The Minnetonka Public Schools' secondary grading and reporting policy is intended to improve consistency in academic grading among teachers and subjects areas at the secondary level and focus on student's academic achievement.

After three years of in-depth study and reflection, teacher leaders in the Minnetonka Public Schools have developed  and gained School Board approval for a grading and reporting policy that:

• Reflects academic achievement.
• Contains meaningful feedback.
• Is honest, fair, transparent, credible, useful and user friendly.
• Is criterion referenced.
• Aligns with the Minnetonka Public Schools curriculum.
• Reflects consistency within and among courses, grade levels, departments, and/or schools.

The new grading policy uses a uniform percentage grading scale and places greater weight on final products of learning in calculating the grade with less weight on the academic practice involved in learning.

What are the primary components used to calculate a grade?

For students in grades 6-12, there are two main types of assessments that form the quarter grade:  academic practice and academic achievement assessments.

Academic Practice Assessments, called formative assessments, are given while a student is learning the material. This is designed to provide direction for both students and teachers.

Feedback for students from this kind of assessment will show students what adjustments are still needed to master the material such as further review and/or additional practice.  Or it may confirm that the student is ready to move forward.

For teachers, it may provide feedback indicating a need to change instructional strategies or to provide additional practice. Or it may signal that you are ready to move forward.

Formative assessments include activities such as teacher observations, quizzes, homework, rough drafts, peer editing, and notebook checks.

These formative assessments may account for a maximum of 20% of the grade in middle school and 15% at the high school. We don’t want to have the assessments given while students are in the practice phase of learning to have too heavy an impact on the grade. 

Academic Achievement Assessments, called summative assessments, are given after completing a sequence of instruction and practice and students are ready to be responsible for the material. This provides information used to make judgments about a student’s achievement/grade.  Sample achievement assessments include: final drafts, tests, exams, assignments, projects, and performances. 

This part of the grade may account for a minimum of 80% at the middle schools and 85% at the high school.  The majority of the grade is derived from these assessments because students are demonstrating what they know and can do.

In the all middle schools teachers will use the 80/20% breakdown. 

At the high school teachers will use the 85/15 % breakdown.  However, due to the wide variety of levels and courses, each course can set the breakdown provided that the academic practice grade counts no more than 15% and the achievement grade counts no less than 85%.

Read Frequently Asked Questions about the new grading policy.