Intermediate
INTRO
For the most part, the settings of the Grade Setup Tab in Gradebook should be consistent across all departments and all schools. Teachers should set up their Final Grade Calculation Methods at the beginning of the school year and re-check them each Term to make sure they are setup correctly. Teachers should also ensure that the Reporting Periods (Full Year, Semesters, and Terms) have been setup correctly for every single class.
This article does not explain how to configure the Grade Setup tab in Gradebook. This article focuses instead on how the Grade Setup tab should look if everything has been setup correctly.
In Part 1, this article first looks at the Standard Configuration of Full Year Courses. In Part 2, the article looks at the Standard Configuration for Term and Semester long courses.
SCREENSHOTS
PART 1: Standard Configuration of FULL YEAR Courses
Most courses at our schools are Full Year Courses. In other words, they do not run just for a single Term or Semester, but run for the duration of the entire school year. The screenshots below, demonstrate how the Grade Setup will appear for Full Year Courses.
1. The Y17 Reporting Term should be set to Term Weights
NOTE: In this example, the Full Year Reporting Term is abbreviated as Y17. The abbreviation will change from year to year, but the convention remains the same. For example: 2015 is abbreviated as Y15; 2016 is abbreviated as Y16 etc.
2. S1 and S2 Reporting Terms should be set to Term Weights
3. The T1, T2, T3 and T4 Reporting Terms should be set to Category Weights
The standard categories for the Category Weighting method are usually Final Exam (40%), Formative Assessment (30%) and Summative Assessment (30%).
NOTE A: This is the general standard for Category Weights but some schools may differ slightly.
NOTE B: Even in some places where a school has a slightly different weighting system to other schools, category weightings should be consistent across the department in any given school. In other words, individual teachers in the same department should use the same weighting system across the whole department.
PART TWO: Standard Configuration of SEMESTER and TERM Long Courses
A small number of our schools also have Term long or Semester long courses in addition to Full Year courses. In other words, most of their courses run for the full school year, but a few of them run for a single Term or Semester only. Examples of Term or Semester courses may include things like MIT subjects, or Exploratory Rotation classes. If your school has one or more Term or Semester courses, then please refer to the screenshots below for how the Grade Setup should appear for these courses.
NOTE: If you cannot see the Reporting Terms as outlined below then please contact EdTech Support for assistance.
1. For Term long Courses:
The Y17 Reporting Term should be set to Term Weights. Only ONE Term should appear.
2. For Term long Courses:
The T1, T2, T3 or T4 Reporting Terms should be set to Category Weights, using the same Standard Categories that were demonstrated earlier in this article.
3. For Semester long Courses:
The Y17 Reporting Term should be set to Term Weights. Both Terms in the Semester should appear.
4. For Semester long Courses:
The T1, T2, T3 or T4 Reporting Terms should be set to Category Weights, using the same Standard Categories that were demonstrated earlier in this article.
QUICK RECAP
For FULL YEAR courses the standard configuration for each Reporting Period is as follows:
FY: Term Weights
S1 & S2: Term Weights
T1, T2, T3 and T4: Category Weights (FA 30% | SA 30% | Exam 40%)
For SEMESTER long courses the standard configuration for each Reporting Period is as follows:
FY: Term Weights
T1, T2, T3 or T4: Category Weights (FA 30% | SA 30% | Exam 40%)
For TERM long courses the standard configuration for each Reporting Period is as follows:
FY: Term Weights
T1, T2, T3 or T4: Category Weights (FA 30% | SA 30% | Exam 40%)
NOTE: FY denotes a Full Year Reporting Term usually expressed as Y15, Y16, Y17, Y18 etc in Gradebook.