Our philosophy on homework and grading

No busy work

Homework will typically consist of 1-4 questions per homework. Homework is short but thought-provoking, designed to test understanding of as much of the material as possible as quickly as possible. Students are highly encouraged to come to office hours or reach out via email to ask questions about the homework – we are happy to help them through the solution to a similar problem. Homework will be present in half to two thirds of the weeks, and will be assigned one class and generally due about a week later.

Tenacity is rewarded

We encourage students to submit their homework by the due date even if it is incomplete. If students want to continue working on problems that they have not yet figured out, they may submit their answers to those individual problems later for credit based on the rubric below.

Our fundamental goal is to help students learn. We believe that requires tenacity and persistence. We also recognize that the best way to learn is to be afforded the opportunity to make corrections. This is why we also offer credit for corrections when they are submitted, based on the rubric below, because being told that one's work is wrong is not nearly as effective in learning as the student being able to correct the mistake. While some standards are necessary for any learning environment, we want our learning environment to be both sensitive to the needs of young learners, and encouraging of traits needed for higher-level work, such as tenacity and persistance, in order to help foster a love of learning.

Thus, late homework will have the following reductions in grade:

0 to 1 days late -3% reduction
1 day to 1 week late -15% reduction
1 week to 2 weeks late -30% reduction
2 weeks to 3 weeks late -45% reduction
Greater than 3 weeks late -60% reduction

Some homework will even have extra credit available. If included, it will usually involve some kind of proof or generalization.

No exams

We focus on creating homework problems that mirror solving problems in the real world. As it is rare in the workplace to be required to solve a problem in a few hours without any access to help or materials, we favor homework assignments with flexible deadlines over timed exams. These assignments also allow the student's grade to depend on problems far more complex than anything that might appear on an exam, nurturing the development of complex problem-solving skills.
Thus, in all of our classes, the student's total grade will be determined as follows:

Homework weighted average 90%
Attendance 10%