We have finished another week of distance learning! Hoping you had a good week with your children and family.

Today in my facebook live I announced new grading guidelines for the remainder of this school year. See more specifics below:

Several of you have been asking about grading for the third term and how TRA plans to handle this for our students. We have been wrestling with this question for several weeks as an administrative/teaching team and have come up with a plan that we believe fits with the “spirit” of TRA, gives honor to the awesome work being done by our students (and parents if we are honest), but also corresponds with the guidance given by the State Superintendent to other schools around our state.

You may be aware that the State Superintendent has issued guidance regarding how schools are to grade during these unprecedented times. The guidelines issued offer each district flexibility with regard to how they will apply these guidelines and while these guidelines do not apply to us as a private school, we felt it prudent to have our grading procedures at least fit within the framework given to public schools so as to not put our students at a disadvantage. The two most notable guidelines that informed our decision making were:

No student will “fail” during this timeframe.
No student should see their GPA drop during this timeframe especially if they are in high school.

What follows is TRA’s plan to honor all the hard work being done by our teachers, students and parents, but also to fit within the basic guidance given to other schools in our area.

Elementary Grading for Third Quarter:

Kinder Prep

Weekly work will continue to be provided.

Mrs. Hurst will be providing a summary statement for each student as she always does at the end of the school year.

Grades K-3

Teachers will continue grading completed student work and provide feedback on assignments, but grades are not required to be entered into RenWeb.
All students will receive either an E (Excellent) or an S (Satisfactory) in their core subjects on their report card. The E/S notation will be based upon students completion and comprehension of all required work.
Optional assignments will be clearly marked on the weekly HAS and, if turned in, will be reviewed by the teacher, but not used at the end of term grade assessment.
Art, Music, and P.E. will not receive a grade for the third quarter.

Grades 4-6

All assignments not designated as optional will be graded and entered into RenWeb.
Optional assignments will receive teacher feedback, but grades for optional assignments will not be entered into RenWeb.
All students will receive A, B, or C in their core subjects on their report card.
No students will receive an F or I for term 3.
Latin, Art, Music, and P.E. will not receive a grade for the third quarter. Year end grades for these subjects will be an average of term 1 and term 2.
Teachers will clearly mark any assignment that is considered optional.

Secondary Grading for Third Quarter

All students will receive a grade of A-C similar to what we normally do at TRA.
No F’s will be given to any secondary student.
For students who do not complete an adequate amount of work for any given class, they will receive an 'I' (for incomplete) and will be given until September 1 to complete the remainder of their school work. At that time they will be assigned a letter grade of A-C.
If they do not complete the required work prior to September 1, their 'I' will turn into an F.
If a student who previously had a grade of A or B, but due to the difficulties of distance learning finds their grade average from term 3 drops by more than 5% in comparison to their term 1 and term 2 averages, we will communicate with parents and teachers to determine a plan of action. Our intent is that no student's GPA should suffer as a result of the difficulties associated with distance learning. With this said, if the grade drop is determined to be caused by lack of effort on the student's part, they may receive a lower grade.

It is so nice to see many of you on Fridays at drop off/pick up. Have a wonderful weekend. Get out and enjoy some sunshine! We are praying for you all.

Eric