The grading at Garden Park is simple.  Everyone passes with an 80% or better.

There is no trick to this.  If something is not passed with at least an 80% then it is taught again and redone until it is mastered.  After it is redone, the highest grade that a student may receive on that assignment is 80%.  Some students do the same submission or assignment 3 or 4 times.  This is acceptable as long as sufficient effort is being put forth.  Although there is no effort grade, there is an integrity policy that holds the students to their best effort. 

  Anytime that we feel that a student is not giving their best effort or trying to avoid the “correct” way of doing things, they are immediately called upon to justify their behavior.  Integrity violations are relative, because when you get right down to it, everyone is a hypocrite.  But the school’s expectations are pretty much aligned with the basic societal definition of integrity.  The students agreed upon these expectations before they entered the school.  This agreement stated that every person in the school, including staff, was expected to perform at a certain predetermined level, and if that level was ever in doubt, that they would respect the opinion of those who were calling them on their behaviors.

At this point you may be thinking that this has nothing to do with grades, but Garden Park is set up in the mold of a college atmosphere.  Every student is not monitored at all times.  There are times when students are expected to motivate themselves and hold themselves accountable for their own education.  It is through this thinking that we are able to pass every student at an 80% or higher.  In my personal experience, I have rarely seen a student who is not willing to adjust their behavior while at GPHS in order to comply with the school expectations.  Because the students are here to learn instead of to get “A”s, the grades seem to take care of themselves.

  Since most students have chosen to be here there are no time limits or regular “homework”.  There is a progress report that is sent home once every 6 weeks and this is just to update the parents on where the student is and how he/she is doing in here classes.  There is a requirement of at least one credit that they must earn per hexter (6 weeks) that we have chosen as a school to represent the very minimum possible effort before we consider the student wasting our time.  Other than this progress report and some advisement, the student is responsible for managing every aspect of their high school education.