Below are the district-adopted grading practices that are to be followed at each secondary school. Grading practices will be updated on a yearly basis during the implementation of standards-referenced grading at the secondary level.

Example for Semester Grades at Middle/High School using a Weighted Grading System:

Category: Weight

Final: 10%

Assignments: 30%

Tests: 60%

When two or more items are entered into the grade book for the Assignments category for the same number of points, then the 30% will now be broken down into 15% or less for each item. The more items entered into the category, the less each item is weighted for. For example, if there are 10 items in the assignment category with equal points for each, they will each be worth 3% of the overall grade.

For the test category, at least three or more items must be entered into this category. When three test items are entered for an equal amount of points, each would be weighted for 20% of the grade. Once four test items are entered, they would then be weighted to 15% and so on. (Take the category weight and divide by the number of items entered in that category).

If a category has a larger percentage weight in the final grade such as tests being 80% of the grade, then more items would be needed in that category to ensure no single item is weighted more than 20%. Four test items in this case at equal points would give 20% for each. Five test items would give 16% and so on.

Example for Semester Grades for Middle/High School using a Total Points Grading System:

Example 1: End of the Semester Points given in the Gradebook = 1200 points

20% of 1200 is 240 points – any single item in the grade book more than 240 is now weighted more than 20% of the grade

Example 2: End of Semester Points given in the Gradebook = 3350 points

Multiply the number of points by 0.2 to find 20% of the grade which is 670 – any single item in the grade book worth more than 670 points is now weighted more than 20% of the grade

**Please note – in either scenario, early in the semester, most items will hold a larger % weight until more assignments get entered in. This is why you often see a student’s grade change drastically after the first test grade or project grade is entered into the grade book. In a scenario of 60% for tests, when the first test item is entered in, at that point in the semester, it is worth 60% of the student’s grade. Once a second test is entered in, they would now both be worth 30% if entered for the same amount of points.