Progress Reports/ Narrative Grade Report Cards/ Transcripts

Progress reports will be sent home in October to describe skills and performance in all academic subjects. The Narrative Grade Report Cards include a narrative assessment, a listing of enduring understandings covered that semester, and final percentage grade for each class, as well as the semester GPA. The Official Oak Farm Montessori High School Transcript is sent home at the end of each school year with the credits achieved and cumulative GPA.

Grades, Credits and Final Exams

Class credit totals vary, but will be described in the syllabus at the beginning of each year or semester. Core class credit totals are explained in the course titles. Core classes are full year classes, with their final grades given at the end of the school year. Credits may be given at the semester to show that half of the curriculum has been completed, but the grade matching that credit can change by the end of the year. Final exams will be given in all core classes and will represent 30% of the total grade.

Academic Program

Oak Farm Montessori High School supports students achieving individual goals through the development of personal organizational skills. This understanding means that students who do not need direction in assignments will be able to create their own schedule for work outside of school. For guidance in what is expected for success we follow the National PTA, “The National PTA recommendations fall in line with general guidelines suggested by researcher Harris Cooper: 10-20 minutes per night in the first grade, and an additional 10 minutes per grade level thereafter (e.g., 20 minutes for second grade, 120 minutes for twelfth). High school students may sometimes do more, depending on what classes they take (see Review of Educational Research, 2006).” Student schedules allow for large amounts of individual work during the school day. The majority of work can be completed during this time as they grow in their executive functioning skills and after they learn the skill of time management.

Homework usually falls into one of three categories: practice, preparation, or extension. From Montessori’s Three Period Lesson, these are all Second Period explorations that prepare students for Third Period illustrations of mastery. OFMHS homework will general consist of the following:

Mathematical concept/ skill practice

Preparation for seminars, presentations of learning, assessments, and business projects

Extensions for independent work

If a student is not prepared for class by either not having the required materials or the assignment, the rest of the class is inconvenienced by the wait required to obtain those materials or by having to do more work, either in writing or by discussion, in order to make up for the lack of participation by that one community member. For these reasons late work is unacceptable; repeated offenders will be asked to create a personal management plan. Habitual offenders may be asked to spend time outside of regularly scheduled classes. If a student is part of a sports team or other extracurricular activities, he/she will be in jeopardy of losing this privilege. Parents will be notified of late homework if it becomes common.