SALTA 4th grade

Deadlines & Late Work

Grades should be a summary communication about a student’s achievement, not about a behavior. Reducing marks/scores for work submitted late distorts both achievement and motivation. Instead of penalizing, teachers provide support to the student to help them learn the material such as extended time and additional teaching. • Deadlines provide a targeted timeline for students to show mastery of skills and standards aligned to designed units of learning. • Deadlines are a support for learning, time management, and organization for students.

Purpose

Description

Expected Best Practices

Outdated Practices

• No academic penalty for late work. • Set and communicate expected deadlines with parents and students. • Have supports in place when students do not meet the deadlines (time in class, after school structure, small group instruction during class) • Natural consequences for late work (e.g. reduction in citizenship grades, College Career Ready Skills) • Natural consequences for work turned in on time. • Timely feedback on submitted assignments. • Deadlines are timely so the work being completed pertains to the standards students are currently learning in class. • Schoolwide policy aligned with expected best practices.

• Student grades are “docked” a certain percentage when work is turned in late. • No supports in place when students need additional time or teacher help. • Deadlines are ambiguous. • Deadlines are not communicated to students and parents. • Students do not receive specific feedback on work, or feedback is given late and students can not use it to improve. • No positive reinforcement for meeting deadlines. • Inconsistent procedures and deadlines across school.

Implementation Standards

Retakes

The purpose of retakes is to provide additional opportunities for students to demonstrate mastery. Retakes can be applied to any type of student work that is included in the student’s academic grade, including, but not limited to, practice and assessment. • Students may need multiple opportunities over time to solidify instruction, receive feedback upon performance, act upon feedback, improve learning, and demonstrate new understanding. • Reassessment recognizes that students have surpassed their previous levels of proficiency and gives students the opportunity to demonstrate those higher levels.1

Purpose

Description

Expected Best Practices

Outdated Practices

• Retakes of practice work and assessments are aligned to standards. • Feedback on prior assessment or practice work identifies skills in standards that student has not mastered. • Retake process includes additional support, opportunities to improve learning and/or re- teaching when needed. • Students must go through the retake process prior to re-assessment.

• Retakes are not aligned to the standards. • Students are not able to identify the specific skills within standards they are expected to learn. • There is no meaningful process in place to provide supports and opportunities for the student to learn the skills within the standards. • Students are not required to show efforts of learning prior to retake.

Implementation Standards