This policy is taken directly from the district handbook (July 2020 edition, updated December 2021) and is in compliance with PDE policy at the time of posting.
GRADING POLICY
Policy in Content Classroom
English Learners must utilize the same grading system in content courses as other students (e.g. pass/fail is inappropriate for ELs if other students receive a letter grade).
For ELD courses or instructional periods taught by a licensed ESL teacher in an all-EL setting, any grading system that meaningfully conveys information about progress and/or achievement may be used. In addition to the information that is provided to all students, LEAs must communicate information related to English language proficiency and/or progress to parents at least annually.
● All EL students should receive grades for each marking period they have been in attendance.
● An EL cannot fail based on language; these students need accommodations and modifications to achieve at their personal best. All teachers are required to differentiate instruction and assessment (including grades) to align with the WIDA Can-Do Descriptors that coincide with the ELD level of their EL students. For downloadable copies of the WIDA Can-Do Descriptors visit: https://wida.wisc.edu/teach/can-do/descriptors
● The classroom teacher gives the grade but should collaborate with the ESL teacher.
● The classroom teacher adapts, accommodates and/or modifies the content material in order to give the student comprehensible input.
● The ESL Specialist and the content teacher confer about how best to adapt the material for the EL.
● The classroom teacher adapts the assessment in order to make it authentic and make it relate to the comprehensible input. The assessments and accommodation may include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Oral assessments (interview)
2. Portfolio
3. Observation
4. Anecdotal notes
5. Projects
6. Multiple grading (achievement, progress, effort)
7. Eliminate some distractors from multiple-choice assessments
8. Give the student more time
9. Read the assessment to the student
10. Provide a scribe for the student
11. Allow the use of dictionaries
12. Allow the use of class notes
13. Allow the use of texts
14. Take-home tests
15. Conferences
● After teachers have adapted the material, adapted the assessments, and conferenced with the ESL teacher, the EL, guidance counselor, and parents/guardians, the teachers may then fail an EL for the following reasons:
1. Inadequate effort put forth to achieve
2. Willful resistance toward learning after all attempts have been made to accommodate the learner