Grading Procedure Clarification

October 10, 2005

MCPS recently added the following clarification to their grading procedures regarding due date and deadline for grades 6-12.

Additional Information

Due Date - The date an assignment is due in order to receive full credit.

Deadline - The date beyond which work will not receive any credit.



Teachers are expected to separate the due date from the deadline in order to increase opportunities for students to complete assignments; however, there may be some exceptions when the due date and deadline are the same. It is recognized that for daily homework assignments the due date and deadline may be the same to facilitate the teaching and learning process.


A little background:

The 2005-06 MCPS grading procedures for all middle and high schools required that:

"Teachers will establish due dates and deadlines.
a. Work turned in after the due date and prior to the deadline may be dropped no more than one letter grade or 10% of the grade.
b. Work not attempted and submitted by the deadline will be recorded as a zero."

Many students (and parents) have been reporting that  numerous teachers were making the due date and the deadline the same day.  As a result, if students were late with an assignment, they automatically received a grade of "0".  This punitive effect was contrary to the intent of the procedures. MCPS had originally developed the due date and deadline procedures to limit the academic penalty for late work to a 10% loss of grade in order to avoid prior punitive practices where students could be dropped 20%, 30%, 40%, or 50% of a grade with each additional day that an assignment was late. A grade of "0"  for work not attempted was intended to address instances where a student did no work.

As a result of many questions raised on this aspect of the grading procedure,  MCPS has now issued the clarification (which appears in bold at the top of  this message) to all middle and high schools. The clarification is intended to communicate the expectation that due dates and deadlines will be different whenever possible.  It does recognize that in some cases such as, for example, daily  math homework assignments which are corrected in class on the next day, the due date and the deadline may have to be the same.

Please share this information with the parent at your school who serves as the grading and reporting "point of referral".  The clarification was sent out to middle and high school principals last Friday, October 7, 2005.

If you have any questions or want additional information, please contact Shirley Brandman, Chair, MCCPTA Grading and Reporting Committee, sdbhms@verizon.net or 301-320-6033.