A refresher on the grading policy and late policy with some simple ways to catch up with assignments

JJ Benefiel, Staff Reporter
Originally published March 26, 2021

Looking back to the first semester of online school, a lot of confusion and mismanagement becomes clear. As students and teachers began working remotely from their homes, it was hard to clarify the policies that had been put in place to help make online school more efficient.

 Many students were unclear on where to find their work, how to best reach out to their teachers, and especially how they were being graded on their work. Teachers had conflicting opinions on how to deal with late work, which inevitably brought upon a wave of confusion for many.

 It may be worthwhile to refresh those policies as we roll into the second semester of remote learning.

 Grades between an “A” and “C-” are considered passing grades, while any “D” or “E” final grades will be entered as incomplete at the end of the quarter and semester.

 According to the school website, a policy was put in place at the beginning of the second quarter that said teachers must accept all late work with no penalty. All missing assignments a student may have are to be entered as 50% in the grade book.

 Most teachers had already implanted these policies into their classrooms, but others had their own late work policies. In the second quarter, all teachers were required to adopt this policy into their grading process.

This change has helped students work at their own pace so they can find ways to make online school less stressful.

Senior Mercedes Tucker said in an interview, “Since school is online, it is harder to remember to turn things in and hard to even find the motivation to do work. It is definitely necessary. It is harder to learn online so it seems fair.”

Teachers integrating these policies into their classroom hope it will help alleviate the growing stress caused by remote learning.

 Language Arts teacher Viola Spencer said in an email, “I think that it may be causing stress for students who get extremely far behind and feel pressure to turn in all their late work,” in response to whether or not the late work policy has caused any additional stress.

Spencer also said, “It can also be stressful for teachers who have numerous students turning in late assignments from months ago, and keeping track of all the late assignments can be time consuming.”

Staying on top of work helps reduce the stress level for both students and teachers.

To do this, students can always reach out to their teachers by sending them a message on Schoology, or sending them an email using Outlook if there is ever any confusion.

A helpful reminder is that students should always check Schoology. Teachers post their assignments there, and usually have a clear due date attached to the assignment.

 Schoology also has a helpful calendar feature where all assignments are laid out with their due dates, and periodically checking up on the Source to see if there are any missing assignments is always a good way to stay on top of work. 

 Periodically checking the Source to see if there are any missing assignments is always a good way to stay on top of work.