Setting Up Graduation Requirements

This topic provides a general overview of the steps involved to set up graduation requirements. If your district uses the Career Planner features, refer to Set Up Career Plan Requirements.

Set Up Graduation Requirements

1. Set up the requirement groups for students in your district. Select Administration > General Setup > District > Validation Tables. Then select the Registration application and the Requirement Groups table.
   For example, if students in a vocational program have different requirements from students in a college preparatory curriculum, you might define two requirement groups; vocational and college preparatory.
   You must add a requirement group of MS (for master setup). This group is used for students who do not have a specific requirement group identified. If all students in your district have the same requirements, you do not need to define any other requirement groups.
2. Assign requirement groups to students.
   When graduation requirements are calculated for students, the graduation requirements calculation uses the student's Graduation Year and Graduation Requirement Group values on the Academic page to determine what requirements the student needs to meet.
   The system automatically uses a requirement group of MS (for master setup) for students who do not have a specific requirement group identified. If the student should meet the requirements for the master setup, leave the Graduation Requirement Group field blank.
3. Define the requirement areas for graduation. Select Administration > General Setup > District > Validation Tables. Then select the Mark Reporting application and the Graduation Requirement Area table.
   You can set up two types of requirement areas:
   
   • Subject Areas are used to specify that a student must earn a certain number of credits in a particular subject. For example, Mathematics or Social Studies.
   • Value Areas are used to set up graduation requirements that are not associated with course credit. For example, Community Service may be a value area if students are required to complete a specified number of service hours for graduation.
4. Define the requirements for the requirement groups by graduation year. Select Administration > Mark Reporting Setup > Calculation Setup > Graduation Requirements Setup.
   For each requirement group and graduation year that needs to be set up, define the graduation requirements. The type of area for a requirement determines how you specify the requirements for graduation.
   
   • For subject areas, indicate the total number of credits the student must earn in courses in this subject area. For example, students must earn three credits in Mathematics to graduate.
     If appropriate, define a minimum mark requirement if students are required to pass courses with a minimum mark in order to earn subject area credits. For more information, refer to Overview of Minimum Mark Requirements.
   • For value areas, enter the appropriate number and units for the area. For example, if students are required to complete 60 hours of community service, enter 60 in the Required Values column and Hours in Units. After graduation requirements are calculated for the student, you can key in the value that the student has earned for any value areas on the Graduation Requirement page.
5. Assign subject areas to courses.
   For each course, indicate the subject areas that the course fulfills and how credit for the course should be divided when a course meets multiple subject areas.
   Subject areas are assigned in the Course Catalog. If you need to change subject areas for courses offered in prior years, maintain subject area information in the Master Schedule.