Report Cards FAQ

Q: Why are reports cards not generating for this student?

Places to check:

• Verify the student has grades posted via Student Data>Modify Student>Grades.
• Verify that the CONTACTS have "Receives Mailings For..." and (at least) "Report Cards" checked off.  This is found via Student Data>Modify Student>Demographics>Contacts>Modify Contacts.
  

Q: If a student takes some courses in a school other than the school I am printing report cards for, will those grades from the other school appear?

Grades from other schools will or will not appear based on the settings of the Report Card Definition.  To configure this, go the the GRADING -> REPORT CARDS -> REPORT CARDS tab and edit the report card definition. You will see an option called "Show Grades from all Schools". If checked and a student has grades from a school other than this Report Card Definition's school, those grades will appear on the report card.

If you are printing grades from multiple schools on report cards, you may wish to generate report cards using the "Print report cards only for students that are in this school:" option on the report card generation screen.  This will prevent a student has has grades in School A and School B from receiving a report card from BOTH schools.

Q:  Can I print my Report Cards out by a Specific Period?

Yes. You may print Report Cards by choosing either the Homeroom, Student Name or Period on a given School Day sort.

Period on a given School Day works as follows.  Genesis takes the From Period and School Day entered into the Report Card Generation screen and determines the the Start Time for that from period on that given School Day.  Genesis then determines what Class each student will be at that Start Time and sorts the Report Cards by that Class.  Classes will be sorted by Teacher Name.

Note: If a school has multiple Print Periods with the same From Period Genesis will sort by the first Print Period it comes across.

Q: The teacher name on the report card is not the one that I would want? Is there a way to update the teacher name on the report card for the whole class?

Of course! In order to change the teacher name for a course on a report card, you can switch the "On report card:" field for the course on the Scheduling -> Sections screen. Once you have chosen the teacher name, you have one more step. Since the teacher name on the report card comes from the student's grade history record, you now have to update all of the grades in the class with the new teacher. This can be accomplished by going to the Grading -> GPA / Rank -> Maintenance screen and recalculating the grades. After that, the grades for the students will all be updated with the new teacher name.

Q:  A kid was in one course but dropped out/switched classes. Grades were posted for a marking period already - how can I get the course off their report card?

If a grade is posted on the Student Data>Modify Student>Grades tab, it will pull to the report card. If you do not want it to pull, delete the grade from the Student Data>Modify Student>Grades tab.

Q: We would like to print our elementary report cards on double sided paper but overflow pages can cause a new report card to start on the back side of the previous students report card.  Is there a way around this?

Yes.  Simply check off the DUPLEX PRINTING option when printing the report cards and Genesis will create 'blank' pages when necessary to avoid two students report cards from printing on the same sheet of paper.

Q: I have a different report card template for each grade level in my school.  Is it possible to show the grade appropriate report card for the student when looking them up in Student Data or in Parents Module?

Absolutely.  Each report card definition (Grading -> Setup -> Report Cards -> Report Cards) allows you to have an override template for each grade level. Simply select the template you need for the grade level and then the screens will honor that template selection. This allows you to have just one "MP1 Report Card" definition which ties your student's by grade level to the appropriate report card template.

Q: This <grade / skill> is not appearing on Students' report card.  Why would that happen?

Places to check:

• Does the student have a grade/skill posted?  Verify via Student Data>Modify Student>Grades>Overall and/or Student Data>Modify Student>Grades>Skills and Narrative Comments
• Check the MACRO for this course code / skill via Grading>Report Cards>Templates>Fields.  If anything is misspelled, it will never pull to the report card.

Q: There's a spelling error on my report card form/PDF.  Can I make a change and re-upload the form without causing any other issues?

Yes.  As long as you don't shift anything else around, you can just save the source document (a Word Doc) to your computer, make the change, save it as a PDF and upload the new PDF.  

Macros (which are the different fields on your RC form, such as the teacher name and the subject grade etc) are based on X/Y coordinates.  

So, if you end up shifting anything around on the PDF template itself, this can cause issues.  It can cause things to suddenly appear out of place, off center etc.  So, just be very careful with this - especially if you need to make a change mid-year.

That being said - if you just notice an error on your form, or you need to add something to it that won't affect anything else, the directions are below.

1. Go to the Grading>Report Cards>Templates screen. There should be a Microsoft word doc saved in that "Src" column. Click on that icon to download it to your computer:
   
2. Open the word doc on your computer and make the appropriate change.  (This is all on your end, outside of Genesis.)
3. Re-save the word doc. (It might be best to save a new copy, so you can still access your original word doc as well.)
4. Then, save the document as a PDF.
5. Go to Grading>Report Cards>Templates and click the MODIFY icon:
   
6. On this screen, you can upload your new PDF in the "Template PDF" area.  Click "Choose File", locate the new PDF on your computer, and click "Upload File."
7. On that same screen, you can re-upload your source document (the word doc) in the "Source Document" area.  Click "Choose File", locate the new word doc, and click "Upload File."
   

Q: I use Skill grades. Why isn't this grade pulling to the report card for students.

1. Core Subject report cards require the courses to have the "Core Subject" and "Skill Group" filled in. This is found on the Curriculum file itself - via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Curriculum. Review the course on that screen to ensure this info is filled in.
   
2. Core Subject report cards can have only one Core Subject. So, for example, if a student is missing some courses on the report card - make sure "Math" is not selected for 2 courses.  If "Math" is selected for MATH and then also ART, as an example, both courses would be blank on the student's report card.  Review each course the student has to ensure this info is filled in, via Scheduling>Curriculum>Modify Curriculum. 
3. Check the RC template and definition to make sure the Core Subjects are added and in the proper order.  If Core Subject is listed on BOTH definition and template, the template's Core Subjects trump definitions.
4. Review the MACROS on the Report card itself, via Grading>Report Cards>Templates>Fields.  The Macros need to match the SKILL CODES found via Grading>Setup>Skills. Review both screens to make sure there are no typos or incorrect codes.
   

Q: Report cards are ready to post - why aren't they appearing on the Parent Portal?

Places to check:

• (For both regular grading and Elem Grading) Make sure the form is set to display for each school via Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Report Cards.
• (For Elem Grading) Make sure the correct Marking Period is selected in the "Current Marking Period For Printing" area via ElemGrading>Setup>Open/Close for each grade level.
• (For regular grading) Go to Grading>Report Cards>Report Cards. Make sure the "single" definitions are also set to display in the parent portal.
• (For regular grading) If you want ALL available report cards to display, make sure "Show All 201X-1X Report Cards" is checked off on the Parent Access>Setup>Settings>School Settings>Report Cards screen.
• (For Elem Grading) Make sure the GRADE LEVELS are checked off as "Elementary" via Setup>Schools>Modify School>Valid Grades.
• (For regular grading) Make sure the Grade Levels are NOT checked off as "Elementary" via Setup>Schools>Modify School>Valid Grades.

Q:  When adding narrative comments in another language, pasted from Google Translate, they convert to upside-down question marks and other characters when viewing the report card.

The Genesis database stores data in the ISO-8859 character set, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_8859-1) and certain languages are not supported. Because of this, certain special characters are not able to be entered and saved properly.