Draft of 2026-09-11. [Sal: match this to your school's grading policy before it goes on the syllabus.]
Categories and weights
| Category | Weight | What counts |
|---|---|---|
| Labs and projects | 40 percent | Every cooking lab, sewing item, design model, simulation report, and unit project, scored with a rubric. Labs are scored on the lesson rubric (1 to 4 on each objective). Projects use the unit rubric. |
| Topic assessments | 25 percent | The formal check at the end of each topic: a short quiz, a performance check (for example measuring, a stitch sampler), or a product. Unit tests count here too. |
| Daily work | 20 percent | Do nows, handouts, exit cards, and homework when assigned. Scored complete, partial, or missing. |
| Participation and safety | 15 percent | Following the Room and Lab Agreement, doing your role in a lab, cleaning up, being ready. Scored weekly on a simple 0 to 4 scale. A safety violation in a lab is a zero for that lab's participation and a conversation, not a lecture. |
Rubrics
- Lab rubric (used for every lab lesson): the three lesson objectives, each scored Not Yet (1), Approaching (2), Meets (3), Exceeds (4), 16 points total (a fourth row scores safety and sanitation), with a notes box for the next class. Pattern from Sal's Color in the Home rubric.
- Project rubrics (one per unit): four to five criteria, four levels each, with the descriptors written as what a student actually did, not adjectives. Total 16 or 20 points.
- The Kitchen Safety Exam is pass or retake. Nobody cooks until they pass. Retakes are allowed as many times as needed.
Retakes and late work
- Topic quizzes: one retake after a review, best score counts.
- Labs missed: a written lab alternative (recipe analysis, safety plan, or a no-kitchen task) so nobody loses points for being absent.
- Late daily work: accepted until the end of the topic for full credit; after that, partial credit. Projects are accepted late with a one-level drop on one criterion, never a zero.
Marking period math
Four marking periods of about 45 days. Each marking period holds one and a half to two units, so each has at least one project, three or four topic assessments, and daily work. The year grade is the average of the four marking periods. There is no separate final exam; the capstone project and the year reflection serve as the final.
How grades are shared
Students track their own lab rubric scores in a FACS folder that stays in the room. Rubrics go home with the project. [Sal: name your school's grade portal here.]
Why these weights
Hands-on work is the point of FACS, so labs and projects carry the most weight. Safety has its own line because it is the one thing that cannot be optional in a kitchen or at a sewing station. Daily work is weighted enough that showing up and doing the do now matters, and low enough that one bad week does not sink a marking period.