School District Announces Final Grading Policing During Closure

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School District Announces Final Grading Policing During Closure

What initially started as a two-week shutdown to try and avoid the COVID19 epidemic ultimately resulted in students at Scotland County R-I School District missing the final two months of classes.

Despite being out of class since, March 16th, students will still be receiving grades for the full school year.

The SCR-I district recently announced its updated grading procedure for the second semester that was greatly impacted by the closures.

For student’s grades 7-12 Dual Credit and Advanced Placement classes continued with their regular semester grading procedure as the students have maintained a consistent 3rd and 4th quarter curriculum through the college curriculum.

“The College Board is committed to providing Advanced Placement students with the opportunity to take the AP Exams in order to earn college credit, even during these unprecedented circumstances,” said SCR-I instructor Kim McCluskey.

She indicated that in a typical year, most AP Exams are about three hours long and consist of a multiple choice and free response portion.

However in 2020 due to the COVID-19 situation, the 2020 AP Exams will be open book, open note free response only exams that students can take at home on any device.

“However, the College Board will have measures in place to prevent and detect any attempts at collaboration in order to maintain the integrity of the exam and exam scores,” she noted.

McCluskey said that since schools across the country began their closures at various times, the exams will only cover material that most schools would have completed by early March.

“Students across the country will sit down at the exact same time to take the exams during the weeks of May 11th and May 18th,” said McCluskey. “The College Board has worked with colleges and universities across the country to ensure that most will still be accepting credit for the unique AP Exams this year.

At this time, approximately 80% of the 35 Advanced Placement students at SCR-1 still plan to take at least one of their scheduled AP Exams.  The AP teachers are utilizing a variety of virtual learning methods to continue to prepare students for the upcoming AP Exams.

At SCR-1, over 40 students take online MACC courses and/or dual credit math courses with Mrs. McCluskey.  The online courses are continuing with some modifications as outlined by MACC.  Mrs. McCluskey has transitioned the dual credit math courses to a virtual learning format consisting of regularly scheduled Zoom sessions, videos over new topics, and virtual office hours.

High school principal Kirk Stott stated that for all non Advanced Placement or Dual Credit the student’s 3rd quarter grade will serve as the final second semester grade.

Students who failed a class that was not Advanced Placement or Dual Credit will have the option to do extra work assigned by the cooperative teacher to bring their 3rd quarter F to a passing grade.

For students who participate in fourth quarter assignments and zoom classes they will have the ability to bring their 3rd quarter grade (which is also their second semester grade), up 10%.

Teachers continued to provide weekly online Zoom sessions during the school closure and Stott indicated the district was very pleased with the student participation levels.