Anyone not using letter grades on high school transcripts?

Anyone else putting together high school transcripts without the use of assigning letter grades for courses completed?

We have always used the mastery approach in our home school. We don't move on until there is understanding and we correct all of our work together, even if it is just verbally going over missed questions on assignments. I don't feel that I should assign a grade when it is their first attempt at practicing the new concept. I have asked before how to assign grades when using mastery and you all gave me some good ideas, but it ended up just seeming tedious to try to come up with a letter grade.

For example, for history Ds15 reads and watches documentaries. His knowledge retention is phenomenal. We don't test in history, but I will be giving him some assignments like interviewing several people who are experts or veterans of modern American wars. I would totally be fudging if I assigned a grade for the semester because we would only have one assignment.

I'm very anxious to see if anyone else out there has come up with transcripts based on satisfactorily completing the courses rather than assigning a letter grade.

 

I'm interested in others' opinions, too. We school the same way. The maths have some testing built in, but the others don't.

 

My sons charter school needed his transcripts when we signed up and they needed the letter grade or percentage. Also my dds colleges needed them for her application. I really don't know how you could get around it for highschool.

 

I am going to assign grades, but some classes will be loosely based on simple observation and some will be a strict compilation of what grades he has earned on written work and some will be a combination of both.

For his ballistics credits (his own free time, but genuine learning) he will get an "A" with no hesitation from me.

For math, I go by his grades. I do let him correct pages if his grade is really low sometimes. He doesn't like to do that, so other times the grade stands. Maybe that makes it easier to earn a good grade, but look at what schools do. I remember in school you could earn an extra 10 points on a test if you brought a parent to open house. I also look at it like this: a lot of the stuff I do, I would do in the classroom like giving partial credit when the answer is partly right (not math, but other things). I also take off points if it is done late (when I remember).

 

I'm afraid to ask the community college he will be attending in case they won't respect the transcripts I submit with grades on them. :roll: I should add that the majority of my kids' work is able to be graded, it will just come across like they are geniuses when that isn't necessarily true for every subject, kwim?

I've heard of others assigning grades based on effort. (i.e. C for completing the course, B if certain extra effort was made, A if all available extra work was completed) It is especially difficult because of the way I can be ultra critical when evaluating effort vs. ability. Wish there was an unbias (for or against) way of evaluating a student's coursework in this situation. It all seems so subjective.

 

You could do just pass/fail. I know that for us we did assign number grades for dd.

 

I'm like Lee...I needed graded transcripts for Rachael's Cyber School. And yes, she DID come out like a genius. But I wouldn't worry about it! Give him the grade anyway. And when he takes his SATs/ACTs, that will prove he really did deserve those grades!

 

I had considered pass/fail and would lean that way for classes that are difficult to grade. This might be one of those things I have to concede on just to not cause a problem for my kids later. I just don't want to give a false impression.

Jackie, part of my concern is that in taking college entrance exams, my Ds with Tourette's is already at a disadvantage on tests, so it will create an even greater disparity between his grades and his scores.

 

Do they give special accomodations for testing with Tourette's?

 

I'm sure they do since it falls under section 504 of the ADA. Lots to consider, though, since he is going to be getting his criminal justice degree to become a police officer. If he can pass the community college's exam without accommodations I'd prefer it so that when a department digs into his history they won't find any indication of Tourette's being a hindrance to his performance. Maybe I'm concerned about nothing. Wish I could know these things in advance.

 

I would assign grades as you see fit. I would assign number or letter not pass/fail because I don't know of many high schools that assign pass/fail. Another thing to remember (not that it makes it good) is that many young people do really well in high school if you look at their transcripts, but they can't do most of what they supposedly know.

I know of a high schooler I worked with this past summer and she told me she was in her 2nd or 3rd year of Spanish and was passing but barely knew a thing. This is very common.

 

Brooke,
I was wondering what you decided to do about grades on your sons transcript?

 

FOR REAL! It's one reason that I chose to report (to parents) every quiz grade, test grade, report/project grade, etc., and to record grades by the unit of work completed not "average over a given time period" like most schools do. However, when my kids go (or go back) to public/private school, I put their grades in a letter rather than send a copy of the report card, and only show an average grade for the semester or year, with only a percentage score for a grade. That way, they can't argue with the letter grade since my scale wouldn't agree with theirs anyway. Mine is: A = 100 - 94; B = 93 - 87; C = 86 - 80; below 80 = Unacceptable.

 

Subbing to see what you decided and/or what you've been thinking on this...

I'm pretty much in the same boat as your intial post, Brooke. We work together until I feel like there is mastery, plus we do corrections. Not sure how to get a number grade out of that...

 

I've resigned myself to assigning a letter grade, even if it means using only a few tests or a term paper or project to determine it. I have read books that use the child's attitude or willingness to determine part of their grades, but I don't want to go that route. I can't blame them if they dislike a subject. I know few people who just love it all, kwim?

 

Disliking a subject is one thing, being uncooperative is totally different. Learning to do things willingly that they don't like is a valuable lesson.

 

I agree about the hesititation to use attitude/willingness as an indicator... that doesn't sit well with me.

I guess I already generally use the test grade route. We submit our tests to CLASS and I plan to submit a 100 for each subject that I have to submit daily grades for. I figure that washes out to the letter grade reflecting the test grade. I'll probably follow a similar model next year when we leave CLASS. I feel the 100 for daily work is fair after he has done the work, we review, he corrects, we discuss, etc... Not to mention the opportunites we take to discuss items not necessarily in the current lesson. You know, those unescapeable rabbit trails!

 

I record grades for all of our core subjects (English, Math, Social Studies, Science & Foreign Language). My grading scale is A= 93-100%, B = 85 - 92%, C = 75 -84%,
D = 67 - 74%, F = 66% or lower. Every assignment and test has equal weight and is averaged as such.

Electives such as PE, health, religious ed, life skills, keyboarding, digital photography, dance & art, and drivers ed are awarded by the effort put forth.

Thats just how I decided to handle high school when my oldest started 9th grade.

 

I know what you mean. I haven't given a grade to my daughter yet for Spanish and was wondering if I should even give her even one credit for what she's done.

Then, I met a girl who has had all A's in 2 years of high school Spanish. She went to Honduras on a mission trip and said couldn't understand anything or communicate at all, other than the very basics of "hola", "gracias", ect.

My daughter "held her own" quite well when we were in Mexico. I was actually very impressed with how well she communicated with street vendors, waiters, shopkeepers, and people in general. She rarely missed a beat when talking to them.

Not that we should use public/private schools as a standard, but based on that comparison, she should have an A for Spanish 1 and 2 - and could likely be "finished" with her foreign language requirement. The COLLEGES are going to compare her to the girl who went to Honduras, so wouldn't that be logical?

We've done bits and pieces of Rosetta Stone, Tell Me More, The Learnables, plus many other random websites and workbooks. She's never had a written test or finished a curriculum. For me, the real world was the test and she passed. I think when it comes time to give her a grade ~ Spanish 1= A and Spanish 2= A.

AND she'll continue to study Spanish...'cause that's the way we roll.

 

....and she should get some mention of "studying abroad" on her transcripts.

The difference with the school side of a foreign language is the focus on the written vs. the spoken. I aced Spanish as well, but I can't keep up with an actual conversation with people to save my soul. :roll: