ACADEMICINFORMATION
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY POLICY Academic dishonesty is a serious offense. It includes plagiarism, cheating on tests, copying papers,forging the signatures of teachers and/or parents on any document, or illegallychanging a grade. Students willface disciplinary action in all cases involving academic dishonesty.
ACADEMIC EVALUATION Each teacher sets ground rules regarding how students are evaluated. Each teacher will distribute gradingexpectations during the first week of school. Please bear in mind that a formal “grade” is one of the manyways to determine the degree of student learning.
ACADEMIC HONORS DESIGNATION Academic honors are intended to be a celebration of academic achievement byall students who achieve scholastically. For transcript purposes only the final student’s class ranking will bedetermined and submitted to college admission offices upon request of thestudent and parents.
For graduation ceremonies, TRHS proposes that all students who fall withineach of the honor categories listed below be honored with the followingdesignation determined by their cumulative GPA: Valedictorian (Highest Honors) 4.0 or above Academic Honors 3.75 - 3.99 Honors 3.50 - 3.74
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT Back to School Night is one of the most important events ofthe year for TRHS families. It is the night that sets the tone for the entireyear, inviting parents to tour the school, follow their student’s schedule andgain information, through short presentations from teachers, on goals,expectations, classroom policies and procedures, curriculum, and teacherphilosophies. We hope that all parents are able to join us and gain an insightinto the life of their student at TRHS. In addition, administration willpresent facts about attendance, activities and how best to succeed as a newstudent at a high school that is part of Douglas County School District.
CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES Students need to earn classification status through credit attainment.Students must earn 6 credits to be classified a 10th grader, 12 credits to beclassified an 11th grader, and 18 credits tobe classified a 12th grader.
CREDIT RECOVERY Students may enroll in GrizzNet to recover credit. GrizzNet costs $80 per semester andstudents can enroll in 1 course at a time during the semester. Please see your counselor forguidance. Applications can befound online. Other options arealso available. Online courses donot count toward NCAA eligibility
COMMUNITY SERVICE GUIDELINES To successfully meet DCSD graduation requirement, students must log aminimum of 20 hours of volunteer work in service to persons/groups outside ofthe familiar environment of their own homes. Only 5 hours of community service performed at TRHS can becredited to the required 20 hours. It is highly recommended that this requirement be completedby the end of the 1st semester of the senior year. The activity must meet the DCSD guidelines which can befound on the Community Service page of the TRHS website. The acting supervisorof the community service project must verify the activity on the form. All hours turned in to TRHS willbe documented for college, scholarship, employment, and/or agencies requestingverification of volunteer service as it pertains to the benefit of the student. See the Counseling Department for moreinformation. Community ServiceLettering is an option available to students who accumulate 100+ hoursthroughout their high school years.
GRADING Grades will reflect 80% or more of learning and 20% or less of workhabits. Grades A, B, C and D arepassing. Please note in somecontent areas students must demonstrate proficiency to move to the next level. “A” indicates exceptionally fine work:“B” represents better than average work: “C” indicates average work: “D”indicates poor work. A grade of“F” indicates failure. The generalgrading system for students is A=4.0 B=3.0 C=2.0 D=1.0 and F=0.0. Incomplete grades may be given at thediscretion of the teacher. “P”indicates the student passed the course and credit has been earned but notcalculated in the GPA.
GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS CLASS of 2011 -Eachstudent must successfully complete a minimum of 25.5 credits in four years (9 -12). CLASS of 2012 and beyond—Each student must successfully complete a minimum of 24.0 credits in fouryears (9 - 12). One credit(1.0) is equal to one course lasting one full year. The 25.5/24.0 credits must include the following corecourses:
Classof 2011 Classof 2012 and beyond Language Arts 4.0 4.0 Social Studies 4.0 3.0 Mathematics 3.0* 3.0* Science 3.0 3.0 Practical Arts 1.0 1.0 Fine Arts 1.0 1.0 Physical Education 1.0 1.0 Speech Communication 0.5** n/a
Sub Total Core Credits 17.5 16.0 Electives 8.0 8.0 _________ Minimum total Credits 25.5 24.0
* At least one of three credits inmathematics must include Algebra 1 ** May not use thesame speech class to satisfy both the Language Arts and the Speechcommunication requirement. - Demonstrate Proficiency on District Writing, Reading, Social Studies andScience Standards. - Demonstrate Proficiency on use of Technology. - 20 hours of community service documented in Counseling Office.
Students must complete all components of graduation requirements 48hours prior to graduation in order to walk in the graduation ceremony.
HONOR ROLL Scholars are recognized and encouraged through an Academic Honor Roll. The honor roll is compiled at the closeof each semester. The honor rollis separated into the grade point average (GPA) categories of 4.0 or higher(straight A’s) and 3.5 up to 3.99 (B+ or higher).
INFINITE CAMPUS This is an excellent resource to check your student progress, attendance,schedules and account balances. Please visit the Counseling Office, with a picture ID, if you do nothave access to IC. The student andparent portals should be visited frequently by families.
INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE *ThunderRidge High School is an authorizedInternational Baccalaureate World School for the diploma programme. These areschools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality,challenging, international education that ThunderRidge believes is importantfor students.
Information can be found on the TRHS IB website http://schools.dcsdk12.org/trhsIB TRHS IB RegistrationRecommendations Chart TRHS IB Frequently AskedQuestions 6th Grade Parent Information DonnaFerguson, IB Coordinator KeriGrant, IB Counselor Donna.Ferguson@dcsdk12.org Keri.Grant@dcsdk12.org
For further information about the IB andits programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org.
INTERVENTIONS TRHS offers after school intervention programs to assist students needingtutoring and additional help in a specific subject area from an experienced,certified teacher. Each programmeets one day per week for 1½ hour and is limited to 10 students perclass. Additional sessions may beopened based on student need and teacher availability.
LEARNING LABS Learning labs will be available to provide students with additionalacademic support during the school day. The labs will be open on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Please see the TRHS website forspecific learning lab schedule and location.
PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES Parent-Teacher Conferences are held eachsemester. The dates for theseconferences will be listed on the school calendar published in the monthlynewsletter and on the TRHS website. This is an excellent opportunity to build a partnership to support yourstudent’s academic success. It is the desire of the administration and thestaff of TRHS to work closely with parents for the benefit of the student. If aparent is unable to attend the scheduled conference time, they are stronglyurged to contact the teachers involved to set up an appointment for anindividual conference.
PROFICIENCY At TRHS we truly value learning. Learning can occur in manydifferent forms, only some of which as measured by formal grading. In order to gain proficiency in asubject area, we will hope that students will work hard to achieve a year, ormore, growth. This implies thatknowledge level and depth of understanding will have increased over the periodof either a semester or a year, depending on the length of the course taken.
In order to help students recognize the level of learningexpected, and to support them as they plan to reach that level, teachers atTRHS provide Proficiency Level Descriptors (PLDs) that offer a ‘roadmap’ tolearning. At the beginning of aclass, students are immediately aware of the standard they must reach in orderto demonstrate ‘advanced’, ‘proficient’, ‘partially proficient’ or ‘beginning’learning. In addition, the PLDssupport the over-arching Key Learnings. Key Learnings can be defined asstatements detailing the main concepts to be mastered through the duration of aclass.
All teachers and administrators have been trained in thedevelopments of PLDs and over the next year, Key Learnings and PLDs will bealigned with the new Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) which will form the basisof Colorado’s new academic standards.
PROGRESS REPORTS Student grades will be updated every three weeks after the first six weeksof each semester. Student progresscan be viewed online at anytime using Infinite Campus Parent and StudentPortals. Concerns about specificclasses should be initially directed to the teacher.
REPORT CARDS Grade reports are available through Parent and Student Portals at the endof each semester. Letter gradesare used to designate pupil progress. Credits are generated at this time and become part of the student’spermanent transcripts.
RISE ReconnectingIn the School Experience (RISE) is a grant-funded program to support studentswho are expelled or at-risk of expulsion. The program is designed tobuild student skills and target intensive interventions to allow students theopportunity to successfully return to a traditional schooling environment.Parents are required to attend bi-monthly evening Parent Empowermentsessions. Students and parents must apply, interview and be accepted intothe program. Please contact Ashley Broer (ashley.broer@dcsdk12.org or 303.387.2205) withadditional questions.
SENIOR PROJECT During the last term of the senior year,as part of their course expectations, 12th grade students willselect a special topic as their final project. This culminating projectrequires the student to show skills in research, writing, public speaking,interviewing and synthesizing. Thestudent will present a formal presentation, product, as well as a written paperto a Senior Project Board (a panel of judges).
The Senior Project will be a scholarlyfocus on what the student has learned over the past four years, how this hasprepared the student for the next phase of life after high school and ananalysis of the student’s future.
To receive credit for Senior English (or APEnglish) the senior must successfully complete their Senior Project. Students not completing the projectwill result in an “Incomplete” until it is completed and may forfeit thesenior’s participation in graduation. |
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