Valid Grades Screen

Modified on Wed, Feb 28 at 10:41 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Grading System Setup
Alpha Grades screen
Minimum Maximum screen

Grading System Setup

A school's grading system comes in of two flavors: Numeric or Alpha.

If a school uses a numeric grade in any way; genesis considers the school to be a numeric grading system; the alpha grade is generally used for GPA purposes and is derived from the numeric grade.

To define what system the school is going to use; navigate to the Grading>Setup>Valid Grades>Numeric Grades screen.

Numeric Grading

On the Grading>Setup>Valid Grades>Numeric Grades; you will need to configure the options appropriately.

Here are what the options mean in terms of a numeric grading school:

Allow Numeric Grades - Turn this option ON if the school will be using numeric grading.

If the school will be using Alpha grades for determining the GPA (or they will be printing Alpha grades on the report card); then the following options are relevant:

Post an Alpha Grade in addition to the numeric grade
Weighted Quality points are calculated from the Alpha Grade
Unweighted Quality points are calculated from the Alpha Grade
Minimum Passing Grade - This must be set to the numeric value that is considered a passing grade. Unless set in the next option; the unweighted numeric grade is used to determine if the grade is a passing or failing grade.
Use Weighted Grade for Min. Passing Grade

Alpha Grading

On the Grading>Setup>Valid Grades>Numeric Grades; you will need to make sure that the Allow Numeric Grades option is set to off.

Alpha Grades

The Grading>Setup->Valid Grades> Alpha Grades screen contains vital information for both a numeric and a alpha grading school.

The parameters of each of these grades must be configured correctly.

These parameters are referenced for a variety of reasons throughout the grade posting process; and depend on other settings in the system.

This portion of the guide will contain a very detailed account of each parameter found on the Alpha Grade.

Grade

The grade is the actual letter grade. A, A+, A-, B, WF and WP are examples of what a grade is. The description is almost always the same as the grade.

Description

A description of what the grade is. For example a WF might described as "Withdrew - Failing".

Sequence

The sequence is used to determine the order in which grades are listed in various screens throughout genesis; including drop down lists, reports and maintenance screens.

Category Code

Grades can be grouped into categories; this is almost always used in Honor Roll calculations; and is generally only filled out for letter grades (A, A+, B, C etc..).

For example, the grades A, A+ and A- will be set to a category code of A. A typical honor roll may say "Only As", meaning any kind of A (A, A+ or A-).

This is a letter grade (A..F)

This flag must only be set on actual letter grades (A, A+, B, B+ etc..).

This flag must NOT be set on any other kind of grade. If this flag is set incorrectly; really odd things happen during automatic grade calculation.

Automatic final grade calculation only considers alpha grades with this flag set.

Quality Points

This field is used only for Alpha Grading systems. This value dictates quality points that are awarded for this grade.

From and Thru Numeric Value

This field is only used in Numeric Grading schools. It is used for Automatic Final Grade Calculations.

After the numeric grades are averaged together; the Alpha Grade is looked up by looking at all grades that are flagged as Is Letter Grade; and the unweighted value that fits in this range.

For example; consider these grades (assuming that the Final Grade is equal to 25% of each marking period):

Course	Section	Collection	Numeric	W. Numeric	Alpha	Pass	Earned Credits	Attempted Credits
101-English	1	MP1	75	83	B	Y	1.25	1.25
101-English	1	MP2	80	88	B	Y	1.25	1.25
101-English	1	MP3	85	94	B	Y	1.25	1.25
101-English	1	MP4	90	99	A	Y	1.25	1.25

(75 + 80 + 85 + 90) / 4 = 82.5 (83 when rounded).

Genesis will take the 83 and look for an Alpha Grade where the From and Thru can contain an 83; most likely a B. That B will be posted along side the numeric average.

Notice that in a Numeric School System; the letter grades do not come into the equation in determining the final grade; they are just a "side effect" of the final grade calculation.

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.

Course	Section	Collection	Numeric	W. Numeric	Alpha	Pass	Earned Credits	Attempted Credits
101-English	1	MP1			B (3)	Y	1.25	1.25
101-English	1	MP2			B (3)	Y	1.25	1.25
101-English	1	MP3			B (3)	Y	1.25	1.25
101-English	1	MP4			A (3)	Y	1.25	1.25

(3+3+3+4) /4 = 3.25 which would normally equal a B.

Post Final Grade

If this is flag is set to YES; then when this grade is posted into a collection that has the "Allowed To Auto Post Final Grades" flag set to YES (usually these are Marking Period and Exam Collections); this grade will automatically be posted to the FG (Final Grade) collection as well.

Grades that usually have this flag set to yes are: Withdrew - Passing, Withdrew - Failing and Incomplete.

This option will always post this grade to the FG regardless of whether automatic grade calculations are used.

Passing Grade?

A passing grade in any collection will set the earned credits to the attempted credits. If a grade is not passing; the grade will earn 0 credits.

Effects Honor Roll?

The options for this are:

INCLUDED - This grade is considered into any honor roll calculation.
IGNORED - This grade is completely ignored as if the student never took the course; in regards to the honor roll calculation. These are generally used for P, O and S grades.
RESTRICTED - Any honor roll will automatically exclude this student from the honor roll; if the student contains a grade with this option set.

Used for GPA?

Grades that are posted with this flag; will be used in the GPA Calculation logic. For grades that are to be completely ignored in GPA Calculation; set this to NO.

A grade that is ignored in the GPA Calculation; is literally ignored; as if the student never took the course.

Prevents GPA Calculation

A grade with this option set to YES will automatically force the GPA to NOT calculate at all; and be discarded.

For example; if a grade his this option set to YES, and you try to calculate a 2007-08 GPA for this student; no GPA will be created; and if one exists; all values will be set to 0 (Attempted and Earned credits, and the GPA itself).

Apply GPA Weight

If this option is set to NO: GPA Weight parameters from a course; will be ignored; and the quality points on the grade itself will be used for both the Grade Quality Points and Weighted Grade Quality Points on the student grade record..
If this option is set to YES: The GPA Weight parameters from a course are used to determine the quality points for this grade; and will be stored in the Weighted Grade Quality Points field on the student grade record. The Grade Quality Points field will always store the raw grade quality points.

Use in Interim

If this field is set to YES; when posting grades to an interim grading collection; this grade will appear in the drop down list.

Use in Marking Period (or Exams or Final Grade)

If this field is set to YES; when posting grades to a Exam Final Grade or Marking Period collection; the grade will appear in the list.

Quality Points: (Courses weighted as RANK or FLAG)

There are 5 levels of courses; where you can specify the quality points based on the course level.

The course level is derived from the GPA Weight field on the Course; where the GPA Weight Type is RANK or FLAG.

Alpha Grades screen

You can add, view, modify alpha grades via Grading>Setup>Valid Grades>Alpha Grades>View Grades.

Be careful when updating this screen. Make sure this info is still based on your district grading policy.

If you click the modify icon to the right of the grade, you will be able to make changes:

Minimum Maximum screen

You can set the min/max allowable grades on the Grading>Setup>Valid Grades>Minimum/Maximum screen.

You will see a chart that breaks them down by Course Length and grade type (alpha, unweighted, weighted).

These can be set differently for each grading collection.

After this is set, teachers will receive a warning message when they try to save a grade that is outside the Min/Max for that course and the number entered will be set to the minimum number allowed on this screen.

When will teachers get this alert?

They will get this alert when they post a grade via Gradebook>Post Grades and/or Grading>Post Grades that is below the minimum for that specific course length and course type.