate your student. Google Classroom is a daily interface that students and teachers use to share class materials, assignments and class event or assessment dates. Some assignments will be submitted in Google Classroom electronically and some will be submitted in paper or printed version to teachers. Official grades are reported in Skyward. Parents and students have their own access points for Skyward. The gradebook option in Skyward will hold the official grade for the course they are in. Please remember to log into Skyward to check the official grades. By clicking on the letter grade viewable for a course you will enter the entire gradebook for that course so you will be able to see specific details and grade categories. Please also remember that grades are entered by teachers and are not updated daily.
Acceleration
Some students have a desire to accelerate their course pathways beyond what we can offer at Tahoma High School. We highly discourage students from attempting a full year course in a six-eight week timeline over a summer break, as an example. Many concepts are rushed or skipped altogether in these scenarios which may make it difficult for a student to be successful in the next course. Where we see the deepest impact of this ‘rush’ is in the area of math which is so essential to understand fundamental concepts before moving on to the next level. Students are rarely as successful as they would like to be in the next level class when the prerequisite course was a summer course completed on a shorter timeline than an academic semester or year schedule allows.
If you choose to take a course outside of Tahoma High School you will want to be certain that it can be transferred to us for credit. Without the transcript from an accredited institution, the pre-requisite course is not considered met and your student will be placed accordingly. Transcript information must be received prior to Bear Days starting in order for the student’s schedule to be corrected to the new course. Please note that we do not accept Homeschool curriculum for credit.