Report Cards

Salem Public Schools uses a standards-based grading system.

• In a standards-based system, the score represents what the student has learned by evaluating student work against a standard (or expectation).  
• The old letter grade system indicated how many points a student accumulated through assignments, extra credit, tests, participation, homework completion, and classroom behavior. In that system, the student’s goal was to gather as many points as possible to get to an A.  
• Now, student work is measured in relation to a standard (performance expectation), rather than an accumulation of points. 
• Comparing letter grades with standards-based grades is difficult because the marks stand for completely different things.  End-of-year grades at the high school are converted to letter grades for transcript purposes.

K-8 Trimester and Report Card Dates

Salem High School Term Dates