San Diego Unified School District is using a standards-based academic grading policy at the secondary schools level that focuses on Critical Concepts based on California Common Core State Standards. Our students will exhibit mastery of Critical Concepts by using proficiency scales.
We will continue to remove the non-academic components from student academic grades (attendance, effort, behaviors, extra credit, etc.) and provide students with multiple opportunities/pieces of evidence to show they have met standards without these non-academic categories. We will continue to work toward educating our students, and parents so they have an increasing understanding of what the Critical Concepts and Proficiency Scales are, how our assessments are consistent with the Critical Concepts, and our feedback aligned is with our Critical Concepts.
A visual representation of the feedback that will be provided to students on how Proficiency Scales are equivalent to letter grades is here:
Academic Marks
A = Level 4 Proficiency - Exceeding content-area standards
B = Level 3 Proficiency - Meeting content-area standards
C = Level 2 Proficiency - Approaching content-area standards
D = Level 1 Proficiency - Beginning progress towards content-area standards
F = Little to no progress towards meeting content-area standards
Level 3 (B) is the target proficiency level that all students must know and be able to do by the end of the year or course. The traditional grade scale using percentages does not align with Standards-Based Grading. Therefore, we ask parents to look at the letter grade a student is receiving in class to know how their child is progressing on standards. The percentage attached to a letter grade may not align to the traditional scales in PowerSchool.
Our citizenship marks have also changed. Here is the visual presentation of our new citizenship marks:
Citizenship Marks
Exceeds (E): Consistently exceeds expectations in work completion, preparation, and participation, and actively contributes to the learning experiences of their peers.
Meets (M): Consistently meets expectations: completes work on time, prepared to learn, participates regularly, shows respect for others, and contributes to the building of a positive community.
Inconsistent (I): Inconsistently meets expectations: occasionally completes work on time, not always prepared to learn, participates irregularly, and rarely works well with others.
Unsatisfactory (U): Does not meet expectations: work is habitually late, not prepared to learn, does not participate, and does not work well with others.
If you have a particular question regarding one of your child’s classes, please reach out to your child’s teacher. For more information on the District’s grading policy, please click here for Board-Approved AR 5121.