Individual Gradebook Setup

Teachers should set up their gradebooks before they begin adding assignments to ensure students' cumulative grades are calculated correctly. Gradebook Managers may set up Gradebook defaults by school level, including Gradebook calculation (Year vs. Marking period Marking periods are times during an academic year when grades are recorded. They are like time-sensitive buckets that teachers drop grades into. Marking periods are added to Grade Groups.), Calculation method, and the Number of decimal points to show. They may also restrict teachers from changing these settings. Even if defaults are set and restricted, teachers need to review their gradebook settings to complete the setup.

To set up your gradebook, navigate to your class and select Launch gradebook. Select More, then Settings to access the Gradebook settings where you'll configure your Display options, Gradebook access, and Grade calculation Grade Calculations use students' grades to generate Grade Point Averages, academic performance awards, and class rankings.. If your school uses Mastery, this is also where you'll set up your Mastery calculation. See Mastery Learning for more information.

In addition to setting up the calculation, teachers can enable certain features to help customize the gradebook to meet their needs. Check out our documentation here when you're all set up and ready to work with assignment grades in a class gradebook.

Note: An administrator must set Group Page Access before Teachers can access their classes and groups. See Group Page Access for more information.

Note: Your Display options are set for each class individually.

Under Display options, you control the following display settings:

  • Column header information: Choose to display assignments by title or abbreviation and if you want to display the Assignment type, Date due, and Date assigned information in your gradebook. If your school is using Mastery, you can also control displaying the Skill code and Skill name.

    Note: The Title, Max points, and Number of Skills are always displayed.

  • Section indicators: Select which indicator icons you would like to use in your gradebook.

  • Default displays: Choose your default display options:

    • Group by assignment type

      Tip: Assignment types are sorted alphabetically.

    • Sort assignment columns by: Assignments can be sorted by Due date and Assigned date as well as oldest to newest.

    • Show student names: Names can be displayed with First name or Last name first.

    • Row sorting: You can select how students should be sorted in your gradebook. In addition to the traditional A-Z and Z-A sorting options, you can also Sort by custom order. When selected, use the Edit option to drag and drop your students into your preferred order.

    • Skill column display: Select if Skill columns should be hidden or displayed. This setting is only available for schools using Mastery.

Note: Your administrator may manage Gradebook access globally, in which case, you can view the settings here, but you cannot change them.
If your administrator does not manage Gradebook access, you must set it up for each class individually.

Gradebook access determines what gradebook information is visible to users with specific roles.

Use the available checkboxes to allow access by role to the following:

  • Marking period cumulative(gradebook marking period cumulative)

  • Year cumulative

  • Assignment grades

  • Assignment comments

Under Grade calculation, select the calculation method that will be used to calculate the cumulative grades for your class. You can also apply your Grade calculation settings to additional class sections.

  1. Select the Set calculation by option for the gradebook calculation. You can set the calculation method to be based on the entire Year or by each gradebook Marking period individually.

    Note: Your school may require all gradebooks to use the same Set calculation by setting. If so, you cannot change the selection.

    Note: If your calculation is setup by gradebook Marking period, after configuring your settings for the first gradebook marking period, you can use Copy to all marking periods to copy the Calculation method, Assignment types, Weight (if applicable), Letter grade scale, Number to drop per marking period, and Default max points to subsequent marking periods.

  2. Select a Letter grade scale if you want to select letter grades instead of numeric values.

  3. Select the Gradebook cumulative display format: 

    • Numeric (label) - Example: 96 (SB)

    • Label (numeric) - Example: A (96)

    • Numeric - Example: 96

    • Label - Example: A

  4. Enable Show gradebook calculation to display the gradebook calculation for students viewing their grade details from their Progress page.

    Note: When Show gradebook calculation is enabled, students and parents can see calculation details, including which assignments, if any, are dropped from the calculation.

  5. Next, select the Calculation method for the class. Hover over the blue info icon next to the Calculation method dropdown to view a description of each calculation.

    Tip: If your gradebook is set up by marking period and you select a Calculation method for a subsequent marking period that is different than the method selected for the first marking period, a message displays to let you know that the calculation methods do not match. You can disregard the message if this is intentional.

    Note: For more details and calculation examples, see Gradebook Calculations.

    Total Points

    How it works: Adds all points earned and divides by total maximum points.

    Best for: Straight point-based grading with no assignment type weighting.

    Key behaviors:

    • Large assignments have more impact.

    • Assignment type categories are not considered.

    Formula: (Sum (Points earned × Assignment factor) / Sum (Maximum points × Assignment factor)) × 100 = Cumulative grade

    Total Points with Weight

    How it works: Calculates a point-based grade within each category, then applies assignment type weights.

    Best for: Weighted assignment types where assignments within a type may have different maximum point values.

    Key behavior:

    • Assignment types are weighted.

    • Larger assignments still have more influence within each assignment type category.

    Formula:

    First: For each assignment type: Sum (Points earned × Assignment factor) / Sum (Maximum points × Assignment factor) = Assignment type grade

    Next: (Sum (Assignment type grade × Weight) / Sum (Weight)) × 100 = Cumulative grade

    Percentages

    How it works: Converts each assignment to a percentage, averages those percentages within assignment type categories, then applies weights.

    Best for: Weighted assignment types where all assignments should count equally, regardless of maximum points.

    Key behavior:

    • Assignment types are weighted.

    • All assignments are equal within an assignment type, regardless of point value.

    Formula:

    First: For each assignment type: Sum ((Points earned / Maximum points) × Assignment factor) / Sum (Assignment factor) = Assignment type grade

    Next: (Sum (Assignment type grade × Weight) / Sum (Weight))× 100 = Cumulative grade

    Quick Decision Tip

    • Choose Total Points if grading is based on total points only.

    • Choose Total Points with Weight if both category weighting and assignment size should matter.

    • Choose Percentages if category weighting matters, but assignments contribute equally regardless of max points.

  6. Use Select assignment types to choose the assignment types you will use for the section.

  7. For each assignment type you can set:

    • Letter grade scale: Letter grade scales allow you to use letters when entering grades for students and students receive a fixed-point assignment value based on the parameters of the letter grade scale set by the administrator.

      Note: You cannot change the Letter grade scale for an Assignment type if grades exist for assignments associated with that Assignment type.

      Warning: If your cumulative grades for students are incorrect and you are using a letter grade scale, please speak with your administrator to verify the letter grade scale goes up to 100.

    • Weight (if using Total points with weight or Percentages as your calculation method).

      Note: When using Total points with weight or Percentages for your calculation method, a running total of the overall assigned weight is displayed below.

    • Number to drop per marking period: Number of lowest grade assignments to drop from the calculation for this assignment type for the gradebook marking period.

      Tip: When viewing the gradebook, a icon indicates which assignments are dropped from the cumulative calculation.

    • Default max points: The Max points set on new assignments by default.

  8. Under Other sections to apply, select any other courses these settings should apply to. You cannot apply settings to courses that are already set up.

  9. To copy settings from the first gradebook marking period to subsequent gradebook marking periods for the current class and any other classes selected under Other sections to apply, select Copy to all marking periods.

    Note: Copy to all marking periods copies the Calculation method, Assignment types, Weight (if applicable), Letter grade scale, and Number to drop per marking period settings. If any other class sections are selected under the first marking period, the settings are also copied to all gradebook marking periods for those sections.

The last item under Settings in the gradebook is Mastery calculation. This is only available for teachers at schools using Mastery. Depending on your school's setup, you may not have access to edit all of these settings.

  1. Under Calculation method, select your calculation. For more information on the calculation methods, see Mastery Calculation Guide.

  2. If a student must master a skill a specific number of times, enable Student must demonstrate mastery N times before mastery is acknowledged.

  3. To allow students and parents to view the calculation method when reviewing the student's grade details, enable Display calculation.

  4. Under Other sections to apply, select any other courses these settings should apply to. You cannot apply settings to courses that have already been setup.

  5. If your school has both Total Points and Mastery enabled, under Student gradebook landing page, you can set the Landing page to display Total points or Skills by default when students or parents view the student gradebook.

  6. When finished, select Save.