Grading Policy

&

The 21st Century Skill Assessment Rubric

At Swenson Arts and Technology High School we offer our students a rich college preparatory academic curriculum aligned with state of the art career and technical programming.  In order to provide equitable standards for all students we are pleased to introduce you to our school wide grading policy as well as our scoring rubrics for 21st Century Skills.

                Standardized Grading Policy
Each teacher at Swenson uses a computer based grading program entitled "Easy Grade Pro".  This program allows teachers the ability to assign different weights to different categories. Attached is the standardized grading policy that we will be using. 

To briefly explain it; each teacher will have five to seven categories of assignments/scoring items that the teacher will use. All teachers must use the "Test" category and the "21st Century Skills" category. The remaining categories are at the discretion of the teacher based upon the content and standards of the specific class.  Each category has an assigned weight that the category has towards the total grade for the subject.  Teachers have some ability to adjust the percentage 5% up or down to fit their course.

This will provide a cross-school structure and at the same time provides our highly qualified teachers some professional latitude.  It should be noted that the categories and weights can be adjusted each report period to provide for different projects and other special activities that are built into the curriculum. 

                21st Century Skills
Business, government and industry partners, as well as current research tell us that there are the key skills which enable people to be successful in the world today and into the future.  Based on these identified skills, our faculty has developed a rubric to measure each of our student's attainment of the skills.

Every two weeks each student will be assessed using this rubric in each of their classes. The scores will be discussed with students, as well as suggesting ways in which the student can score higher in the rubric.  The grade calculated will then be included into the student's grade for the course.  As you review the rubric please note that this document will recognize individual student work and accomplishment of these important skills. In addition  it also clearly informs the student how he/she may improve their score in each area.  By using this rubric across the school it is our goal to create a purposeful manner in which students practice and attain these important skills that they will use throughout their lives.

Teachers will be addressing both of these issues as well as other important topics during our "Back to School Night" activities which will be held on Thursday, September 24, 2009.

We look forward to an exciting and rewarding year at Swenson Arts and Technology High School!