Grading

Capstone Completion Criteria

Capstone Enrollment
Before being enrolled in a capstone course, students must complete all other curriculum requirements of their academic program. This encompasses fulfilling all general education requirements, completing external coursework (e.g., M.Ed. in STEM), and formalizing the transfer of relevant prior academic credits.

A student who has not fulfilled all curriculum requirements of their degree program will not be allowed to continue in their program. 

• A student who still needs to complete general education or external courses will be requested to take a Leave of Absence (if eligible) or administratively withdraw from the program. If withdrawn, the student may return through ACE’s re-entry or re-application processes and policies.

• A student who is awaiting the transfer of external credit(s) will be requested to take a Leave of Absence (if eligible), or their specific enrollment status will be reviewed and determined by the registration office.

Capstone Course Expectations
Student must submit all assessments and complete all capstone course requirements, achieving a minimum final overall grade of 80%.

A student who fails to submit all necessary components of their capstone course and/or earns less than 80% will be required to retake the course in the subsequent term.

Extra Credit

Extra credit, in any form, is not allowed in American College of Education coursework. Extra Credit includes awarding extra points on student assignments through practices such as: 

• Adding points to assignments that the students did not earn for the purpose of artificially raising student scores.
• Providing additional assignments for students to earn extra points toward their final grade. 
• ​Allowing students to revise and resubmit assignments after they have been initially graded to earn a higher score on the assignment. 

Grade Appeal

Students at ACE have the right to appeal a final course grade which they allege to be the result of arbitrary or capricious grading. To do so, the student utilizes the appeal form available in the MyACE Portal. Students should follow the prescribed steps outlined in the Complaint and Appeals on the General Policies page.   

Grade Record Change

A faculty member or department chair can initiate an official grade change after official grades are posted due to computational or technical errors. Grades may also be changed from an “I” to an earned grade.

Grading

The College uses the following individual letter and numeric grading system. Grade point averages are computed on the following scale with points computed for each hour of credit attempted:

The following symbols may also appear on the student’s transcript. These grades do not bear grade points and are not used in computing the grade point average (GPA):

Important notes about grades:

• The credits attempted for courses with W grades are used in the calculation for cumulative GPA. 
• Courses with a grade of “F” or “D” will not be counted toward degree conferral and must be repeated as listed in the Degree Conferral Policy . 
• All courses attempted will appear on the transcript. For courses that are repeated, only the highest grade will be used in the calculation of the cumulative GPA.
• Each student has secured access to a personal online portal account where they can access their grades within one week of the course end date. Students can also access their degree progress audit through their online portal account, which demonstrates their progress through their academic program.

The following courses will be evaluated with letter grades (A-F):

• All Academic Courses (with the exception of “dissertation” courses) 
• Capstone Courses 
• Field Experience Courses (Internship & Student Teaching)

Pass/Non-Pass (P/NP):

• Dissertation Courses (all except RES6541 )  
• Independent Study Courses Licensure Preparation Courses 
• Benchmark Courses 

Pass/Progress/Non-Pass (P/PR/NP):

• RES6541  
• Internship Completion Courses

Dissertation Course Grading: 

For dissertation sequence courses, RES6521 , RES6531 , RES6541 , RES6551 , RES6561 , RES6302 , the following guidelines will be used to determine P/NP grades.  All applicable conditions must be met in order to receive a grade of P (Pass) for the course.  

• The candidate has submitted signed and completed checklists and/or rubrics from their committee by the last day of the course and Teacher of Record (TOR) signs by the grading deadline for the term (RES6521 , RES6531 , RES6541 , RES6551 , RES6561 ).  For RES6541 , candidates must also have approval from DRR and IRB prior to the end of the term to receive a passing grade. If a candidate in RES6541 has completed checklists and/or rubrics from their committee and TOR and has initiated their DRR application, they may receive a progress (PR) grade. Once IRB approval is achieved, that grade can be changed to a passing grade (P).  
• The candidate’s dissertation has passed all levels of the final dissertation approval process and the candidate passed the oral defense by the last day of the course (RES6302 ). 

Incomplete Grade

A student may need an extension of time to complete course requirements due to unanticipated circumstances arising near the end of the term. Incompletes are issued only in extenuating circumstances, such as severe illness or life-impacting events. Incompletes are not issued in cases in which a student is simply unable to complete their work within the specified term due to other reasons.

Students are limited to a maximum of two (2) incomplete grade requests during their program of study.

Prior to the end of the term, a student must submit the Incomplete Grade Contract and any requested documentation to their course instructor. To be eligible, a student must have completed at least half of the required course work. Final approval of an Incomplete Grade Contract resides with academic leadership in the applicable department. 

Incomplete grades are not available in the following courses: Capstone courses, M.Ed. in Educational Leadership Internship/Practicum courses, all ASMT (Assessment) courses, Doctoral Concept Paper course, Doctoral Boot Camp courses, and all Doctoral Dissertation Chapter courses. 

Internship/Practicum Course

Students are required to have internship hours completed and verified prior to enrollment in EL5983  (including state versions). If a student does not have all approved internship hours completed, they must enroll in EL5981  until they have the required number of internship hours completed and verified. 

Students-at large must be enrolled in EL5981  to work on internship hours. 

To pass the Internship Experience for Educational Leadership/Practicum Experience for Educational Leadership course, students must successfully complete all course requirements.  These include the submission of:  

• Internship/practicum activity log documenting a minimum of 120 hours (160 hours for Texas, 200 for Ohio) of clinical experience aligned with applicable national or state standards.
• All required forms.
• All course assignments. 

Students must fulfill all requirements of the internship/practicum course and earn a minimum of 80% for the final overall grade. Students who do not turn in all required components and/or earn less than an 80% will be required to retake the course. 

A student who does not submit one or more of the required forms or assignments cannot pass the internship/practicum course with an overall average of 80% or above. 

Late Assignment

Students may submit work past the due date with late penalties, or without penalty only in cases of extenuating circumstances. 

Extenuating circumstances are defined as circumstances that are related to an emergency which can be clearly documented, including, but not limited to, a death in the family, medical emergency/illness requiring medical attention for the student or family member, or related urgent issues beyond the student’s control. Technology issues are not considered extenuating circumstances unless they are the result of a natural disaster.  

Additionally, the college defines the time period that could impact the submission as an event that occurred no more than two (2) days prior to the deadline.  

Students may submit an assignment after the due date, but will receive an additional 10% deduction each day the assignment is late. No work will be accepted after the Wednesday immediately following the assignment due date with the exception of extenuating circumstances as defined below.  

For Students Requesting Extensions for Assignments Due to Extenuating Circumstances  

Students who experience extenuating circumstances should follow these steps:  

1. Contact the faculty member immediately to notify them of the situation and within the time period listed in the statement of the policy. 
2. Provide documentation of the extenuating circumstance within 48 hours of the original assignment deadline.
3. Collaborate with the faculty member, if the work is approved, on the new deadlines and understand any point deductions.  

If a faculty member receives a request for late work from a student, they will review the request in alignment with the policy. If documentation is provided and all parameters are met for extenuating circumstances, the faculty member will use their discretion on how to accept the late work, depending on the extenuating student circumstances.  

For all late submissions without documented extenuating circumstances, a 10-30% point deduction will be assessed. No late assignments will be accepted more than 3 days past the original due date or after the final day of the course.