Grade Category

Grade Categories determine how Grade translations appear on report cards. In addition, they allow teachers to add comments to a progress report or report card.

Grade Categories are attached to Grade Plan Grades within a Grade Plan. When a teacher goes to record a grade during a marking period (based on the Grade Plan), the Grade Category is what determines how they record the grade, and how that grade will then appear on a report card.

Grade categories are required to use grade translations on a grade plan. They're also required if your school displays comments on report cards. Using the grade category options, Grading Managers can control whether teachers will have access to HTML formatting, including bold, italics, and underlines, when writing comments. 

There should be a 1:1 ratio between grade translations and grade plans. Do not attach one grade category to multiple grade translations.

  1. From the persona menu, select Academics.

  2. Go to Grades and select Grading setup.

  3. Select Grade categories.

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

  1. Select Add.

  2. Choose the appropriate Group Type. Most grades will fall under the type Academics, although your school might want to assign grades for Activities, Advisory, Dorms, or Athletics. For more information about advisory groups, see Advisories .

  3. Enter a  Category Name (for example, "Upper School Letter" or "Comments").

    Ensure that the Category Name corresponds with the Grade Translation table you will be referencing if you are setting up a Grade-based Grade Category.

  4. Choose the Category Type

    • Grade: Creates a Grade-based Grade Category, which is used to record letter or numeric grades for display on a progress report or report card.

    • Comment: Creates a Comment-based Grade Category, which is used to record textual comments for display on a progress report or report card.

  5. If the category type is grade, choose a Translation from the dropdown menu.

  6. If the category type is comment, select the Comment Editor to use for grading comments: HTML Editor (default) or Plain Text.

     If HTML Editor is selected, make sure teachers paste comments as plain text if comments are authorized outside Education Management.

  7. Select an option to determine how a grade appears on a report card or transcript.

    • Translate score on output: If selected, the grade will appear on a report card or transcript based on the grade Label (for example, C-) in the associated Grade Translation table. If unselected, and Translate Score on Input is disabled, the numeric grade will display (for example, 75%). If unselected, and Translate Score on Input is enabled, then the Max value in the grade range will display.

      If associated with an Assessment Report Card, Translate on Output will display the Abbreviation from the Grade Translation table. The Grade Label will only display in the Legend of an Assessment Report Card if that setting is selected in Report Card Builder for a respective report card.

    • Translate score on input: If selected, when a teacher records grades, the teacher selects a grade based on the grade Labels (for example, C-) in the associated Grade Translation table. If unselected, then the teacher types in a numeric grade.

    • Use Equivalent Score to calculate the GPA: If selected, when a teacher records grades, GPA calculations will be based on the values that appear in the Grade Translation table under the column GPA equivalent 2. For more information, see Create a Grade Translation .

  8. Select Save & Exit.

Translate score on input and Translate score on output can be enabled and disabled regardless of whether grades have already been entered. However, the translation will not occur if certain setup criteria are unmet in the Grade Translation table associated with the Grade Category:

When turning Translate Score on Input OFF:

  • Each recorded letter grade (ex. A, B, C) is converted to the Numeric Equivalent (ex. 92, 85, 80) in the corresponding row. Therefore, you must have a Numeric Equivalent for each grade in the translation table.

When turning Translate Score on Input ON:

  • Each recorded grade (ex. 93.33, 74.65, 60) must be able to fit into a Min and Max grade range. There should be no gaps between the Min and Max grade ranges in the table.

    • Accommodate for the possibility of extra credit grades. For example, if a recorded grade equated to 130, the grade would be assigned to a grade in the translation table with a Max of 130 or higher.

  • Ensure there are Grade Labels for every instance of a letter grade in your system.

    • For example, if a Transfer Grade was entered as an A+ or a W, then those values must be added as Grade Labels in the Grade Translation table.

If you use alternate grades, then reconfiguring these settings is unnecessary. Alternate grades requires both Translate Score on Input (to select the grade) and Translate Score on Output (to display the grade label) to be Blackbaud's Education Management.

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 Grade Plans. You should create a Grade Category for each Grade Translation table.

  • Grade Plans are the periods during an academic year when grades are recorded. They are time-sensitive buckets that teachers drop grades into. Grade plans are added to Grade Plan Groups.

  • Grade Plan Grades are what you allow teachers to record during a Grade Plan, whether they are comments or standard grades. If Grade Plans are buckets, then Grade Plan Grades are the contents of those buckets.

  • Grade Plan Groups are used to link courses with Grade Plans. There are two types of Grade Plan Groups: Standard or Assessment.

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

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