Honors Criteria

2023-2024

DRYDEN MIDDLE SCHOOL

HONORS ELA, MATH, & SCIENCE CRITERIA

 

ENTRANCE CRITERIA

Students should meet all three criteria for initial placement in an honors section:

  • REPORT CARD 

In grades 6 and 7, student should earn a cumulative average of 93% in the content area (this includes final exams in grade 7).

In grade 5, student should achieve at or above grade level expectations (3 or 4) in the content area standards throughout the year.

           

  • STAR PERFORMANCE  

Student should achieve at or above the 70% Percentile Rank (PR) on a content area STAR assessment in the past year and/or achieve at or above the grade level for the class they are entering.

For Science, on both STAR Math and STAR Reading, the student should achieve at or above the grade level for the class they are entering. 

*Parents should contact their child's ELA and/or Math teacher for score information throughout the school year as desired.

  

  • CLASSROOM PERFORMANCE RUBRIC/Teacher Recommendation

Student should score at or above 90% on the classroom performance rubric filled out by the current content area teacher.

For Living Environment there will not be a Performance Rubric but there will need to be a Teacher Recommendation.

 

*New students to the Dryden district and non-honors students may be moved into an honors section if criteria is met anytime after 5 weeks. (the Living Environment class excluded)

*In the case of a rare extenuating circumstance, a student may be placed in an honors section at the administrator’s discretion.

 

PROMOTIONAL CRITERIA

Once placed in an honors course, the student should maintain a 90% average in the course for the year in order to move on to the next grade level.

For a DMS student to be invited to take Algebra Honors Class, they should:

  • Attain at least the 70th Percentile Rank on 2 out of 3 Math Star tests in the school year.
  • Have a final average of at least 93% in their current math course.
  • Score at least 90% on the work habits rubric (based on math teacher observations)
  • Be recommended by a team of DMS & DHS math teachers (based on knowledge of students and classroom observations)

 

EXIT CRITERIA

Any honors student below 90% for the first 5, 10 or 15 weeks will get a report card comment reminding them of the 90% benchmark.

At ten weeks, a student may be removed from the honors section if the first marking period average is below 80%. 

At twenty weeks, a student may be removed from the honors section if the cumulative average of the first two marking periods is below 85%.

Removal from an honors section may occur at the administrator’s discretion at anytime, pending a parent conference.  For students placed in a high school level course, refer to the High School Course Catalog for additional exit criteria pertaining to that class.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Revised 3/29/23LC