Class-Specific Tier

Curriculum Grade • Assigned Work Completion • Meeting Content — Learning Verification

Section 6

Curriculum Grade — 40%

Single input per course. Largest weighted category.

Definition and data source

The curriculum grade is the grade displayed in the digital textbook (Edmentum/Apex curriculum). It represents the student's total quiz, test, and graded activity performance within the digital textbook. No adjustments are made to this number at the spreadsheet level.

Missing or late work is enforced by entering zeros directly in the digital textbook. This approach naturally depresses the curriculum grade without requiring a separate penalty mechanism in the grading spreadsheet. The curriculum grade therefore reflects both academic performance and assignment completion behavior within the digital textbook simultaneously.

Administrative context

The curriculum grade is the largest single category at 40%. However, it is no longer the whole story. A student with a high curriculum grade who cannot demonstrate genuine understanding in their scheduled teacher meeting will have that reflected in the Learning Verification score. The two categories are designed to be read together, not in isolation.

Digital textbook platform

CPA uses Edmentum/Apex curriculum delivered through the digital textbook platform. The grade displayed in the digital textbook is the authoritative score for this category. Teachers enter it as a decimal in the course spreadsheet tab (e.g., 0.75 for 75%). The spreadsheet gates the overall grade calculation on this input — if no curriculum grade is entered, the overall grade displays as No Grade.

Section 7

Assigned Work Completion — 10%

Simple 0–10 scale per section. Completion only — quality verified in scheduled meeting.

Scoring philosophy

This category measures one thing only: did the student complete and submit the assigned work for the section by the time of the scheduled meeting. It does not measure quality, correctness, or authenticity. Those dimensions are assessed in the Learning Verification category. This deliberate separation means that a student who submits AI-generated work earns completion credit but earns very few learning verification points because they cannot defend the work in the scheduled meeting.

Score	Status	Description
10	Complete	All assigned work submitted and ready to present at the start of the meeting
7–9	Mostly complete	Most work submitted; one or two items outstanding; student is substantially prepared
4–6	Mostly incomplete	Meaningful portion of work not submitted; meeting productivity is limited
0–3	Missing	Little to no work submitted; teacher has nothing to review or verify

Assignment types included

Journals, worksheets, essays and papers, projects, oral reports, and any additional work assigned by the teacher for the section. The teacher determines which assignments are included and their relative significance within the 0–10 scale. Point values are not itemized — the teacher exercises professional judgment in awarding the section completion score.

Due date policy: All assigned work is due at the start of the scheduled teacher meeting, regardless of whether the meeting was rescheduled or missed. Late work policies apply independently. Students self-report completion in the pre-meeting reflection; teachers cross-reference against the gradebook.

Section 8

Meeting Content — Learning Verification — 30%

The signature assessment of the CPA model. Four components scored out of 20 per section.

Purpose and philosophy

This is the most important category in the class-specific tier and the primary mechanism by which CPA verifies genuine learning. It is explicitly designed to be AI-proof: no tool can sit in a one-on-one session with a credentialed teacher and defend a student's learning on their behalf. The scheduled meeting is the thesis defense — the student presents their work and the teacher examines it through live dialogue.

The category is scored across four components that together produce a score out of 20 per section. The semester grade is the average of all scored sections divided by 20. Blank sections are excluded from the average; zero-scored sections are included.

Four-component rubric

Component	Points	Weight	Description	Key teacher question
Depth of Understanding	0–10	50%	Can the student explain concepts accurately in their own words, connect ideas across the material, and go beyond surface recall?	"Explain this to me as if I've never heard of it. What does it connect to in the real world?"
Responsiveness to Questioning	0–4	20%	How does the student handle questions they did not prepare for? Can they reason in real time?	"Here is a problem you haven't seen — walk me through how you'd approach it."
Growth Awareness & Ownership	0–4	20%	Does the student accurately identify their own gaps and have a specific improvement plan?	"What was hardest this section and what are you going to do about it?"
Teacher Conviction — Discontinuity Flag	0–2	10%	Does the overall meeting picture cohere with the curriculum grade? Is the teacher convinced the learning is genuine?	"Does this student's meeting performance match what their digital textbook scores suggest they know?"
Total	20	100%

Score reference scale

Raw score	Percentage	Letter equivalent
20/20	100%	A+
18/20	90%	A−
17/20	85%	B
16/20	80%	B−
14/20	70%	C
12/20	60%	D
Below 12	Below 60%	F

Discontinuity flag protocol

When a teacher awards a Teacher Conviction score of 0, this constitutes a formal discontinuity flag. The teacher must:

Document the specific nature of the discrepancy in the gradebook notes column for that section
Note factually what the student could and could not demonstrate during the meeting
Follow up through normal professional and administrative channels
A second discontinuity flag in the same course within the same semester should trigger an administrative review

Administrative note

The discontinuity flag is a professional assessment tool, not a punishment. It is the teacher's formal record that the meeting evidence and the submitted work evidence do not cohere. It creates an auditable record that the concern was identified, documented, and acted upon through proper channels.

Portfolio approach

Students may present work from any prior section during any scheduled meeting — including older sections — to demonstrate cumulative learning and growth over time. Students who are behind in their coursework can still earn Learning Verification points by defending whatever completed work they bring to the meeting. This portfolio model rewards genuine engagement with material over time and gives students a mechanism to demonstrate growth even after a weak section.