In the 2021-22 school year, Mountain Vista went to a grading policy that included only grading students on assessments. We believe that transitioning to an assessment based report card is necessary to address the needs of all of our students and will help us to develop the type of well rounded student necessary to continue to succeed when they leave our school.
Rational
MVMS teachers and administrators are committed to providing our students with an educational program based on assessment practices that are rooted in educational research and support student achievement. To support these efforts and establish a system where assessment informs and drives instruction, and is a true and accurate measure of a student’s academic achievement, we have made a commitment to improve assessment and grading practices.
We have developed a campus wide assessment grading policy that provides our students with frequent formative assessments for learning as well as reporting purposes. The primary objectives in revising our grading policy are to ensure the following:
- Scores are an accurate measure of academic achievement.
- Equitable and consistent assessment that supports mastery of content.
- Students have a clear picture of, and are actively involved in their progress toward learning and preparing for high school.
Guiding Principles
- The purpose of grading is to communicate the level of mastery of course content standards and clearly articulated learning targets.
- Classwork, behavior and preparedness will be reported in a student’s Commitment to Learning score and should not be part of the academic score.
- Well-planned instruction provides students with a clear understanding of teacher expectations through learning targets, rubrics, assessment criteria and when appropriate, student samples.
- Effective instruction includes frequent formative assessments with clear and understandable teacher feedback with opportunities to relearn and redo.
- Assessment of knowledge and skills should include multiple measures and a variety of evidence to accurately determine a student’s proficiency level.
Assessment Scores
Level 1 - Student demonstrates initial understanding of the learning target.
Level 2 - Student demonstrates partial understanding of the learning target.
Level 3 - Student demonstrates competent understanding of the learning target.
Level 4 - Student demonstrates in-depth understanding of the learning target.
Commitment To Learning Scores
0 Unsatisfactory
1 Rarely
2 Sometimes
3 Usually
4 Consistently