Grading & Assessment

At Key Middle School, we believe that grades should reflect a student’s mastery of the learning standards for each course. We affirm that learning is a process that takes hard work, initiative, dedication, and time. We appreciate that all students master new content and skills at their own pace, and that some students need more time and support than others. We value the perspectives of our stakeholders, including students, parents, counselors, and other staff, who need to interpret our gradebooks to celebrate successes, provide essential support, and take action on areas of need.

Grading practices follow the FCPS Grading Scale. We encourage families to connect with teachers about specific questions regarding their gradebooks.

Parents are able to view their students’ grades at any time during the year through the Student Information System (SIS) with their own unique login and password. We encourage parents and students to look over and discuss grade reports together and work collaboratively with the teacher to address any questions they have. Parents’ logins for SIS will also allow them to access the teachers’ sites in Schoology.

Mastery Learning Policy

Learning for mastery is embraced at Key MS. Therefore, students will be given multiple opportunities to display mastery of skills and content. Some examples of mastery learning include revision of assessments, test retakes, and test corrections. Students will need to complete revisions or retakes by the end of the quarter or within a timely fashion at the discretion of the teacher. Mastery Learning policies are consistent with each team.

• Each content team will outline their Mastery Learning Policy in the course syllabus with the following details:
  • How mastery learning is allowed within the course (e.g., test corrections, test retakes, essay revisions, etc.).
  • What type(s) of assessments the policy applies to.
  • How many attempts will be permitted (it is recommended for most courses that only one attempt is allowed to retake a test, for example, but there are a handful of courses that may need/want to allow more).
  • What students will be required to do prior to doing test corrections, retaking test, etc. (e.g., remediation, complete all related assignments, etc.).