Gradebook Category Types Overview

Gradebook category types allow administrators to pre-define Gradebook setup for teachers.

Gradebook category types provide administrative control over Gradebook setup

Administrators can use Gradebook category type features to:

Add the categories that should be used for courses.
Define how assignments should be averaged to calculate progress reporting and report card marks.
Prevent teachers from changing the categories or weights for averaging marks, but optionally allow them to change the number of lowest scores to drop or settings for how to handle missing assignments.
Default a grading scale to all students for a course.
Define multiple Gradebook category types per building to accommodate classes that have different rules. For example, the Math department may have different requirements from the English department.
Control by course-section which classes use Gradebook category types. If a course-section does not have a Gradebook Category Type assigned in the Master Schedule, then the teacher can edit categories and averaging setups.
Mass assign a Gradebook Category Type to course-sections using a filter to find classes.
Change a Gradebook Category Type that has been assigned to course-sections and have the system automatically push those changes out to teachers. Depending on your setup, some settings may not be pushed out.
Define the Gradebook Category Type definitions by school year to accommodate district policy changes related to calculating student marks.
Use the Copy Setup option to copy the Gradebook Category Types from one year to another.

Gradebook category types limit a teacher's access to setup Gradebook

If a course is assigned to a category type, the teacher:

Cannot choose whether averages are calculated based on total points or category weights.
Cannot set or change the round or truncate rule for averaging.
Cannot set or change the default grading scale for a class. Note that teachers can change the grading scale assigned for a student on the Gradebook Entry page.
Cannot add or remove a category for the course. Note that teachers choose which category to associate with an assignment. If a category is not used for any assignments, the category will not affect the calculation.
Cannot change a category's weight.
May be able to change the number of lowest assignments to drop, depending on how the MR Building Configuration is defined.
May be able to change the rule for handling missing assignments, depending on how the MR Building Configuration is defined.
Cannot add marking periods for categories to change the rules for the category by marking period.
If teachers can change the values for the Drop Lowest and Exclude Missing fields and you want teachers to be able to specify different values by marking period, then the Building Gradebook Category Type page's Categories panel must include rows for individual marking periods. If all rows in that panel have the Marking Period field set to Default, then teachers must use the same rules for all marking periods. To see examples of how categories can be defined for category types, refer to Understanding Category Overrides for Category Types.
Cannot add or remove the categories included for a progress report or report card mark.
Cannot change the weights used for categories included for a progress report or report card mark.
May be able to change the number of lowest assignments to drop for a progress report or report card mark, depending on how the MR Building Configuration is defined.
May be able to change the rule for handling missing assignments for a progress report or report card mark, depending on how the MR Building Configuration is defined.