Setting Up Gradebook

Gradebook can be used to enter assignments and marks for scheduled courses and for student competency groups. This topic focuses on the procedures to set up Gradebook for courses so student averages from Gradebook can be transferred to the specified mark type in Report Cards or Interim Progress Reports. Teachers can click the Load from Gradebook option on either the Report Card or Interim Progress page to post the current average/total points into the appropriate mark type.

Before marks can be loaded from Gradebook to Report Cards, the Scheduling/RC Synchronization must be run (Mark Reporting > Utilities > Build Report Card Data > Scheduling/RC Synchronization) in eSchoolPlus.

Set Up Gradebook in eSchoolPlus for Courses

1. On the Gradebook panel of the Mark Reporting Configuration page (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Setup > MR Building Configuration), specify who can define and score assignments. You can also specify how teachers can use features in Gradebook.
2. Update the Teacher Access Center configuration for buildings that use Gradebook (Administration > TAC Setup> Setup > TAC Building Configuration). The Gradebook panel includes settings for Gradebook average overrides, tab display options, and teachers' use of rubrics and standards-based competencies.
3. Define the Gradebook Categories that teachers can use in Gradebook. Categories are the general areas, such as Quizzes, Exams, or Homework to which teachers can add individual assignments. Teachers can select which categories apply to a particular class.
   • For categories that may be used by all teachers in the district, define District Gradebook Categories (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Gradebook District Categories).
   • For building-specific categories, define the Gradebook building categories (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Building Gradebook Categories). If another building is using the same category, you can check the Include box to add the category for teachers in your building.
4. If teachers can enter alpha marks in Gradebook to indicate that an assignment should be excluded from the average or that the student earned a specified percentage of the possible points, define the Gradebook Alpha Marks (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Gradebook Alpha Marks). For example, teachers may be able to enter a mark of M (for medical) to indicate that the student has a medical excuse for not completing an assignment. Or you could define a code of S (for satisfactory) to indicate that a student earned 75% for the assignment.
5. Check the values for Averaging Value fields in the Level Table (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Setup > Level Table). If students do not have a Gradebook Scale assigned, the Load from Gradebook option converts the numeric Gradebook average to a mark in the Level Table by returning the mark with the closest numeric value. For example, if a student has earned extra credit and has an average of 105 and the highest averaging value in the Level Table is 100 for mark 100, then a 100 will be loaded for the student.
6. If the Level Tables for the building have marks with averaging values using a 4.0 scale, you must define at least one Gradebook Scale (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Gradebook Scale Setup). You may also define Gradebook Scales if the Gradebook average should be curved prior to converting the student's Gradebook average to a mark. Gradebook Scales allow you to specify how the numeric percentage for a Gradebook average should be converted to a mark in the Level Table.
   Teachers must assign Gradebook scales to students in order for the Load from Gradebook option to convert the average using a Gradebook Scale. If a scale should be applied to all students by default, you can check the Default Scale box on the Gradebook Scale page.
7. On the Report Card and Progress panels of the Mark Types page (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Setup > Mark Types), specify the mark types that will be updated from Gradebook. When a teacher clicks the Load from Gradebook option on the Report Card or Progress pages in Teacher Access Center, the system uses the mark types setup to determine how to load marks to the mark types that receive a Gradebook average.
   Teachers can select the categories to include when the average is calculated for a mark type that receives Gradebook results that are not based on an average setup. For example, if you allow teachers to load an exam mark from Gradebook, teachers can select to include only an exam category for the exam mark. Teachers must also remember to exclude the exam category from other marks that are loaded from Gradebook.
8. If you set up a mark type to receive a Gradebook result from an Average Type using the Average Setup option (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Calculation Setup > Average Setup), define the average setup(s) for which marks will be calculated when teachers click the Load from Gradebook option on the Report Card page in Teacher Access Center.
   In the Mark Reporting Configuration, you can select to allow teachers to override the weights used in the average setup for a mark.
9. If teachers can enter a comment from a fixed list of comments for an assignment for a student, define Gradebook Comments (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Gradebook Comments). For example, you may define a comment of LA for Handed in Assignment Late. If no fixed comments are defined, teachers may still enter free text comments about an assignment.
10. If you want to load category and average rule settings for course-sections and teachers should not be able to change settings in Gradebook, define Gradebook category types and assign them to course-sections using the Building Category Types (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Building Gradebook Category Type) option.
11. For teachers, create users on your district network and enter the login IDs on the Staff District Information page (Administration > Registration Setup > Building > Staff). If a teacher also has permission to run other options in eSchoolPlus, you must update the resources assigned to the user profile for the teacher. The user must be granted the appropriate resources for the Gradebook options.
12. If your district has a set of generic rubrics that can be used by teachers across all buildings, you can set up these records using the Gradebook Rubrics option (Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Gradebook Setup > Rubrics).
    Teachers set up with the appropriate security resource (Mark Reporting | Setup and Configuration | SC Rubrics) can also define district-wide rubrics in eSchoolPlus, as can instructors working in buildings that allow teachers to save public rubrics based on the Teacher Access Center building configuration.

Considerations for Loading Gradebook Results for Multiple Mark Types

When a building defines more than one mark type to receive Gradebook results, the teachers must be instructed to set up the assignments that should be grouped and loaded into the appropriate mark type. The assignments are loaded into mark types based on the Gradebook categories that the teacher has selected for the course-section.

For example, if you load marks for a marking period (MP) mark and a final exam (EXM) mark, teachers would need to designate the Gradebook assignments to be included in the mark type of EXM. To select the categories to average for a mark type, the teacher selects the Report Card Averages tab on the Gradebook Setup page and checks the Override checkbox for the EXM mark. Then the teacher designates that the Final Exam category is the only category to be included in the EXM mark type.

The teacher must also designate that all Homeworks, Tests, and Quizzes (all categories except for the Final Exam category) should be included in the MP Mark Type. If the teachers do not exclude the Final Exam category from the MP mark type, then the assignment scores for the Final Exam will be averaged into the MP mark type.