Grading Policy
Academy for Software Engineering
Grading Policy
Key
Changes from 2021-22
Overview
At AFSE, we believe that grades should reflect students’ progress in developing specific skills and habits that will help them meet graduation requirements and college and career readiness competencies. To this end, all AFSE students will receive grades related to their overall progress with Mastery Skills and Habits for Success in each course. Throughout the semester, feedback must be frequent, accessible, and easily understood by all students and families in order for it to be meaningful and actionable. Final grades resulting in course credits are awarded at the end of each semester (January and June).
At AFSE, we have established expectations that students need to meet to excel in high school, in
college, and in future careers. Mastery Skills are the required skills in each course that are aligned with state and national standards and culminating assessments (Regents Examinations, AP tests, etc.). The Habits for Success are schoolwide habits aligned with College & Career Readiness competencies. The Habit for Success prioritized for this semester is Responsibility. Students and families are provided with rubrics for all Mastery Skills and Habits for Success to support ongoing reflection, revision, and growth throughout each semester.
Understanding Mastery-Based Learning
In Mastery Based Learning:
- Students may take varying amounts of time to “master” a skill. All courses allow for reflection, revision and growth.
- Each class includes explicit, measurable learning objectives so students know exactly what Mastery Skill they are focusing on and the performance level they are working to achieve.
- Assessment is a meaningful, non-punitive and positive learning experience for students because they are provided with multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning and improve upon previous performance.
- Students receive timely, personalized support and feedback based on their individual learning needs.
- Mastery Skills emphasize application and creation of knowledge, along with the development of important skills and competencies.
Understanding Levels of Mastery
Across the school, we have adopted a common language and scale of 1 - 4 (0 is not assigned as a grade) to communicate performance levels of mastery. Please note that fractional levels (i.e.,1.5, 2.5, 3.5) are currently not recorded in JumpRope or used to measure student performance with the exception of the M code (0.5) for a missing Summative Assessment and Habits for Success. To ensure we are providing students with rigorous learning opportunities, we use the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework as a criteria to measure the level of rigor of each mastery skill.
Below are the performance levels of mastery:
JumpRope Online Gradebook and Progress Reports
All students and families have access to JumpRope, an online gradebook that provides current data on students’ progress with Mastery Skills and Habits for Success in each course.
In JumpRope, students will see a list of their Mastery Skills and Habits for Success, and their current level of mastery for each. Students can easily identify specific skills in which they have demonstrated growth or in which they need additional practice.
To access JumpRope, students and families follow these steps:
- Go to www.jumpro.pe/login
- The username is the student’s AFSE email address.
- The password is the student’s DOE ID number or OSIS number (number is listed on student schedules, report cards, transcripts, and ID cards).
How Courses are Graded
In JumpRope, students receive a final grade on a scale of 1 - 4 for each course. Progress with all Academic Mastery Skills within the course comprises 80% of this final grade. Progress with AFSE’s Habit for Success (Responsibility) comprises 20% of this final grade.
In order to determine a student’s progress with Academic Mastery Skills (80% of final grade):
- A student has the opportunity to demonstrate mastery based on the following parameters for the each semester:
- Summative Assessments including examples such as performance tasks, essays, projects and unit exams are weighted at 2.0 and will address one or more Mastery Skills.
- Students will be assigned between 2 - 5 Summative Assessments
- Each Mastery Skill will be assessed 2 - 5 times in the form of Summative
Assessments.
- Formative Assessments, including examples such as quizzes, exit tickets, class discussion, and classwork tasks, are weighted at 1.0.
- Students will receive between 10 - 20 total Academic Mastery scores for each course (Summative & Formative Assessments).
- All Academic Mastery scores will be categorized according to the following:
- Summative (2.0)
- Formative (1.0)
- Practice (0)
- To calculate a student’s final mastery of a skill, a Weighted Average is applied that will calculate each assessment at the same value regardless of order assigned, assessed or submitted. The Weighted Average will replace the previous Decaying Average calculation.
In order to determine a student’s progress with the Habits for Success (20% of final grade):
- Habits for Success will be assessed to provide students with feedback on Responsibility. Evidence of a student’s mastery of a skill includes on-time and complete submission of assignments to ensure timely feedback and opportunity for upgrading performance. Students who cannot meet a deadline due to an extenuating circumstance may demonstrate Responsibility by communicating with their teacher before the deadline to request an extension.
- Students will receive an assessment of Habits for Success on a scale of 1 - 4 and M that is reflective of Responsibility (submission of work on-time that follows instructions of the assignment). The code I will apply to students who have extenuating circumstances during the time period when an assessment is due (that will not count for or against student average).
- Students will receive feedback on Responsibility on 5-10 assessments per semester.
- To calculate a student’s final mastery of Habits for Success, the mastery levels for all Responsibility scores are averaged together.
In order to determine a final grade for a course:
- All Mastery Skill grades for the course will be averaged. That average will be 80% of the final grade for the course.
- All Habit for Success grades for the course will be averaged. That average will be 20% of the final grade for the course.
- Final grades in JumpRope (1 - 4 scale) will be converted to a traditional grade (0 - 100 scale) on students’ final transcripts.
Additional information about course grades:
- AFSE does not rank students.
- Courses are not weighted.
- Transfer credits are reported on the transcript with a CR.
- Student promotion is determined using the New York City Department of Education Academic Policy Guide
- Each course will define the following additional information in their course grading policies:
- Revision policies: Each course will define the conditions under which revision of an assignment will be accepted and how they will impact the grade. This applies to assignments that were previously submitted on the designated deadline. Courses will define the timeline for completion of revisions and any other protocols that should be followed (meeting with advisor, attendance at after-school or Saturday tutoring, etc.). These policies will be posted in the classroom and on the AFSE website.
Late Work
Late work is any assignment that was not submitted on the designated deadline. With respect to mastery based learning, student progress is time dependent. It is critical that students submit assessments within the parameters established to ensure that there is a reasonable period of time between assessments to incorporate feedback through practice.
Late work at AFSE is guided by the following policies:
- Assignments must be turned in during the marking period and not after.
- Each course may additionally establish its own policy for late work policy that is transparent and included in the syllabus for the course.
- Students have the opportunity to advocate by email to the teacher to make a formal request for additional time beyond the established deadline or marking period due to demonstrated extenuating circumstances.
How Crew (9th & 10th) and College Huddle (11th & 12th) are graded
Crew and Huddle are assigned a grade of P or F based on participation but NOT for academic credit.
How Labs are Graded
Students earn a Pass or Fail for each lab graduation requirement. For Regents Science Courses (Living Environment & Earth Science), science lab grades reflect a student's progress toward meeting the Regents lab requirement of 1200 minutes by June in order to be eligible to sit for the exam.
20-Day Extensions
According to DOE Academic Policy, and aligned with our Mastery Based Learning program, eligible students are permitted up to 20 days beyond the end of the semester to continue to demonstrate and show evidence of mastery to earn either the opportunity for a Course Extension (outlined below) or to earn credit for the course.
Course Extensions (Marks of “NC”)
Traditionally, if a student does not meet minimum requirements of a core class within the timeframe of the semester, then the student would fail the course. At AFSE, we understand that a student may need extra time to “master” skills and at the same time, we hold students accountable to high expectations that are
aligned with state and national standards, College and Career Readiness indicators, and Regents examination requirements in order to earn course credit.
Students who earn a final grade in JumpRope of 1 - 1.4 (see table below with the ranges) have the opportunity to complete assessments to demonstrate their mastery of coursework in the two terms following the semester for which the student earned “NC” on their transcript. “NC” indicates an incomplete course grade and remains on the transcript. As per NYCDOE academic policy, a new course is reported in the following term with the student’s final course grade. Students who complete a Course Extension within the first or second term of eligibility will have the opportunity to earn up to, but not beyond, a grade of 70.
Marks of “NL” and “NX”
Students who enroll in a course after it has started may have missed assignments or assessments needed to generate a complete course grade for a given marking period. These students may be given a grade of ‘NL’ in STARS to indicate this circumstance. NL does not have a pass/fail or numeric equivalent. Students who receive a grade of ‘NL’ must successfully complete remaining course requirements by the end of the following semester following in order to receive a final grade and credit, as applicable. NL’s that are not fulfilled within the permitted time period will result in a code of NC on the updated transcript.
Schools may award a grade of Incomplete (NX) if a student has a documented, extreme extenuating circumstance that prevents him/her from completing the course in its established timeframe (e.g. surgery, death in the family). NX does not have a pass/fail or a numeric equivalent. A student who receives an NX (incomplete) must successfully complete remaining course requirements by the end of the following semester in order to receive a final grade and credit, as applicable. NX’s that are not fulfilled within the established will result in a code of NC on the updated transcript.
JumpRope to Transcript Grade Conversion
Semesters and Marking Periods
The school year is divided into Fall and Spring semesters. Students receive final grades on transcripts at the end of each semester. Each semester is divided into two marking periods. At the end of the 1st marking period each semester, students receive a grade of P or F for each course based on progress. The 1st marking period grade is not listed on the transcript.
Fall Semester Marking Period 1 - September 8, 2022 - November 11, 2022
Marking Period 2: November 14, 2021 - January 30, 2023 (*final grades on transcripts)
Spring Semester Marking Period 1 - January 31, 2023 - April 5 2023
Marking Period 2: April 17, 2023 - June 27, 2023 (*final grades on transcripts)
Plagiarism
Plagiarizing (appropriating another’s work and using it as one’s own for credit without the required citation and attribution, e.g., copying written work from the Internet, or any other source) is considered engaging in scholastic dishonesty, and is a Level 3 infraction according to the NYC DOE citywide behavioral expectations. At AFSE, plagiarism is taken seriously. The levels of disciplinary action are as follows for violations for both formative and summative assessments:
- For the first offense, there should be a student/teacher conference. The student should be given the opportunity to complete a makeup assignment. Parents should be notified by the teacher.
- For the second offense, the student will receive a consequential score for the assessment (1 or M). There will be no opportunity for a makeup assignment. The parents will be invited in for a conference, with the teacher and the Director of School Culture.
- Any further offenses will be referred for disciplinary action, as outlined by the NYC DOE citywide behavioral expectations.