Online Grading Policy and PACE Graduation Requirements

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Good afternoon Bearcat Family,

I sincerely hope all of our families are staying safe and healthy during this time of uncertainty in our world. For those who are working in essential businesses, as health care workers or for our police and fire departments, we thank you for working hard to provide for us and keep us safe as we all help to flatten the curve of COVID-19.

Transitioning to online learning has created a learning stretch for all involved, for our teachers, students and parents. As I have been in consistent contact with all of our staff and faculty to check in on how they are doing, I know with absolute certainty, they are working extremely hard to provide a high quality education to all of our students. They are working diligently at putting together lessons and creating assignments, videos and activities for your students to utilize to keep them engaged in their learning. It is not an easy task transitioning an entire curriculum from school based instruction to online learning, and I want to thank all of our teachers for the time and effort that is being put forth each and every week to create learning opportunities for our students.

GRADING 

Bonita Unified has developed an alternative grading policy designed to provide and incentivize students to complete assigned work during the school closure. For high school students, grades will reflect work that was completed prior to March 13​. Student baseline grades will be posted ​      no later than April 12​ for all work completed prior to March 13​. Grades can only improve and cannot go lower than the ​posted grade​   as of April 12th. 

All students can improve their grades by one letter grade if they:

  1. Submit at least 80% of their assigned work to their teachers starting April 13th.
  • For example: 16/20 (80%) assignments accepted for credit = Increase of 1 grade level from the baseline grade as of April 12th (for example, C- on 4/12 – 80% of assignments completed final grade B-)
  • For example: 15/20 (75%) assignments accepted for credit = grade as of April 12th (for example, C- on 4/12 – 75% of assignments completed — final grade C-)
  1. Assignments meeting all requirements will receive 1 point. This “1” point identifies that the assignment was turned in and met the requirements of the assignment, giving the student credit for the assignment.
  2. Assignments turned in must demonstrate mastery and meet teacher expectations of the assigned task. If an assignment is turned in that does not​ meet the expectations, it will receive a N/A which will neither help or hurt their grade.
  3. All assignments will be assigned on the Monday of each week. Assignments are due by midnight on Sunday of the same week, which gives the students 1 week to complete the weekly assignments. No late work will be accepted.
  4. All students are strongly encouraged to complete the work to retain important skills needed for next year.
  5. Please recognize that the grade appearing in the gradebook will not​ change as assignments are​completed – final grade will only appear after June 4th. Students turning in assignments will only see the credit given and will not see their grades increase each week.

 

P.A.C.E. Requirements

The P.A.C.E. project is a graduation requirement and must be completed in order to receive a Bonita High School diploma. Due to the closure due to COVID-19, some adjustments to the project needed to be made. The following will provide the necessary information to complete the P.A.C.E project along with the timelines in which it needs to be completed.

A Complete P.A.C.E. e-Folio by May 6th- This means there are 3 (maybe 4, if you didn’t submit a Master​            draft or Not Yet re-write yet) assignments left for the e-Folio to be completed. These would include the Paper self-evaluation, the 5 year Post-High School Plan as well as the Resume. At this time, we will not require the Signature Page. This deadline has been known since August and since P.A.C.E. is a graduation requirement, we need you to complete this in order to graduate. The checklist is here​

What about the speech?

Board Speeches will obviously not be taking place in their typical format this year. Because of this, the Senior English teachers have decided to have you prepare for your board speech by creating your visual. The standards and guidelines are Here​.The speech/visual will be the final portion of the project.

Here is the remainder of the calendar for the year for P.A.C.E.

May 6th, 2020 (Due by midnight)

❑ Final eFolio and presentation slideshow due

  • Master Draft due
  • Research Paper Self-Evaluation due 
  • Five Year Post High School Plan due
  • Resume due

The following video from Mr. Archibald will provide some additional information regarding what is required to finish the P.A.C.E project. The video can be viewed here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2glIIotW​k

If  additional clarification is needed regarding the P.A.C.E. project, please contact your senior English teacher.

We will continue to provide updates to all of our families as new information becomes available. Our goal is to provide all of our students with learning opportunities that will benefit them as they finish the 2019-20 school year and prepare for the 2020-2021 school year.  Please continue to take the necessary precautions to flattening the COVID-19 curve. We miss all of our students and are looking forward to when we can see them again.