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[quote=Anonymous]The timeframe for grading exams is normal. Teachers are 10 month employees. Their contract extends between one and five days after students’ last day, and grades have to be finalized before they go home for the summer.

It’s also typical to test students’ problem solving ability on a math exam. For an honors class, the expectation is to demonstrate mastery, not just recall of an algorithm. Admittedly, there’s a lot of latitude in how a teacher assesses problem solving ability and how rigorous the questions are.

Having 85% as the highest grade is a little concerning to me. As a teacher, I always considered 80% the minimum threshold for demonstrating understanding. Below that might be passing but indicates a shaky understanding of foundational skills (if the expectation is that students are able to perform independently at the level at which they were taught). I think it would be fair to ask for the median score and the score range once the exams are graded. That said, I will add the caveat that sometimes there are high school classes where the students’ scores trend lower because they are resistant to doing the work. If there are enough students who sandbag a class—perhaps due to anxiety, perhaps due to difficulty initiating and sustaining work—it’s possible for grades to trend lower without it being the teacher’s fault.[/quote]

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