Grading FAQ

Question 1: Can Genesis automatically determine a P or F S1 grade for a course?

A: Yes! Genesis can determine a P or F based on the following:

If a student has nothing but P's and/or F's for a course.
AND
the P grade is setup as a non-letter grade
then Genesis will calculate a P or F based on the formula of if there are at least as many P's as F's, the student gets a P. If not, an F.

Because the P is a non-letter, the FG would not have ATTEMPTED Credits. It would get Earned Credits . So this grade will be ignored by GPA.

Question 2: How does Genesis auto calculate a FG if not all the grades needed for the FG are included?

This can happen if say, a FG for a Full Year course was set to

MP1 20%

MP2 20%

ME  10%

MP3 20%

MP4 20%

FE  10%

and a FY course section in your curriculum is not going to take a Mid Term.

In this case Genesis scales up all the other collected grades to derive the FG.

Here’s an example.  Dave receives an 80 for each of the Marking periods and 75 for the Final Exam.

(80 * .20) + (80 * .20)  + (80 * .20) + (80 * .20) + (75 * .10)

This leaves us with a 71.5 but it is missing 10% of the grades for the proper FG calculation so we scale it up based on only 90% of the grade being accounted for.

(71.5 * 100 / 90)  Which creates a Final Grade of 79

Question 3: What if I don't want Genesis to scale the FG as explained in Question 2? What if a want to double the FE instead?

You will want to create a NEW collection type and combine the ME and FE using the "Combine grades from other collections:". In this case you would set the Formula for calculations to ME:50,FE:50.

Then simply insert this new collection into your FG calculations in place of the ME and FE. Now if a course only takes a ME and not a FE, the ME would be counted twice.

Question 4: How would I use Custom Grades?

Custom Grades are used to give students grades that deviate from the preset scales.

Question 5: Is there a way I can mass assign grading collections to my sections?  / Teachers are getting a Your teacher account does not have any sections that are grading this marking period. message when trying to Post Grades. How do I fix this?

Yes. This is a post rollover task to be completed by the district.

There is a wizard you can run via Grading>Setup>Setup Guide for each of your schools. It'll autofill in this information for you. It is the "automatically assign collections to all subsections" wizard.

Run it for each school, and this will be resolved (aside from some manual tweaking.)

Alternately, you can go to Scheduling>Sections and do this en masse.

Change the "VIEW" dropdown to "GRADING." And click SEARCH.

You will see ALL of your sections, and for each Marking Period column, you can check them off to be graded and hit "update" at the bottom of the screen. This is what the wizard is actually filling in.

Question 6: How do I open grading for teachers?

You open grading on the Grading>Grading Process screen.  

The Grading>Grading Process>Open/Close Grading tab allows you to select which grade collections are currently open and available for teachers to post grades for.

If it is currently open for a specific marking period/collection, and you need to make a change or just close it out, you will need to click the "Close Grading" button.

You will then see a screen reading "Grade Collection is currently CLOSED." 

If you just needed to close grading, that's all you need to do!

If you need to make a change to the collection open for grading or being asked for, you need to select the marking period in the "Which marking or interim period would you like to open for grade collection" dropdown.

And then you check off applicable collections in the "Select collections to ask for" area.

The icon next to each collection will bring you directly to the Grading>Setup>Collections>Modify Collection screen when clicked.

Once you have the correct settings, click "Open Grading" to allow teachers to post grades.

Question 7: 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.
   
   
   

Question 8: We use an ALPHA grading system at this school.  The FG calculation is not making sense to us.  How did it get pulled?

Be sure you are referring to the quality points when looking at the final grades.  This is found next to your grades via Grading>Setup>Valid Grades.

From and Thru Quality Points

This field is only used in Alpha Grading schools (Schools that only use Alpha Grades; no numeric grades at all). It is used for Automatic Final Grade Calculations.

In an Alpha Grade school; the quality points for each grade is summed and divided by the number of grades (average).

The final grade is determined then by looking at all grades the have the "Is Letter Grade" flag checked; and where the quality point fits in this range.

(3+3+3+4) /4 = 3.25 which according to the 'From Q' and 'Thru Q' ranges, would equal a final grade of B.

Question 9: Can I post an Interim grade administratively as I do with Marking Period grades?

Yes - you should be able to do this via Student Data>Modify Student>Grades>Grades by selecting the Interim period in the "Marking Period" dropdown.

Question 10:  How do I run GPAs for students?  And how do I run their RANKS?

The process to do this would be:

• Go to Grading>GPA/Rank>GPA Calc. Select the GPA code that you need in the "GPA(s) to re-calculate" dropdown and click "Calculate."
• Then, go to Grading>GPA/Rank>Ranking.  Select the same GPA code you need in the "Rank(s) to run" dropdown and click "Calculate."
• Then, if needed, you can run report 40501 Class Rank / GPA Report via Grading>Reports. Make sure to select the same GPA code you need as you run the report.
  
  

Places to check/review if your district has automatic final grade calculation set up and grades are not being automatically calculated.

• Go to Grading>Setup>Calculations. Make sure the appropriate marking period/semester codes are checked off. For example, if it's a Full Year course, make sure "Calculate Full Year Course Final Grades" is checked off.

• Go to Grading>Setup>Calculations and scroll down to the FORMULAS. Make sure each relevant collection has the the correct percentages entered. Each column in the matrix must add up to 100% - it must completely specify how to calculate the final grade for that type of course. The 100% can come from any combination of cells in the column.
  
• Go to Scheduling>Sections>Modify Section. Make sure the appropriate Grading collections are checked off for the section. For example, if it is just an S1 course, make sure only MP1 and MP2 are checked off to be collected. If MP3 and MP4 are checked off, the system will be waiting until grades are entered for THOSE two marking periods before automatically calculating an FG. If some are missing, check them off and save. If some are not needed, uncheck them and save.
  
• Recalculate grades via Grading>GPA/Rank>Maintenance (or individually) if you've made a change listed above. Grades won't get recalculated automatically. You will need to re-post grades for the changes to take effect and for the FG to be calculated if you have updated a calculation, for example.