5420 - REPORTING STUDENT PROGRESS

The School Board of Polk County

Bylaws & Policies

Unless a specific policy has been amended and the date the policy was revised is noted at the bottom of that policy, the bylaws and policies of The School Board of Polk County were adopted on November 12, 2013 and were in effect beginning November 12, 2013.

5420 - REPORTING STUDENT PROGRESS

The School Board believes that the cooperation between school and home is an essential ingredient to the growth and education of the whole child. It recognizes its responsibility to keep parents informed of student progress in school.

The Board recognizes its responsibility for providing a system of grading student achievement that can assist the students, teachers, and parents appropriately to determine how well the student is achieving the goals of the District's education program.

The Board believes the District's grading system should be reliable and that each student's grades accurately signify his/her degree of accomplishment of those expected learning outcomes that are to be stated for each program at every grade level, kindergarten through 12th grade.

The Board directs the establishment of a system to notify parents of student progress which shall include early warning system notification, written reports, and/or parent conferences with teachers, and shall require all appropriate staff members to comply with such a system as part of their professional responsibility.

The Superintendent, in conjunction with the Student Progression Plan (SPP) committee, shall develop guidelines and procedures for grading. Each teacher is required to follow the established guidelines and procedures and each principal is responsible for monitoring the compliance of each teacher in their school. (Elementary Reporting Guide; Secondary Reporting Guide)

Additionally, the SPP committee will review procedures for reporting student progress that:

	A.	provide that both student and parent receive warning or notification of a pending grade of "failure" or one that would adversely affect the student's status excluding coursework provided outside the District;
	B.	enable the scheduling of parent-teacher conferences at such times and in such places as will ensure the greatest degree of participation by parents;
	C.	provide for a periodic review and improvement of methods of reporting student progress to parents.

The Board requires that the District's grading scale be consistent with State statute. Furthermore, the Board believes that each student's grades should accurately reflect his/her degree of accomplishment of those expected learning outcomes that are stated for each program at every grade level, kindergarten through 12.

Grade Forgiveness

To assist in meeting graduation requirements, students may take the following actions to improve their grades and their grade point average (GPA):

High school students may replace a grade of "D" or "F", or the equivalent of a grade of "D" or "F":

		1.	for required courses, with a grade of "C" or higher, or the equivalent of a grade of "C" or higher, earned subsequently in the same or comparable course; and
		2.	for elective courses, with a grade of "C" or higher, or the equivalent of a grade of "C" or higher, earned subsequently in another course.

Students in the middle grades (6-8) who take any high school course for high school credit may replace a grade of "C", "D", or "F", or the equivalent of a grade of "C", "D", or "F", with a grade of "C" or higher, or the equivalent of a grade of "C" or higher, earned subsequently in the same or comparable course.

Only the new grade shall be used in the calculation of the student's GPA. Any course grade not replaced according to this policy shall be included in the calculation of the cumulative GPA required for graduation.

F.S. 1003.33, 1003.437, 1003.4282(6)

Revised 10/6/15
Technical Change 9/9/16