Grading Policy & Plan
Field Experience — Work-Based Learning • 2026–27
Two cohorts, one grading system. Throughout this document,
Placement refers to the 14 semester students at outside business sites, and
Enterprise refers to the 10 full-year A-day students running their own business or working for a school enterprise (Bulldog Media Team).
Both cohorts are graded on the same categories, at the same weights, on the same scale. Only the source of evidence differs.
The Core Principle
Everything in this course is scored on one scale, in four equal categories. A student, a parent, or a supervisor can understand the whole grade in about fifteen seconds, which is the point — a grading system nobody can explain is a grading system nobody trusts.
In work-based learning, reliability is the competency. That is why Weekly Tasks carries the same weight as the Capstone: a student who shows up every week with their timesheet and reflection has demonstrated the single most employable trait there is, and the grade should say so.
Most importantly: the grade is not the primary accountability mechanism. The gate is. Students who fall behind on hours and reflections don't just lose points — they lose access to the thing they want. See Section 5.
In work-based learning, reliability is the competency. That is why Weekly Tasks carries the same weight as the Capstone: a student who shows up every week with their timesheet and reflection has demonstrated the single most employable trait there is, and the grade should say so.
Most importantly: the grade is not the primary accountability mechanism. The gate is. Students who fall behind on hours and reflections don't just lose points — they lose access to the thing they want. See Section 5.
1Four Categories, 25% Each
Every graded item in the course lives in exactly one of these four buckets, and every item is scored on the same 4-point scale.
25%
Bootcamp
16 activities, front of course
25%
Weekly Tasks
Timesheet + reflection, every week
25%
Capstone
Pitch, trade show, portfolio
25%
Employer Feedback
Midterm + final, minimum
Bootcamp
4 • 3.5 • 3 • 2 • 1
25%
Each of the 16 bootcamp activities gets its own score. This category is fully earned in the first three weeks for the Placement cohort and the first five for Enterprise — which is deliberate. Students see a real grade before they ever set foot at a placement, and a slow start is recoverable while it still matters.
| Score | What it looks like on a bootcamp activity |
|---|---|
| 4 | Deliverable submitted on time and genuinely strong — went past the prompt, took the feedback, made it their own. |
| 3 | Deliverable submitted on time and complete. Did what was asked, properly. This is the target. |
| 2 | Submitted late, or submitted incomplete — missing sections, one-line answers, checklist gates unmet. |
| 1 | Barely attempted. Something arrived but it does not show engagement with the activity. |
| INC | Nothing submitted. Not a 1 — see Section 2. |
16 scores, and most of them will be 3s. That is correct and not a problem. A bootcamp activity is a floor-setting task, so meeting it is the expected outcome; the 4s should go to the handful of students who visibly did more than the prompt asked.
Weekly Tasks
4 • 3.5 • 3 • 2 • 1
25%
Two separate scores every week: the timesheet and the reflection each get their own entry — "Week 1 Timesheet" and "Week 1 Reflection" are two different gradebook items. This is where the volume of grades lives.
| Item | Scoring |
|---|---|
| Weekly Timesheet One score per week · 4–0 |
4 — Submitted on time. 3 — Late, but you never had to email them. It showed up on its own — maybe 5 a.m. the next morning, before you checked. 2 — You emailed them, and then they completed it. 1 — You emailed them and they still didn't complete it without further prompting. 0 — You emailed them and it is still not done. Placement is revoked until it is complete. |
| Weekly Reflection One score per week |
4 — Specific, honest, names a real situation and what they did about it. Would read well to an employer. 3 — Answers every prompt with real content about the actual week. 2 — Generic. Could have been written about any week at any placement. 1 — One or two sentences, or answers a different question than the one asked. INC — Not submitted. Triggers the gate. |
The timesheet scale is behavioral, and that is the whole point. It measures one thing: how much chasing did this cost me? There is no judgment call in it — you either emailed them or you didn't, so a student can never argue the score, and you never have to justify it. It also means the timesheet score doubles as your gate log. A 2 is a paper trail. A 0 is the gate closing.
Note this scale runs 4 to 0, not 4 to 1, and it does not use 3.5. A 0 is a true zero — and it is reserved for the one case where the student has been told directly and still hasn't acted.
Note this scale runs 4 to 0, not 4 to 1, and it does not use 3.5. A 0 is a true zero — and it is reserved for the one case where the student has been told directly and still hasn't acted.
Scoring a reflection should take 30 seconds, not 5 minutes. Read it once and ask one question: could this have been written by a student who never went to their placement? If yes, it's a 2. If it names something specific that actually happened, it's a 3. If it names something specific and what they did about it, it's a 4. Do not line-edit, do not comment on grammar, do not write feedback — that is what conferences are for.
Worth knowing before you commit to this: scoring reflections for quality is more work than the completion-only approach, and at roughly 16 weeks that is 32 scores per Placement student and up to 72 per Enterprise student across the year. The 30-second rule above is what keeps it survivable. If it starts slipping by October, the fallback is to score reflections on completion only and let the 4s and 2s come from the timesheet — the category weight does not have to change.
Capstone
4 • 3.5 • 3 • 2 • 1
25%
Three separate scores, weighted equally inside the category at roughly 8.3% of the course each. Full criteria are in the Capstone Rubric and Portfolio Guide.
| Item | What is scored |
|---|---|
| Elevator Pitch | A fully prepared 1:30 pitch on themselves and their experience, delivered on the Black Box stage in the Fine Arts Center. No prompt to react to. Scored on content, growth, future direction, delivery, and timing. |
| Trade Show Presentation | Pop-up presentations at their station in the BFAC Lobby, plus how they handle follow-up questions from guests who did not read anything in advance. |
| Portfolio | The artifacts they bring and how well they can account for them. Deliberately not a checklist — scored on evidence, range, curation, and ownership. |
Placement Capstone Tue Dec 15 (tentative). Enterprise Capstone in May, week of May 10 — with nine months of work behind it instead of four.
Employer Feedback
4 • 3.5 • 3 • 2 • 1
25%
At minimum two data points — a midterm and a final — each scored on the same scale against the 10 Illinois Essential Employability Skills. The supervisor scores the skills; you convert their form into the category score.
| Cohort | Who provides it |
|---|---|
| Placement | Site supervisor completes the 10-skill evaluation at midterm and at the end. You collect it — do not rely on the student to chase their own evaluation. |
| Enterprise | Quarterly Review Board score (Section 7) plus at least one client or advisor feedback form per reporting period. Same 10 skills, same scale. |
Two data points means each one is worth 12.5% of the course grade. That is a lot of weight on one form from one adult who may have seen the student a few hours a week — and it means a supervisor who never returns the form leaves an eighth of the grade empty. Two protections: (1) collect the midterm form yourself, in person or by phone if necessary, rather than emailing and hoping; (2) if a form genuinely cannot be obtained, the category is scored on the remaining data point rather than entering a zero. Consider adding a third low-stakes touchpoint mid-quarter so no single form carries this much weight.
2The Scale — 4, 3.5, 3, 2, 1
One scale for every graded item in all four categories. It is the same language as the observation rubric already in the Teacher Hub, so a site visit, a weekly reflection, and an employer evaluation all speak the same way.
4
Excellent
Exceeds what the standard asks for. Anticipates, takes initiative unprompted, is treated as a genuine contributor rather than a student.
4 / 4 = 100%
3.5
Approaching Excellent
Clearly past "meets" and close to excellent, but not consistently there yet. Use it when a 3 undersells the student and a 4 oversells them.
3.5 / 4 = 87.5%
3
Meets
Performs to the standard a paying employer expects. Reliable, professional, does what is asked and does it well. This is the target.
3 / 4 = 75%
2
Does Not Meet
Inconsistent. Meets the standard some days and not others, or needs more prompting than a site should have to give.
2 / 4 = 50%
1
Well Below Standard
Falls short in a way that would jeopardize real employment. Triggers an improvement plan and a supervisor conversation.
1 / 4 = 25%
On the name for 1. "Far from meeting" is accurate but reads like it was written about a test score. Well Below Standard is the recommendation here — it keeps the employment framing the rest of the course uses, and it is a phrase a supervisor would recognize. Two alternatives if you'd rather: "Not Yet Demonstrating" if you want the softer growth-oriented version for parent conversations, or "Would Not Continue Employment" if you want the bluntest possible honesty. Any of the three works; just pick one and use it everywhere.
On 3.5 — and whether you also want 2.5. 3.5 exists because the gap between "meets" and "excellent" is the widest one on the scale and students living in that gap deserve to see it. It is also worth 12.5 percentage points here, which makes it a meaningful award rather than a rounding gesture. By the same logic 2.5 = 62.5% is available if you want it. The recommendation is to start with 3.5 only: half-steps everywhere turn a 4-point scale into an 8-point one, and the advantage of this system is that a student can hold it in their head.
"No Evidence" is a status, not a score
When nothing was submitted, do not enter a 1. Enter Incomplete (INC). A 1 means I saw the work and it fell well short; INC means nothing arrived and I cannot judge it. Those are different problems with different fixes, and collapsing them hides which students need re-teaching versus which need re-engaging. INC converts to the earned score whenever the work comes in, and to a 0 only at quarter close.
3Gradebook Translation
Students and parents see competency language. The BPS101 gradebook receives a percentage. This table is the only crosswalk you need.
There is no crosswalk to memorize. Every item is worth 4 points. You enter the score the student earned, the gradebook divides by 4, and the percentage is whatever it actually is. Nothing is curved, weighted, or translated on the way in.
| Score entered | Points possible | True percent | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 4 | 100% | Exceeds the standard |
| 3.5 | 4 | 87.5% | Past meets, not consistently excellent |
| 3 | 4 | 75% | Meets the employer standard |
| 2 | 4 | 50% | Does not meet |
| 1 | 4 | 25% | Well below standard |
| 0 | 4 | 0% | Timesheets only. Emailed and still not done — placement revoked until complete. |
| 2.5 (optional) | 4 | 62.5% | Between does-not-meet and meets |
| INC | 4 | excluded | Nothing submitted. Leave it ungraded so it doesn't count against the average until quarter close. |
Category setup in the gradebook: create four weighted categories at 25% each — Bootcamp, Weekly Tasks, Capstone, Employer Feedback. Make every assignment in all four worth 4 points. Then all you ever enter is 4, 3.5, 3, 2, or 1. The gradebook does the rest.
A 3 being 75% is intentional. Meeting the standard is a C, and exceeding it is what moves the grade — the same way raises and references work. The one place that could have been unfair is the timesheet, where there is no room to exceed "on time and complete," and that is handled by giving the timesheet its own behavioral scale where on time is a 4 (Section 1). Everywhere performance genuinely varies — reflections, the capstone, employer evaluations — the full spread stays in play.
What the gradebook actually looks like by December
| Category | Weight | Roughly how many entries |
|---|---|---|
| Bootcamp | 25% | 16 — one per activity, all entered by early September |
| Weekly Tasks | 25% | ~32 — one timesheet + one reflection per week (Enterprise: up to ~72 across the year) |
| Capstone | 25% | 3 — pitch, trade show, portfolio |
| Employer Feedback | 25% | 2 — midterm and final |
The lopsidedness is the thing to watch. A single weekly reflection is worth about 0.8% of the course, while a single employer form is worth 12.5% — roughly sixteen times as much. That is a defensible design choice, but it means one missing employer evaluation does more damage than a month of missing reflections, and it is worth saying out loud to students so they know where the real leverage is.
4Where the 10 Employability Skills Live
The Illinois Essential Employability Skills are still what the course is about — they just aren't a separate grading category anymore. They are the criteria inside two of the four categories.
Skills are the rubric, not a fifth bucket
The 10 skills are what the Employer Feedback form scores, and they are what the weekly reflection prompts rotate through. So a student's skill development shows up in the grade twice — once through an outside adult's eyes, once through their own documented evidence — without needing its own weighted category.
This is a simplification from the earlier design, and a real one: you no longer owe a separate 10-skill self-assessment score every quarter.
This is a simplification from the earlier design, and a real one: you no longer owe a separate 10-skill self-assessment score every quarter.
How to keep this cheap
1
Tag each week's reflection prompt to one skill, on rotation
Week 1 Reliability, Week 2 Communication, Week 3 Initiative, and so on through all 10, then start again. Students answer in STAR form. By midterm every student has built a written evidence file about themselves, one entry per skill, without you assigning anything extra.
2
Score the reflection in 30 seconds using the rule in Section 1
Specific to the actual week = 3. Specific and names what they did about it = 4. Could have been written by someone who never showed up = 2. You are not assessing the skill here — you are assessing whether they engaged with the question.
3
Let the supervisor score the skills at midterm and final
Placement Site supervisor rates the 10 skills on the same 4-point scale; that becomes the Employer Feedback score. Takes them about five minutes.
Enterprise The Quarterly Review Board scores the same 10 during the presentation (Section 7).
Enterprise The Quarterly Review Board scores the same 10 during the presentation (Section 7).
4
Use the evidence file at conferences, not as a grading pass
When a supervisor's rating surprises a student, the cited reflections are what you put on the table. That is the highest-value coaching conversation in the course — and it costs you nothing extra, because the student assembled the evidence themselves.
Don't add yourself as a third scorer. Your site-visit observations (Teacher Hub → Observation Rubric) are there to inform a conversation or settle a dispute — not a pass you owe all 24 students every quarter. That is the version of this system that collapses by October.
5The Gate
This is the real accountability mechanism of the course. It mirrors actual employment: you are not fired for missing paperwork — you are simply not on the schedule until it's current.
Placement Students — "Not current, not on the schedule."
If your hours log and reflection are not submitted by Sunday 11:59 PM, you do not report to your placement site. You report to class and complete them first.
The student stays at school for that day's placement block and completes the missing work in your room. They return to their site the following day, current. The site supervisor is notified by you at rung 3 and above — not before, so a single slip doesn't cost the student credibility at work.
Why this works: the student wants to be at their site. Losing a day there is a real, immediate, non-negotiable consequence that no point deduction can replicate — and it teaches exactly the right lesson about how employment actually functions.
Why this works: the student wants to be at their site. Losing a day there is a real, immediate, non-negotiable consequence that no point deduction can replicate — and it teaches exactly the right lesson about how employment actually functions.
Enterprise Students — "Not current, not remote."
Working off-campus is a privilege earned by being current. If your hours log and reflection are not submitted by Sunday 11:59 PM, you report to Room [___] on your A day until you are caught up.
Enterprise students may normally work from home, a client site, or wherever their business takes them. That autonomy is the single most valuable thing they have — and it is conditional on documentation, exactly as it would be for any contractor who wants to keep getting paid.
A student who is behind loses remote privileges and works in your room, on their paperwork, until current. Bulldog Media students additionally lose equipment and studio access during that period, since those are school resources tied to being in good standing.
Frame it honestly with them: "Every freelancer in the world gets paid by submitting documentation on time. This is not a school rule I invented — it is the job."
A student who is behind loses remote privileges and works in your room, on their paperwork, until current. Bulldog Media students additionally lose equipment and studio access during that period, since those are school resources tied to being in good standing.
Frame it honestly with them: "Every freelancer in the world gets paid by submitting documentation on time. This is not a school rule I invented — it is the job."
6Escalation Ladder
Write it down, apply it identically to every student, and the gate stops being something a parent can argue with. The counter resets at the start of each quarter.
1
First miss — Complete it, carry on
Student completes the missing work during that day's block. No parent contact, no supervisor contact. Logged in the tracker so the count is accurate. Everyone has one bad week.
2
Second miss — The gate closes
The gate is enforced for that day, and an email goes home the same day. Short and factual: what was missed, what happened as a result, what fixes it.
Placement
Held from the site that day. Works in your room.
Enterprise
Remote privilege revoked for the week. Reports to your room.
3
Third miss — Improvement plan
Phone call home, not email. Written Improvement Plan signed by student and guardian, with a two-week check-in date. Supervisor or advisor is now looped in — because at a real job, this is the point where a manager would know.
Placement
Site supervisor notified. Hours may be reduced during the plan.
Enterprise
Remote privilege suspended two weeks. Equipment/studio access paused.
4
Fourth miss — Agreement review
Formal review meeting with student, guardian, and employer or advisor, against the Training Agreement. Possible removal from the program with placement into an alternative course. The Weekly Tasks portion of the grade reflects what was actually submitted — no retroactive rescue.
Two protections to build in now. First, transportation and IEP/504 accommodations are handled before the ladder applies, not as an appeal to it — a student whose ride falls through has an attendance issue, not a compliance issue, and confusing the two is how this policy gets successfully challenged. Second, log every rung in writing the day it happens. A ladder you can document is a ladder that holds.
7Quarterly Review Board Enterprise Only
Enterprise students have no outside supervisor, so the Review Board is what replaces the employer evaluation. It is also, frankly, better — a founder pitching a board is more authentic than a manager filling out a form.
Each quarter, every enterprise student presents to a small board and answers for their work. The board scores the same 10 employability skills on the same 4-point scale, and that score becomes their Employer/Advisor Evaluation grade.
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Board composition | You, plus 2–3 others — a business teacher, the Bulldog Media advisor, an administrator, or a community business owner. Rotate guests; the same three faces every quarter loses its edge. |
| Format | 8-minute student presentation, 5 minutes of board questions, board scores independently while the next student sets up. |
| Student must bring | Hours log for the quarter • deliverables or client work produced • at least one client, customer, or advisor feedback form • their completed 10-skill self-assessment • what they'd do differently next quarter. |
| Board scores | All 10 employability skills, 4–3–2–1. Scores are averaged across board members. Disagreement of 2+ levels between board members is resolved by discussion before scores are entered. |
| Dates (A days) | Q1 Thu Oct 15 • Q2 Wed Dec 16 • Q3 Thu Mar 11 • Q4 merges into the May capstone |
The one thing to guard against: a student whose business is genuinely slow this quarter is not automatically a 2. Score the employability skills — initiative, planning, communication, problem-solving — not the revenue. A student who hustled hard into a bad market has demonstrated more than one who coasted on an easy one, and the board needs to be told that explicitly before the first session.
8Grading Calendar
Every date on which something must be scored. Everything not on this list is submission-checking, which the site does for you.
| When | What gets scored | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly, Sundays | 2 scores per student — timesheet and reflection, each 4/3.5/3/2/1 or INC | You (30 sec each) |
| Aug 13–28 | 16 Bootcamp scores Placement — one per activity, as they're submitted | You |
| Aug 13–Sep 15 | 16 Bootcamp scores Enterprise | You |
| Week of Oct 12 | Employer Feedback — midterm. Supervisor rates the 10 skills. Collect it yourself. | Supervisor |
| Thu Oct 15 | Q1 Review Board Enterprise — becomes their midterm Employer Feedback score | Board |
| Fri Oct 16 | Term 1 ends — INC converts to 0 | You |
| Week of Dec 14 | Employer Feedback — final Placement | Supervisor |
| Wed Dec 16 | Q2 Review Board Enterprise | Board |
| Tue Dec 15 (tent.) | Capstone — 3 scores Placement: elevator pitch, trade show, portfolio | You |
| Thu Mar 11 | Q3 Review Board Enterprise — midterm Employer Feedback for the spring | Board |
| Fri Mar 12 | Term 3 ends — INC converts to 0 | You |
| Week of May 10 | Capstone — 3 scores + Q4 Review Board Enterprise | You + board |
| Thu May 20 | Last day — final grades | You |
9One-Screen Summary
| Category | Weight | What's in it |
|---|---|---|
| Bootcamp | 25% | 16 activity scores |
| Weekly Tasks | 25% | Timesheet + reflection, each week, scored separately |
| Capstone | 25% | Elevator pitch • trade show • portfolio |
| Employer Feedback | 25% | Midterm + final, 10 skills each |
Every item is worth 4 points and the gradebook computes the true percent:
4 = 100% • 3.5 = 87.5% • 3 = 75% • 2 = 50% • 1 = 25% • INC left ungraded until quarter close
The gate: hours and reflection not in by Sunday 11:59 PM → no placement that day (Placement) / no remote work that week (Enterprise). Ladder: complete it → gate + email home → call home + improvement plan → Training Agreement review. Counter resets each quarter.