These proposed changes are for February 2020 and will go into effect for the Spring 2020 term if enacted

Minimum Grades on Assignments
Current Policy: There is currently no minimum grade on assignments
Proposed Policy:
Teachers would continue to score assignments / tests as usual, but the scale on the Jupiter Grades system would be set that any score below 50 would be valued at 50 in the gradebook
□ 50 would be the value for assignments / tests that are not turned in / demonstrate no effort
□ 55 would be established for grades where students who tried to complete an assignment / test, but did not obtain mastery of the content
Rationale:
□ Give students who are demonstrating effort and a growth mindset an opportunity to pass a class by not being ‘buried’ with such low grades that they cannot recover mathematically during a given term
□ 50 is still a poor grade – students who demonstrate no effort are still being held accountable for their actions – nobody is getting into a ‘highly competitive’ college with a 50

Attendance at Regents / CTE / Advanced Placement Exams
Current Policy: There is currently no requirement for a student to take a culminating examination to earn a passing grade for a course that ends in one of these examinations
Proposed Policy:
Students must attend the culminating examination for any course that ends in a culminating examination in order to be eligible to pass that course.
These culminating exams include Regents, Career and Technical Education exams (NOCTI and Adobe) and Advanced Placement exams.  If a student does not take the culminating exam, they will be ineligible to pass that course.
The only exceptions are:
(1) Family and medical emergencies.  Documentation for these emergencies must be submitted and evaluated by the school’s Academic & Career and Technical Education Committee for approval.
(2) A student is taking the class strictly for credit and has already passed the culminating exam
Rationale:
Students are being prepared for these exams as part of these classes, so they should be required to attempt these exams

Percentage Breakdown of HSFI Grading Policy
Current Policy: Currently, there are 4 categories in our grading policy with the following percentage ranges:
□ Examinations, essays, and semester projects comprise 40% to 60% of the final grade
□ Homework assignments and quizzes comprise 20% to 40% of the final grade
□ Classwork shall comprise not more than 20% of a student’s final grade divided into 2 categories: Readiness (10%) and Class Participation (10%)
Proposed Policy:
Changing the 4 categories and corresponding percentages to the following:
□ Exams / Quizzes / Essays / Projects – 40%
□ Classwork – 40% (including 10% for Readiness)
□ Homework – 20%
Rationale:
□ The percentage breakdown aligns to our school values of attending school, arriving to school on time, actively participating in class and mastery of skills and content in order to be college ready
□ Simplicity for our students and their families – they know going into any class at the school how grades are determined

Factoring Regents / Career & Technical Education culminating examinations into a Course’s Final Grade
Current Policy:  Currently, performance on an end of course Regents exam or Career & Technical Education culminating examination shall not comprise more than 10% of a student’s final grade.  Departments have had the option to establish uniform guidelines for Regents or Career & Technical Education culminating examinations factoring into their grading policy and made this clear to students at the beginning of the course through the class contract.
Proposed Policy: Regents / Career & Technical Education culminating examinations – individual departments can determine to include performance on a Regents exam or Career & Technical Education culminating examinations in the final grade for classes that end in these exams.  If so, College Readiness benchmarks should be used whenever possible in determining performance markers.
The department would determine the percent impact on the total grade, up to a maximum of 33%
The policy must be consistently applies for all classes by subject
Rationale:
The possible inclusion of Regents / Career & Technical Education culminating examination performance in a student’s final grade is to provide an incentive for high performance in advanced courses

Minimum Number of Grades within Each Grading Category
Current Policy: Currently, the only grading category that has a minimum number of assignments is ‘Examinations, essays, and semester projects’ – the policy states “A minimum of four (4) classroom examinations / essays or semester projects are required for all students in each class during each semester.”
Proposed Policy:
Under the proposed 3 categories, there are a minimum number of grades for each:
□ Exams / Quizzes / Essays / Projects – minimum of 4 grades per term and at least 1 during each marking period
□ Classwork – minimum of 5 grades per marking period / minimum of 15 in total
□ Homework – minimum of 5 grades per marking period / minimum of 15 in total
Rationale:
Provide an adequate number of opportunities for students in each grading category