Final Grading FAQ and Troubleshooting

Places to check 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.
  

What if we decide to post an "Exempt" grade for the Final Exam? What happens to the extra percentage when calculating a Final Grade?

Example: A school has final grades being calculated as follows, for a Full Year course. Each marking period is worth 20% and both exams are worth 10% each: 

Answer:  If we post an "X" to a student's Final Exam grade, the final exam no longer factors into the Final Grade. However, the leftover 10% will be distributed among the other grading collections. The best way to display how exactly this is done, is to present the grades earned as 100 for everything except one collection, which we will mark with 0 as the grade earned.

Normal Calculations:

Final Grade is 80 - MP grade is worth 20%

Final Grade is 90 - Exam grade is worth 10%

Posting Exempt Grade:

  Final Grade becomes 78 - MP grade is now worth roughly 22.25%

  Final Grade becomes 89 - Exam grade now worth roughly 11%

Based on the above, we can see each grade collection's weight is inflated when posting an 'exempt' grade. However, the marking period's weight is inflated more so than the exam's percentage. The same would apply when posting a "Pass" grade for a marking period or exam, in place of a numeric grade.

Note: this FAQ is for schools using the regular Grading module. Not Elem Grading.