Create Marking Periods

Marking Periods are the periods during a school year when grading takes place. Create a Marking Period for each period when you want teachers to record report card grades specific to a term.

Once created, Marking Periods must be added to a Marking Period Group via School Year Setup.

To get started:

  1. From the persona menu, select Academics.

  2. Select Grades, then Grading setup.

  3. Select Marking periods.

Tip: For a tutorial on setting up grading at your school, see The Guide to Grading Setup.

  1. Select + Add Marking period.

  2. Enter a Description for the Marking Period.

    Tip: The Description is how the Marking Period will be identified by faculty when recording grades, so make it as specific as possible (for example, Q1 Report Card).

  3. Set the Status to Active.

  4. Select Save & Close or select Save & Add Another to add more Marking Periods without closing the window.

A standard marking period will include an exam, effort, midterm, term, or final grade. A standard marking period must be used in order to calculate a GPA or academic performance. Gradebook grades can be pulled onto a standard marking period when a teacher records grades, and teachers can use the Calculate button to calculate term or final grades.

A skills-based marking period is typically used to evaluate students based on skills, such as "comes to class prepared" or "counts by fours." Before adding a skills-based marking period, make sure that the Skills-Based Grading Periods are set up.

Marking Periods, in short, are the periods during a school year when grading is recorded. Create a Marking Period for each period when you want teachers to record grades specific to a term. Examples of grading periods could be Q1 Report Card, Q1 Progress Report, Tri 2 Report Card, and so forth.

Here are some important definitions to know during grading setup:

  • Grade Translations are grades (such as A, B, C, D, or F) and the criteria associated with them for use in GPA calculations.

  • Grade Categories determine how Grade Translations appear on report cards. They are linked to courses through Marking Periods. You should create a Grade Category for each Grade Translation table.

  • Marking Periods (formerly Grade Plans) are the periods during an academic year when grades are recorded. They are time-sensitive buckets that teachers drop grades into. Marking periods are added to Grade Groups.

  • Grade Columns (formerly Grade Plan Grades) are what you allow teachers to record during a Marking Period, whether they are comments or traditional grades. If Marking Periods are buckets, then Grade Columns are the contents of those buckets.

  • Grade Groups (formerly Grade Plan Groups) are used to link courses with Marking Periods. There are two types of Grade Groups: Traditional or Skills-Based.

  • Grade Calculations use student grades to generate Grade Point Averages, academic performance awards, and class rankings.

  • Transcript Categories determine how courses are grouped together on a transcript.

  • Traditional Grading (formerly Standard Grading) uses letter grades or percentages to summarize a student's overall performance in a course and grades are used to calculate GPAs.

  • Skills-Based Grading (formerly Assessment Grading) evaluates how well a student has mastered specific skills or learning standards. Instead of an overall course grade, it shows progress on each skill to provide clear insight into a student's strengths and areas for growth.

Next to +Add Marking period is the option to Clean up entries. When you select that a new modal appears where you can pick from current marking periods on the left side and replace them with the selected option from he drop down on the right. This is a great way to merge, combine, or replace duplicate or outdated entries.

Warning: Replaced values are immediately removed from the Marking Periods list and can't be recovered.