Social Studies Department Grading Guidelines

The Social Studies Department and D.C. Everest in general believe that grades should reflect what students know and can do.  The academic grade should not reflect things like behavior, attendance, participation, etc.(These things should be reported separately.)
The Social Studies Department Strongly Recommends the following guidelines for grading.  Each PLC or grade level group should adopt a common grading policy based upon the following:

1.  Teachers using a 100% grading scale should strongly consider not giving Zero's for missing work!  Zero's are mathematically unfair to the student and do not reflect what students know or can do.  They make it impossible for students to have any hope of recovery.

2. Homework and other formative assessments, notebook checks, etc. should be devalued and it is strongly recommended to keep Homework valued at 10-15%.

3.  The department recommends limiting extra credit so that it does not distort the purpose of the grade.  Please make the assignments meaningful.

4. It is recommended that each PLC develop a REDO policy.

Here are two video clips on grading practices by Wormeli and Reeves.