Determining Grade Plain Language
What HDSB Students Need to Know About…
Determining Report Card Grades
Our Goal
Report card grade determination will be fair, clear, accurate, reliable, and transparent based on the Growing Success policy.
How Is Your Grade Determined?
Your teachers...
use both mathematical calculations and their professional judgement to determine your percentage mark. Determining exactly how well you’ve demonstrated the learning expectations for a course is complex.
communicate clearly how your grades are determined. You can refer to your course outline to understand how your marks are organized into categories as part of the calculation of your grades.
collect and track evidence of your learning through observations of your work; conversations with you; and by evaluating the work you produce. That’s why your attendance and completing your work are so important. Everything can count as evidence that helps your teacher to understand what you know and can do.
help you understand what you’ve mastered and what you still need to work on. We return all evaluations to you, including questions and answers, in a timely manner. We’d like you to pay attention to both. The feedback we provide is designed to help you to improve your work. We want you to use these evaluations and this feedback for further study and improvement.
don’t use peer and self evaluations when determining your final mark. They’re a great way to reflect on your learning, but your teacher determines your grades.
use a variety of evaluations to gather evidence of what you know and can do (e.g., tests, exams, performance tasks, demonstrations, projects, essays, interviews, etc.)
whenever possible, we use work that you’ve done under supervision when determining your grade.
use your daily homework to support your learning but not to determine your grade.
evaluate the work you do in a group individually.
evaluate your learning skills and work habits separately from the work you do to demonstrate your achievement, except in the few courses that combine curriculum expectations with learning skills and work habits.
may use mark deductions as a consequence for late or missing work, but will ensure that the deductions do not result in a final grade which misrepresents your achievement.