DSISD Elementary Grading Policy
Homework assignments are opportunities to practice and reinforce skills learned in class. Students will be assigned an average of 10 minutes per night per grade level (ex: 5th = 60 minutes). Homework from all content areas should fit within this time frame. Long-term projects will be introduced to parents in writing at the outset of the assignment.
Grades are taken on mastery of the TEKS, therefore there is not a grade penalty assigned to students for turning in late work. Daily work does, however, help assess progress toward mastery. Without daily work it is not possible to know a student's instructional needs. Teachers will communicate with parents in regards to missing and late assignments.
Students who consistently do not turn in assigned work may be required to attend Academic Recovery Time outside the school hours. Parameters for Academic Recovery Time will be set by each campus administration. Parents may be required to monitor their child before or after school, while the student completes missing assignments on campus.
Parents and students will be informed of student progress through graded work, three and six week interim grade reports, and nine week grade reports. Student progress may also be monitored throughout the year through the Family Access online system. (I highly recommend this.)
The 9 week grades for each subject shall be calculated based on a combination of summative and formative assessments. Grades will be a combination of formative and summative assessments with emphasis give to summative assessments.
Categories will be weighted as follows:
Summative Assessments - 60%
Formative Assessments - 40%
Teachers may assign weights to assignments within each category in order to communicate a level of importance for each assignment to students and parents.
Teachers will take a minimum of one grade per week for each subject. A minimum of three summative grades will be taken over the course of each 9 week grading period.
If teachers choose to take a grade on homework or classwork completed at home, it will only be recorded in the formative category. All summative grades are taken from assignments/assessments done at school.