In Lexington One our goal is for our learners to be able to truly use language as a means of communication with the world around us here in Lexington and beyond our borders.  This means a lot of practice and use of the language by the teacher and the student. 

Performance-Based Assessments

To be sure our students are progressing in their chosen language of study, we administer performance-based assessments at every level, beginning in 6th grade. These assessments allow students to demonstrate their abilities through real-world tasks and scenarios.

Students take a summative assessment at the end of each unit that tests three modes of communication:

• Interpretive - listening and reading
• Interpersonal - listening, speaking, and writing
• Presentational - speaking and writing

Proficiency Rating

Student performance is rated using rubrics that describe the levels of proficiency used in World Languages. The descriptors in the rubric are part of national and state descriptors for all levels of language:

• Novice
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Superior
• Distinguished

A scale of 1-20 is used to represent the levels of proficiency instead of receiving a traditional grade on a 100 point grading scale*.

For more detailed descriptors please refer to the link here: ACTFL Performance Descriptors.

*The International Baccalaureate Rating Scale is used for the courses listed below.  Please visit the following websites for more information about the IB Rating Scale:

• Connections French, Connections German, and Connections Spanish at Beechwood Middle School IB Middle Years Programme Overview at BMS
• IB French, IB German, IB Latin, and IB Spanish: Lexington One International Baccalaureate Program

Report Cards and Final Grades

At the end of each grading period, students receive a proficiency rating on a scale from 1-20 that describes the level of language the student can sustain consistently at least 80% of the time.

At the end of the high school credit bearing courses (Levels 1-5 and AP), the rating is converted to a grade, which is then computed into the student's GPA. Click here for the conversion charts for Modern Languages (French, German, Spanish), Logographic Languages (Chinese) and Classical Languages (Latin).

Language learners in middle school exploratory language courses will only receive proficiency ratings at each grading period. Their rating is not converted into a grade and it does not impact their GPA in any way.

For more information please refer to the Lexington One World Languages Rating and Grading Guide.