At Luther South academics is considered to be of utmost importance. Grades a student earns at the high school level will follow that student for the rest of his or her academic career.

Grades are earned through academic achievement, class attendance and participation. Learning is a set of sequential, organized and unique experiences that cannot be replicated outside the classroom. Absenteeism causes one to miss presentations, lectures, assignments and discussions as well as social and intellectual interactions with peers and staff. A student's grade may be reduced for each day absent without a valid excuse.

Interim progress reports are given to the Guidance office and sent to the student's home midway through a marking period or later, if necessary, to inform students and parents that academic problems are evident.

Progress reports are made at mid-semester for semester or year-long courses. Interim progress reports, described above, are used to inform parents of student problems for quarter-long courses.

Failures
Students are expected to make up course deficiencies in summer school. Failure to do so jeopardizes graduation.

Incompletes
Grades of incomplete must be made up WITHIN TWO WEEKS of the end of the marking period or a failing grade may be assigned. unless there are extenuating circumstances and the student has received a grade extension approval from the Principal.

Academic Honors
Students obtaining at least a 3.500 grade point average for a semester qualify for High Honor Roll status. Students with grade point averages between 3.000 and 3.499 qualify for Honor Roll status. Honorable Mention is given to students with grade point averages between 2.75 and 2.999. Grade point averages are calculated total number of quality points by the total number of credits in courses for which grades are given.

Luther South Standard Paper Format Requirements

Frequently students at Luther High School South are asked to complete assignments or papers in a standard format. We have included the standard paper format in this handbook to help parents to work with their teens on assignments.

What is a paper?
Any assignment in paragraph form assigned by any classroom teacher the day (or previously) before it is due.

Guidelines for papers for ANY CLASS at Luther South

All papers must be typed. If you do not have a typewriter or computer at home, see Ms. Emma Clare in the library, or Mrs. Janosek in the Computer Lab to make arrangements for typing your paper. There is no excuse for turning in a handwritten paper!

All margins, left, right, top and bottom, should be NO GREATER than 1 inch.

Use a font size of 12 points. Beware of using a font that makes your paper hard to read (such as all capital letters, Old English, etc.)

Put your name, class title, period, name of the teacher, and date in the upper right-hand corner of the first page.

Center the title about 2 inches from the top of the first page. Do not underline or put quotation marks around the title.

Indent 5 spaces (hit tab!) for every paragraph. The document should be double-spaced throughout. Do not put extra spaces between paragraphs.

Starting on page 2, number each page in the upper right-hand corner and include your name in the header.

In addition to using the above format, you should always proofread your completed paper carefully. Do not assume that the spelling check and grammar check will catch all errors.

Cheating

Cheating is considered academic dishonesty and it includes the following: copying or using cribnotes (or calculator formulas) during exams, submitting papers completed entirely or in part by another person, giving or receiving quiz, test, or exam answers from another person, or plagiarism.

What is plagiarism?

A plagiarist is a student who leads the reader to believe that what is being read is the original work of the student, when this in fact is not true. Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to the following:

1. Word for word copying other another’s writing without enclosing the copied passage in quotation marks and identifying the passage with footnotes BOTH OF WHICH ARE NECESSARY.
2. A mosaic which is a random patchwork of readings and phrases that are woven into the paper resulting in a collage of other people’s words and ideas, with the student’s sole contribution being that of working the pieces together.
3. Paraphrasing which is an abbreviated restatement of another person’s analysis or conclusion without credit begin given to the person who prepared the text or writing.
4. Cutting and pasting entire chunks of material from the Internet.