Boulder Valley School District
Adopted: September 25, 1980
Revised: June 14, 2005, November 18, 2025
ASSESSMENT AND GRADING SYSTEMS
Assessment
The School District will administer standardized assessments as required by state and federal law. The Superintendent or designee will create procedures concerning the use of pencil and paper on the computerized portion of state assessments; authorizing parent requests to excuse
their children from taking state assessments without negative consequences; and the School District´s assessment calendar.
Also, the School District shall adopt assessments that are aligned with the School District’s standards and curricula to measure each student's progress toward and attainment of standards not assessed through the state assessment system.
Each year, the School District shall create and distribute an annual assessment calendar of state and district (not including school and classroom) assessments.
Grading Systems
Assessing and reporting student progress is the core of communication between school and home. The Board of Education prioritizes fairness, transparency, consistency, and accuracy in assessing and reporting student learning and performance. The School District’s administration
and professional staff shall collaboratively devise a grading and reporting system for evaluating and reporting student progress that reflects student performance in relation to grade level standards, essential learning results, and individual student needs.
Principles
1. Grading and timely feedback throughout the course of a grading period motivate and encourage students by telling them how they are doing and how their effort connects to good grades.
2. Grading and reporting on student progress shall be based on multiple data point so that students have the ability to recover form a poor performance on an assignment.
3. The grading system and reporting procedure shall take into account the demands on staff and parent time and must be in a form that is meaningful to students, educators, and parents.
4. Accurate records of student achievement based on an appropriate body of evidence shall be kept by each teacher and used to determine achievement during each marking period.
5. Reporting shall be consistent district-wide at comparable grade levels.
6. No grade assigned by a teacher shall be changed without notification of that teacher, the student involved, and his parent or legal guardian.
Elementary Schools
At the elementary level, grade reports will communicate whether students are making sufficient progress to enable them to meet grade-level standards by the end of the year. In addition, the end-of-year grade report will include whether the student met, did not meet, or exceeded the grade level standard. The end of year grade report is not an average of the previous grading periods but reflects the level of the student’s achievement at that point in time. No summative letter grade will be given at this level.
Secondary Schools
Each school will develop specific written grading guidelines in accordance with this policy. These guidelines should encourage consistency among teachers at the same grade levels, within the same subject areas, or within the same programs. School will create documentation and communication to students and families.
High Schools and high school level programs shall generally use the letter grades A, B, C, D, and F, unless the Superintendent or designee approves an alternate system.
High schools will not include rank or rank their students in any way on transcripts.
Classroom grading procedures shall be distributed in writing and explained thoroughly by each teacher to students during the first week of the course. Parents will be informed through appropriate parent information communication.
Written notice of unsatisfactory work (D or below) shall be provided to the student and parents in advance of regular end-of-term grade reports. A student may not receive an F or be denied credit unless the teacher has provided appropriate notification to the student and parent or legal guardian in time that the deficiency could have been corrected unless the student showed a dramatic change of performance so late in the grading period that notification was impractical.
Schools may permit students to take course work on a pass/fail basis, but such classes will not factor in calculated grade points.
Students who are not satisfied with their final grade in a course may retake the course or another qualifying course as approved by the Superintendent or designee either through BVSD or a School District approved provider. The calculation of the higher grade will be included in a student’s GPA and credit will be given only once, though both courses and grades will remain on the transcript. This practice applies only for classes taken in Boulder Valley Schools. Grades and transcripts from other schools will not be altered by BVSD.
Weighted Grades
To recognize students for enrolling in rigorous and challenging coursework, a weighted grade scale will be implemented and used.
Weighted grade point average will be displayed on student transcripts. All students taking high school courses may choose between a weighted or regular grade point average at the end of their 11th grade school year. The selected grade point average will be the only grade point average to appear on the student's transcript their senior year of high school.
The following grade scale will be used for weighted grades.
A = 5.0
B = 4.0
C = 3.0
D = 2.0
F = 0.0
Currently weighted classes will remain weighted. The only new courses that will be weighted are those for which a student may earn an industry standard certificate or credit at the postsecondary level. Examples include Advanced Placement courses moderated by the College Board, International Baccalaureate courses moderated by the International Baccalaureate Organization, concurrent enrollment at an accredited higher education institution, and courses with industry standard certificates as outcomes.
Reporting and Conferences
Grades will be reported on a regularly scheduled basis but no less than twice a year. Reports will be provided to parents in a language they can understand whenever possible.
Student transcripts will show at a minimum the student’s academic record, including subjects and grades. Student cumulative grade point averages will be computed and recorded after each official marking period.
Conferences are an integral part of communication between school and home and an opportunity to conference will be provided at least twice during the year.