Policies
Academic Integrity and Grading
We grade what a child knows and can do. We never grade a child's faith. This policy explains how grades are given and released, why a computer's score is never the final word, and what we expect of students' honesty.
Draft for attorney review; effective when enrollment opens.
Principles
- A grade describes what a child knows and can do, measured fairly and explained.
- A person decides every grade, and every grade can be explained by that person.
- Feedback matters more than the number. Teachers return feedback on submitted work within 3 school days.
- Accommodations, such as extended time, are applied automatically and never lower a grade.
How each grade band is graded
| Grades | How work is graded |
|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | Standards-based marks for each skill: 1 Beginning, 2 Developing, 3 Proficient, 4 Mastered. |
| 6 to 8 | Percentages and letter grades (A 90 and above, B 80, C 70, D 60), with mastery shown for each skill. |
| Qur'an, all grades | Progress against the child's own goal. Never a letter grade, and never part of a grade point average. |
High school credits, grade point averages, and graduation requirements are modeled in our records and open with full-time high school in a later year.
Qur'an
The Qur'an teacher records new lessons, recent revision, and old revision separately, counts clear mistakes and tajweed mistakes, and decides pass or repeat. Recitations are heard and marked by the teacher, word by word. No software scores recitation.
Computer-checked work
- A quiz the computer checks shows the student a practice score marked "not yet reviewed."
- Nothing reaches the gradebook, the report card, or the family's view of grades until a teacher releases it.
- Reaching 80% on a check can unlock the next lesson. Falling short never locks a student out; only a teacher can decide a student needs to stop and review.
- Level changes, placement, course completion, and attendance each record the person who decided.
- Answers in Arabic are checked in a way that accepts correct spellings that differ only in marks the quiz is not testing. Teachers can correct any automatic check.
Faith, worship, and madhhab
- We never grade a child's faith. No salah or fasting log is kept in any school record.
- Reflections and character work are marked for thought, effort, and understanding, never for the strength of a child's iman or the "correctness" of a feeling.
- Your child is never marked wrong for following a recognized position of the four Sunni schools. Practical worship is assessed against your family's madhhab.
Due dates and late work
- "Due" means 11:59 p.m. in your household's time zone.
- Late work is accepted for at least 7 days after the due date, with a short note. That is the school's minimum: a teacher may allow longer for a task, never less, and our software will not let a task close sooner. There is no automatic grade penalty; a teacher may set a penalty for a particular task and must say so when setting it, and any penalty is applied by the teacher when grades are released.
- A student can take back a submission within 10 minutes of sending it.
- No test or project is due in the last ten nights of Ramadan or on the Eid days (each Eid and the day after), by the school's Hijri calendar. Our software refuses such a due date and tells the teacher why. Religious observance is always an excused absence.
Participation
Participation is never measured by camera use or connection quality. Students take part by voice, by writing, and by their work.
Academic honesty
Honesty is part of adab. We expect students to do their own work, to say where ideas and words came from, and to ask when unsure.
- Do not copy another person's work, or let someone copy yours.
- Do not have someone else, or an AI tool, write work you hand in as your own. A teacher will say when and how any outside tool may be used for a task.
- Do not share quiz or test questions or answers.
If a teacher believes work is not a student's own, the teacher talks with the student and the family first. Usually the student redoes the work. Repeated or serious cases go to the Principal, who hears from the family before deciding. No automated tool decides that a student cheated.
Report cards and final grades
Report cards are published each term in the Family Portal and include each course, the Qur'an section, attendance in minutes, and the advisor's comments. Final grades are locked at the end of a course. Any later change needs a written reason and the Principal's approval, and is recorded.
Questions about a grade
Ask your child's teacher first, through the Family Portal. If you are not satisfied, write to the Principal through office@