School policies

• Uniform items, including pants, must be no more than one size smaller/larger than the student’s regular clothing size.
• Shirts must be tucked in at all times.
• White, black, brown, or greytennis shoes and laces only (no open-toe shoes or boots permitted).
• Plain, solid black or brownbelts only (no initialed belt buckles or designs allowed).
• Earrings, such as studs or small hoops, are acceptable.
• The following items are Not Permitted:
  • Make-up
  • Nail polish of any color
  • Acrylic nails
  • Accessories (including hats, bandanas, and beanies)
  • Handbags/ purses
  • Unnatural hair color or design
  • Large jewelry pieces
• Attire that may be a distraction will not be allowed.  Distracting attire includes but is not limited to: tight fitting clothing, short or revealing clothing, excessive and/or large pieces of jewelry, and hair that may be of any unnatural color.

• Collared shirt with the college-ready logo
  • 6^th grade: Gray
  • 7^th grade: Navy Blue
  • 8^th grade: Maroon
• Khaki pants, shorts, and shorts, measuring no more than 3 inches above the knee (skinny or fitted pants, tights, and leggings of any kind are not allowed)
• Black or grey sweater with ACRMA #4/ Alliance logo
• Plain white /black or PE undershirt
• On Fridays, students may wear:
  • College shirts and/or sweatshirts with regular uniform pants.
  • ACRMA4 club/team shirts along with regular uniform pants.
    • ACRMA4 club/team shirts on other days approved by the principal, such as the days of club/team events and field trips.

California Education Code 48901.5 authorizes schools to regulate students’ possession of electronic devices (including cell phones, music devices, video game systems, etc.).

Phones, iPods, video game systems, and other personal electronic devices must be silent and out of sight while on school campus and at school-sponsored events regardless of the time of day unless the teacher has authorized their use for educational purposes. Students may not use their personal phones to arrange a parent/guardian pick-up for any reason.

Students are expected to use any electronic devices responsibly and in compliance with ACRMA4’s anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying policies. Students may not photograph, videotape, or otherwise record students or staff members without permission. The use of cameras is strictly forbidden in private areas such as bathrooms and locker rooms.

Personal electronic devices are not permitted to access any of ACRMA4’s wireless networks.

Electronic devices seen or heard by any school employee will be confiscated and returned only to the student’s parent/guardian. If earphones/earbuds are observed, the earphones/earbuds will be confiscated as well as the device to which they are connected.

1^st offense: The electronic device will be confiscated by school staff and turned in to an administrator as soon as possible. The electronic device will be returned only after the student’s parent or guardian meets with school administration to review this policy.

2^nd offense: The electronic device will be confiscated by school staff and turned in to an administrator as soon as possible. The student’s parent or guardian must meet with school administration to review this policy. The electronic device will be returned after 30 calendar days from the date of confiscation.

3^rd offense: The electronic device will be confiscated by school staff and turned in to an administrator as soon as possible. The student’s parent or guardian must meet with school administration to review this policy. The electronic device will be returned on the last day of school.

ACRMA4 is not responsible for students’ lost or stolen electronic devices.

Once a student receives a referral, (s)he is subject to the schoolwide referral ladder with increasing consequences and supports at each step:

The relationship-building intervention referenced at each step in the regular referral process will include a meeting between an administrator or administrator designee, the student, and the teacher who issued the referral. The purpose of this meeting is to clear the air and allow both teacher and student to move forward with a fresh start.

Mastery Learning

Mastery learning is a research-based instructional strategy that has demonstrated significant positive effects on student achievement. Mastery learning is also a means of motivating students to be accountable for their own learning.

A good analogy for [mastery learning] is the road test that is required to receive a driver’s license. What if, before getting your driver’s license, you received a grade every time you sat behind the wheel to practice driving? What if your final grade for the driving test was the average of all of the grades you received while practicing? Because of the initial low grades you received during the process of learning to drive, your final grade would not accurately reflect your ability to drive a car. In the beginning of learning to drive, how confident or motivated to learn would you feel? Would any of the grades you received provide you with guidance on what you needed to do next to improve your driving skills? Your final driving test, or summative assessment, would be the accountability measure that establishes whether or not you have the driving skills necessary for a driver’s license—not a reflection of all the driving practice that leads to it. (Garrison and Ehringhaus 2008)

Some key aspects of mastery learning include:

• Learning objectives are transparent from the first day of a unit and on each assignment.
• Students have opportunities to track and reflect on their progress.
• Formative assessments are NOT included in academic grades because these assessments are opportunities for students to practice. Grades for formative assessments should still be entered into the online gradebook so students and parents can track student progress in class.
• Summative assessments are the primary factor in academic grades.
• Summative assessments that address various learning styles are used
• Behavior, attendance, participation, effort, and work habits are NOT included in academic grades.

Academic Grades

Using Pinnacle, teachers will input scores for each standard and/or cluster of standards taught. Final academic grades are calculated using the Alliance-wide grading scale:

What final academic grades mean

Extra Credit

There is no extra credit at ACRMA4. Students have multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of standards and clusters of standards, but this is different from “extra credit.”

Life/Work Skills Grades

Teachers will assign life/work skills grades for Behavior, Working in Groups, Participation, and Work Completion. Teachers are expected to update life/work skills grades on a regular basis. Life/Work Skills grades are not calculated as part of the class grade but do give students and parents valuable information.

Makeup Assignments for Absences

Students with excused absences must be given the opportunity to complete the missed classroom work, homework, or tests with other equivalent assignments and must be given credit equal to what they would have received on the original assignment or test for the same quality of work. Students should be allowed the same number of days they were absent to make up any missed work.

Students who have been suspended from a class may be required to complete assignments or tests missed during the suspension if the assignments and tests can be reasonably provided. The teachers will determine what, if any, assignments may be made up and in what period of time.

Late Work

Students who miss or are late submitting summative assessments can be given an opportunity to re-submit their completed assessments within a clear time interval (e.g., one week) determined by the teacher. An alternative to allowing late work is that students will need to demonstrate their proficiency in the assessed standards or clusters of standards in future units or on alternative assessments.

If late work is accepted, it should be graded as any other work would be graded. In other words, there is no grade penalty assessed for being late.

Retake Opportunities

A key principle of mastery learning is that students are given multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery of the standards. Students should be given an opportunity to retake summative assessments within two weeks as long as they are provided with additional feedback and instruction on standards in which they performed poorly.

Homework non-completion contributes to a school culture of cheating, avoidance of responsibility, and academic malaise.

ACRMA4’s Principles of Homework

• Homework provides a safe, low-risk opportunity for students to practice and reinforce skills that have already been taught in class, including content/skills taught that day and spiraled content/skills.
• Homework should be differentiated to meet students’ individual needs as much as possible.
• Homework should be as relevant and meaningful as possible.
• Homework builds self-discipline and valuable work habits.
• Students should be assigned about ten minutes per grade per day (e.g., 60 minutes total for 6^th grade, 70 minutes total for 7^th grade, and 80 minutes total for 8^th grade) in addition to the expectation of nightly pleasure reading.

Homework as formative assessments should NOT be included in the final grades of students. However, students can still be required to complete summative assessments at home. For example, a research project for history could require students to complete a poster at home as part of their summative unit assessment.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism

The faculty and staff at ACRMA4 are committed to teaching students how to become ethical users of academic information and ideas. As a school, it is our responsibility not only to educate students in the research process and mechanics of writing and proper documentation, but also to hold our students accountable for honest work. Whether an assigned project is in a visual, written, or spoken format, students are expected to accurately reference all sources of information consulted for the project. Plagiarism is regarded as a serious offense and will not be tolerated by ACRMA4 or any other institution of higher learning.

Plagiarism is defined as the copying of another person’s ideas and/or works, whether intentional or not, in whole or in part, from a print or non-print source, and using those ideas or works as one’s own. Plagiarism also includes the deliberate and/or consistent lack of proper documentation and citation in a project or paper.

If it is determined that a student has committed an act of plagiarism, the following consequences apply:

1^st offense: The student will receive a score of Z for the assignment, counting as a zero in the gradebook. The student will receive an alternative assignment to be completed for grade recovery.

2^nd offense: The student will receive a score of Z for the assignment, counting as a zero in the gradebook. The student will not be allowed to make up the assignment.

3^rd offense: The student will receive a score of Z for the assignment, counting as a zero in the gradebook. The student will not be allowed to make up the assignment. The student’s overall class grade will be lowered by one full letter grade.