There will be a midterm and end of quarter progress report for each quarter.
For each grading period, the letter grade is based on the weighted grading scale below. Students’ grades are based on Online School (OLS) progress, work samples, required assessments and class attendance. Students who do not complete monthly work samples, required assessments, and not attending classes will be placed on an Academic Success Plan.
Report cards at UTVA communicate a student’s performance academically.
Report cards are mailed to learning coaches a week after the end of every quarter.
If you don’t receive a report card after the end of the quarter contact your student’s homeroom teacher. The homeroom teacher can generate another copy of the report card and Email it to you.
If you feel a grade is unfair, contact the homeroom teacher for more information. Be matter-of- fact in your approach. Don't promise your child that you'll get the grade changed; instead, say that you'll help figure out what went wrong. Once you've discussed the situation with the teacher, the three of you can work together to put an improvement plan in place.
Include your child in a parent-teacher conference. Expect the teacher to pull out samples of class work, tests, and quizzes and show you the grade book.
Even in a sea of As and Bs, disappointing marks always stand out. Here’s some advice on how to handle the academic news:
· First, be enthusiastic about whatever's good. Acknowledge the positive. Even if there's only one A, say something like, "Wow, you did really well in art."
· Deal with bad marks in a caring and calm manner. Talk together about the report card, and help your student come up with an improvement plan. Ask your child what they going to do to bring up low marks, and support your child’s efforts. They're your child’s grades and your child needs to take responsibility for them.
· Never use a report card to be punitive.
· Instead, figure out what motivates your child and provide incentives. Some parents get results by threatening to take away extracurricular activities or computer access. Others promise gifts or pay for achievement. A better approach is to establish some goals and reward improvement. Acknowledging effort with an outing to the movies or a game of checkers might be all it takes. For students whose hard work still falls short, be sure to applaud the effort.
· Finally, convey to your child that school is important. Post her work on the refrigerator. Keep papers she is proud of in a portfolio; print it out and save it. Tell your student that in your family hard work and good effort are valued most.
A = 90-100%, B = 80-89%, C = 70-79%, D = 60-69%, F = 0-59%
All assignments are due on the schedule due date set by the either the homeroom or course teacher. Assignments submitted after 1 week and thereafter will be docked 25%, this is 5% for each day the assignment is late. Assignments submitted after the last day of the block will not be accepted.
Any exceptions to this policy must be approved in writing by the principal.
Utah is a “force promotion state.” This means students will be promoted to the next grade level at the end of each school year. Due to this policy, students are strongly encouraged to complete their curriculum at least to the minimum requirements for promotion, thus preparing them for the next school year.
Parents will discuss their end of the year course promotion concerns with their homeroom teacher. Teachers can escalate the concerns to the Principal as needed. Homeroom teachers list course promotions at the end of May each year. This will trigger return materials information from K12, and prepare to send materials for the next courses ordered.
K-8 students are automatically promoted to the next courses based on the Utah Core Standards, and K12 course progression. Students completing their 8th grade school year will meet with a high school counselor to prepare for 9th grade. There they will learn state and K12 requirements, as well as choose appropriate classes for the next school year.
Your student is encouraged to assess out of curriculum already mastered. In doing this, your student takes the lesson, unit or semester assessments and if he/she achieves a score of 80% or higher, the student may move on to the next lesson/unit. As a student assesses out of the
curriculum, learning coaches will mark the “assessed out” lessons in the unit as skipped and move on to the next unit. When a student encounters a unit in which he/she is no longer mastering the objectives, at 80% or more, he/she should begin working through individual lessons in this unit.
It is important while doing this the student is completing a minimum of one unit test or lesson each day, with an average of 5 lessons a week. If he/she assess out of a unit on Monday, this would count as one lesson and he/she would start on lesson 1 of the next unit on Tuesday, and on. Students are given credit for the lessons skipped towards course promotion, but skipped lessons do not count toward progress goals and report card grades. To ensure continual growth, consistent progress at an average rate of 5 lessons per week is needed to meet progress goals.
For all students that are newly enrolled after the school year has begun, the student will start their course work where the class is currently at in the pacing guide. It is understood that the student has already received instruction for all previous lessons while enrolled at the previous school. This will help the student to be ready to participate with Class Connect sessions and not fall behind. This ‘skipping forward’ will automatically take place by the homeroom teacher upon initial contact. There are few exceptions to this rule. Please discuss such exceptions with your homeroom teacher.
UTVA teachers monitor student progress based on the Online School (OLS), class attendance and participation, teacher graded assignments (work samples), and other required assessments.
Progressing in a course is different from promoting in a course; final course promotions and marks are determined by the teacher. Within the UTVA program, every child can progress through the curriculum at his/her own pace as long as he/she is meeting the minimum progress requirements.