CHARLESTOWN ELEMENTARY
Charlestown, MD 21914
GRADING CRITERIA – Grades 1 - 5
Dear Parents,
The following grading criteria has been developed to help your child and you understand the
procedure that will be used in our classes for evaluating student achievement.
The work graded may be a measurement of the pupil’s mastery of skills taught, content
presented, teacher checklist, text comprehension, brief written responses, standards in writing
and participation in required classroom activities and assignments. The summative grades
assigned to student papers are a measurement of the pupil’s mastery of tests, quizzes, projects,
extended written responses, and completed written assignments which have gone through the
complete writing process.
When a child is absent, missed assignments are required to be returned no later than one week
from the date the child returns to school. The teacher will only provide one copy of the missed
work.
Explanation of grades
The following letter grades will be used in grades 1-5 for all other content areas:
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A - Excellent mastery of knowledge and skills; the quality of work is superior.
B - Good mastery of knowledge and skills; the quality of work is above average.
C - Satisfactory mastery of knowledge and skills; the quality of work is average.
D - Unsatisfactory mastery of knowledge and skills; the quality of work is the minimal
level of acceptable performance.
E - Failure in mastery of knowledge and skills; the student does little or none of the
work required, and the quality is unacceptable.
I - Incomplete work due to excessive lawful absences from school.
The following scale will be used to determine marking period and final grades:
Letter
Grade
A
B
C
D
E
Percentage Range
100 to 89.5
<89.4 to 79.5
<79.4 to 69.5
<69.4 to 59.5
<59.4 to 50.0
Grades will be used to report student achievement in gaining knowledge, skills and processes
of the content area. Letter grades and descriptors are to reflect academic progress based on
what students know, understand and are able to do.
The following descriptors will be used in grades 1-5 for Spelling, Handwriting, Speaking &
Listening, Art, Integrated Arts, Media, Music, and Physical Education:
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CE - Consistently Evident - Student consistently demonstrates and applies
understanding independently in a variety of settings.
DEV - Developing - Student demonstrates some understanding and applies
understanding in a variety of settings with support.
HD - Having Difficulty - Student is unable to demonstrate and apply understanding
even with support
Descriptor
Percentage
Range
Recorded #
CE
87.5-100
4
DEV
68.75-87.4
3
HD
50-68.74
2
If you have any questions please contact us at school and we will try to explain the procedure
for grading. Also a full copy of the grading and reporting procedure is on the Cecil County
Web Site http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/cecil/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=88TP6562EED4