Elementary Guidelines 3 - 5

In grades 3–5, achievement shall be reported to parents as:

• Number grades (0-100) for literacy, mathematics, science/engineering, and social studies
• E, S, N, and U for fine arts, physical education, handwriting, work habits/study skills, and citizenship
• Classroom teachers must assign a grade that reflects the student's relative mastery of an assignment see EIA(LEGAL).

To be promoted from one grade level to the next in grades 3–5, a student shall attain for the year an overall average of 70 or above, which is derived by averaging the final numerical grade for literacy, mathematics, science/health, and social studies. In addition, a student must attain an average of 70 or above in both literacy and mathematics.

A student who scores below 70% on an assessment will be provided another opportunity to retake for up to 100% or show their learning in another way after reteaching and/or tutoring. See EIE(LOCAL). A student may not continue to retake an assessment to raise the grade. The following scenarios provide clarification:

• A grade of zero shall not be given on an assessment.
• First assessment 45, second assessment 85 = 85 in the grade book

First assessment 65, second assessment 35 = 65 in the grade book (the higher of the two failing grades is recorded.)

The report card is a tool used to communicate grades to parents/guardians each grading period. Report cards are issued on the district-designated date and may not be issued earlier. If a student has been enrolled for more than 20 days, a report card will be issued.

Unsatisfactory progress reports will be issued at the midpoint (4 to 4½ weeks) of each grading period for students failing, near failing, or to anyone who has had a significant drop in grades. Campuses may choose to send progress reports home with all students to report progress at the midpoint of the grading period.

For each core content area, the final grade consists of:

The nine-week final grade is an average of all grades per content. Grades are not weighted in the elementary setting.

Citizenship grades for students in grades 3–5 are assigned as E, S, N, and U.

• Excellent: serves as a role model for the district character traits; completes outstanding quality assigned work, on time 
• Satisfactory: understands and demonstrates the district character traits; completes most assigned work with satisfactory quality, on time
• Needs Improvement: understands and demonstrates the district character traits to some degree; assigned work is not always completed on time and quality is not always satisfactory
• Unsatisfactory: understands and demonstrates the district character traits to some degree; assigned work is often incomplete and late

Per board policy, letter grades (E, S, N, U) are assigned in grades 3-5 for the following subjects:

• Music
• Art
• Physical Education

The letter grades (E, S, N, U) are defined as follows:

• Excellent: masters TEKS for grade level assignments; consistently produces work of an outstanding quality
• Satisfactory: masters TEKS for grade level assignments; consistently produces work of a satisfactory quality
• Needs Improvement: needs frequent reteaching of skills and concepts to achieve mastery of TEKS for grade-level assignments; minimally passing
• Unsatisfactory: fails to achieve 70% mastery of TEKS for grade-level assignments; continues to have difficulty mastering skills and concepts despite repeated reteaching and tutoring