Students demonstrate they achieved the learning goals in two categories:

Assessments

Students take assessment quizzes and demonstrate their ability to use the learning goal skills in solving problems.
These assessment quizzes can be pencil-paper or practical lab quizzes.
In each assessment quiz, they will achieve "Y" marks for a goal only if they demonstrate the skill described by the goal.

Portfolio

1. Students write a formal lab for select lab activities once per quarter.
   
2. Students solve one or more unit problems demonstrating the unit's learning goals.  They also explain their problem-solving process in such a way that communicates their understanding the skill in each learning goal.

When does the work merit a "Y"?

Assessments

In an assessment, a learning goal is achieved when:

• All the problems using this learning goal are consistently solved correctly.
• The solution is clearly understandable. This refers to the work the student shows on the assessment problems.
  
• The solution applies the skills in the learning goal correctly.  This refers to the correct application of the formulas, graphs and diagrams. This also refers to correctly defining the number to be used, and choosing which calculations to perform.
  
• The solution is free from errors.  This refers to using the correct number in the formulas, or drawing the shapes in the graphs and diagrams to accurately demonstrate the problem.  This also refers to getting the correct answer from the calculations.
  

Portfolio Entries

In a portfolio entry, a learning goal is achieved when:

• The solution to the physics problem is correct.  This refers to the steps written out.  The solution must have correct calculations.   The answers to calculations must be correct. The graphs and diagrams must be accurate.
  
• The solution is explained comprehensively.  This refers to the complete description of the physics understanding behind the math and graphs.  
• Each number must be explained regarding what it represents about the problem.  
• Each equation must be explained regarding how it shows the relationships among the measurements of the problem.  
• Each graph must be explained regarding what pattern it demonstrates from the problem.
  

Learning Goals Progress Report Example

In the above progress report example, this student's progress report shows a number of elements:

A. The items labeled with "assess" in the category column refer to the learning goals assessed by in-class quizzes.  This student has achieved all goals of the Lab, Velocity and Acceleration units except goals Lab.6, Acc.2, and Acc.6.  This student can make an appointment with me after school on my available hours to take a reassessment for each goal.

B. The items labeled with "P.Folio" in the category column refer to the learning goals demonstrated in the student's notebook. 

•  The "Lab"  goals refer the lab goals for a 1st quarter lab.  These are assessed by a Formal lab write-up in the 1st quarter.
  
• The "2L"  goals refer the lab goals  for a 2nd quarter lab.  These are assessed by the Formal lab write-up in the 2nd quarter.
  
• The other goals refer to the unit goals. These are assessed by the physics solutions and explanations the students write in their notebook.
  

C. The Score column shows whether each learning goal is achieved (denoted "Y") or not yet (denoted "N").  At the end of the quarter, the letter grade will be determined in the following way:

1. An achievement score will be calculated for each category with the following formula:
   
2. Category Achievement Score = 50 + 50*(# of "Y" scores / total category goals)
3. The final letter grade will be calculated based on the average of the Assessment Category score and the Portfolio Category Score. 
   Grade percentage = (Assessment Category + Portfolio Category) / 2