In LPS, our goal is to effectively and consistently communicate academic progress with students and parents/guardians. In order to meet this goal, LPS developed these guidelines for calculating, entering, and communicating grades. These guidelines are meant to help students and parents/guardians interpret student grades in useful ways.
Lincoln Public Schools will post and notify you about your child’s report card in ParentVue after the conclusion of each quarter. The school will continue to print a report card for families without ParentVUE or for those who request it from the school office.
Teachers, school administrators, and district curriculum specialists work together to determine how to grade and communicate students’ learning. This document describes grading practices that are common (standardized) across instruction in Lincoln Public Schools. Curriculum specialists and others may provide more specific advice for teachers in other documents (i.e., curriculum specialists provide grading templates for teachers in each curriculum area via Synergy gradebook). Ultimately, teachers design classroom assessment systems to do two things:
- Emphasize the importance of practice and using feedback (formative assessment processes), and
- Provide grades that clearly communicate student achievement on LPS content/skill standards (summative assessment processes). Teachers work to ensure that grades clearly communicate academic achievement and minimize the impact of other factors, such as student behavior/compliance.
The goal of this document is to describe grading practices that are consistent across all classrooms. More detailed information about grading practices can be found on Synergy Class Websites in ParentVue.
Summative and Formative Assessments
Summative assessments and assignments (calculated as 80% of the overall grade)
Summative assessments are used to evaluate student learning (assessments OF learning), skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period.
Typical examples of summative assessment processes are unit tests/exams, projects, papers, and other examples of student work showing the current level of knowledge/skills.
Formative assessments and assignments (calculated as 20% of the overall grade)
Formative assessments provide ongoing and timely feedback that instructors can use to modify their teaching and students can use to improve their learning (assessments FOR learning). Typically, teachers use student responses on these practice opportunities to determine what needs to be clarified or re-taught and/or students use feedback from the practice opportunity to try again (student practice).
Typical examples of formative assessment processes are entry/exit tickets, discussions, individual practice, drafts of papers, additional practice items done at home or in class, short quizzes, and other processes that help students show their learning in anticipation of summative assessment events.
Grading Scale
Synergy Gradebook uses the following scale to assign letter grades based on calculated averages:
- 90% = A
- 85% = B+
- 80% = B
- 75% = C+
- 70% = C
- 65% = D+
- 60% = D
- Below 60% = F
Synergy Gradebook Codes
| Synergy Code | Code Description | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| EX | Exclude | Excused. Used to indicate an assignment is excused and does not need to be completed. It has no effect on the grade. |
| M | Missing | Used to indicate an assignment is missing. It calculates as a ZERO until the assignment is turned in and graded. |
| INC | Incomplete | Used to indicate an assignment is not complete enough to score. It does not affect the grade unless the teacher enters the INC with a score. The code should be removed once the assignment is revised, and then a new grade should be entered. |
| Grade L | Late Assignment | Used to communicate timeliness/ work habits. The grade is included in the overall average. |
| R | Retaught | Used to indicate that an assignment was regraded after re-teaching or re-assessing. |
| Blank | Not Yet Assigned | Used to indicate that an assignment/assessment still needs to be graded. |
| AB | Absent | Used to indicate that a student was absent while this work was completed. It calculates as a zero, but it can still be turned in for credit. It is included in missing marks/ reports. |
| 0 (zero) | No Credit | Used to indicate that the student received a grade of zero/no credit. Teachers use this code carefully (and infrequently) because a grade of zero can significantly lower an overall average and misrepresent student achievement. Instead of a zero, teachers more often use the “M” code for work that hasn’t been turned in or “ INC” for work that isn’t ready to be scored yet. Teachers may have to change a grade to a zero if student work is so late that it is no longer practical or useful for students to submit it for credit. Note: Some teachers may choose to use an alternate number for “zero” (such as 50%) because it lessens the statistical impact on the overall average. |