Grades Management Overview

Grading Managers can now manage essential grading settings in Grades management. If grading setup is rolling over from one year to the next, there is no need to access School year setup.

To access this grading hub in Academics, select Grades, then Grades management.

Settings

For quick access, the following items are linked under Settings.

Add a Diploma to a Group of Students

You can associate a diploma with multiple students at once.

Select + Add diploma to a group.
Select students to include using one of the following:
- List: Select an existing Students list.
  
  Tip: To create or edit Student Lists, go to Grades in the main menu and select Manage lists. For more information about this process, see the help topic Manage Lists.
- Grade level: Select a grade level at your school.
Select Next.
Use the search bar to select a Diploma to associate with the students.
Select Next.
Review your selections and once confirmed, select Finish.

Tip: This process may take a few minutes. A notification indicating that the process has started is displayed in the lower right.

When the process is complete, the diploma you selected will be applied to the selected students. They can now apply credits toward completion of the diploma.

Note: If a student in the affected group was already working toward a diploma, they will now have two diplomas associated with their profile. Credits will be processed toward diplomas according to their process order.

For more information, see Diplomas.

Record Student Awards

Select + Record award.
Select the School year and Term.
Select the Student(s) and name of the Award.
Optional: Enter the Date conferred and Comment for transcripts.
Select Save or Save and add another.

For more information about setting up award types, granting awards, and displaying awards on transcripts, see the help landing page Awards .

Review Needs Attention Items

Under Needs attention, Grading Managers can quickly identify grading items that may require them to take action:

Missing grades: Notes the number of teachers who have not entered required grades after a marking period closed. Select a link to access Enter grades by class.
Performance calculations: Indicates performance calculations include information for last year, but no information for the current or next school year. Select a link to access Calculations.
Grade average calculations: Indicates grade average calculations include information for last year, but no information for the current or next year. Select a link to access Calculations.

Manage Marking Period Dates and Formulas

The Marking periods section displays details for the selected school level and term.

Select the gear icon to choose the Group type, School level, and Term to display. You can also choose to display Review dates and Grade formulas.
Select Edit marking periods to edit the marking period and (optional) review period start and end dates. Changes made here are reflected in School year setup.

Grade formulas

To edit an existing grade formula associated with a Marking period, select the formula name under Grade formulas.

To add a new formula:

Select +Add grade formula.
Select the Grade group, Marking period, and Grade column.
(Optional) Enter a Description and Sort order.
(Optional) Set Decimal places and rounding preferences.

Note: Decimal places and Round result work together to determine how your final grade is expressed.
If Round result is enabled, grades are rounded up according to the Decimal places setting.
If Round result is disabled, grades round down to the nearest value according to the Decimal places setting.
For example:
- If Decimal places is 0 and Round result is disabled, 76.7 becomes 76.
- If Decimal places is 0, and Round result is enabled, grades round up if the decimal is .5 or higher so 76.7 becomes 77.
- If Decimal places is 1, and Round result is disabled, 76.77 becomes 76.7.
- If Decimal places is 1, and Round result is enabled, grades round up if the decimal is .05 or higher, so 76.77 becomes 76.8.
Choose Grades to include.
- Gradebook grade: Select the Gradebook grade and Percentage.
- Grade column: Select the Grade column and Percentage.
Select Save or Add another until the appropriate Grades to include are added.
Select Save.

Manage Report Card Access

Select the gear icon to select the School level and Roles to include in the grid.
Report cards for the selected school level display with access dates for each term.
To edit access dates, select the report card name. Select Save when finished making your changes.

Define Grading Setup for Next Year

This grid indicates if Gradebook and Grading rollovers are complete for a school level. If a rollover has been performed, the rollover date and timestamp are displayed.

Copy Gradebook and Grading settings to the next year

Rollover Grading settings for all group types.

Note: This process allows simultaneous Grading and Gradebook rollover for Academic groups. If performing these rollovers separately, the Gradebook rollover must be completed first.

Select Get started.
Select Copy previous.

Note: To set up grading information from scratch, see Define grading setup for next year from scratch.
On the General tab, select the Group type to rollover.
Under Copy from, select the School level and Academic year to copy from.
Under Copy to, select the School level and Academic year to copy to.
Select information to copy:
- Grade groups, marking periods, grade columns, and grade formulas
  
  Note: Grading rollover cannot proceed if marking periods were manually added to the Copy to year. To proceed, delete the manually added marking periods (if grades have not been recorded), then perform the rollover.
- Gradebook grading periods (Academic groups only)
Select Next.
On the Marking period dates tab, edit dates as needed.
Select Next.
On the Gradebook marking period dates tab, edit dates as needed.
Select Finish.

Define grading setup for next year from scratch

Select Get started.
Select Start from scratch.

Grading terminology

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.