È 1 Grading System
The Grading System Module allows you to enter and track
students grades, generate progress reports, transcripts, report cards, honor
roll, GPA, Horizontal Average Rules, setup and control Grade Headings, Terms,
Teacher entry of Grades, and produce a variety of administrative reports.
GPA Calculation
This program is designed to calculate Grade Point Average and Class Rank for each academic year for all students in a given grade level.
Important Preparation for Calculating GPA
There are several pieces (items
A through F) that must be in place and correctly defined in order to accurately
calculate GPA
A.
Courses - GPA/Class Rank and Curriculum Level fields must be
properly defined in your courses <Scheduling System><Course
Catalog><Course Details>.
GPA Rank: Select “Yes” if the course is
to be used in your GPA calculations.
Select “No” if the course should not be used in your GPA calculations.
Helpful Hint!
Physical
Education courses are usually not included in GPA calculation
Curriculum
Level: Enter any integer
from 1 – 99. This number corresponds to
grade scale value for specific grade as defined under <Grading System>
<Grade Maintenance> <Grade Scale>.
B. Scale Codes & Grade
Scales
Scale
Codes: defined under
<Grading System> <Grade Maintenance> <Scale Codes>.
Example: (generally schools define at least three grade scales)
1) 4.0 weighted scale
2) 0 -100 weighted scale
3) 0 -100 un-weighted scale
Figure 1.1
Grade
Scales: defined under
<Grading System> <Grade Maintenance> <Grade Scales>.
Helpful Hint!
You should assign a Scale Value for each Curriculum
Level, Scale and Grade in your Grade Maintenance table that will be used in GPA
calculations. If it is not defined then a Scale Value of “zero” will be applied
when GPA is calculated.
Figure 1.2
C. Grade Definitions
Grade
Definitions: defined under <Grading System> <Grade Maintenance>
<Grades - Maintenance>. With each grade you must define one of the
following GPA identifiers; See figure 1.3
“Qualifies – Include in Calculations”
“Do Not Consider this Value & Calculate Other”
“Disqualifier – Do Not Do Any Calculation”
Helpful Hint!
If a
student has a grade flagged as
“Disqualifier – Do Not Do Any Calculation”
for a course, then no quality points or attempted
credits will be calculated for that student.
If a
student has a grade flagged as “Do Not
Consider this Value & Calculate Other” for a course then no quality points
or attempted credits will be calculated for that student’s grade.
Figure
1.3
D. Horizontal
Averages/Percentage (%) Rules
Horizontal
Averages/Percentage (%) Rules are defined in the<Grading
System> <Grade Maintenance> <Horizontal Average Rules>. They are
used to determine the weight of each grade based on the Grade Heading it is in
when you use iPASS to calculate averages or to
calculate the GPA Quality Points and GPA Attempted Credits for each course to
accumulate toward a YTD and Career GPA. You need to define a code that will be
applied to each course-section that meets the criteria.
Example:
FY = Full Year Courses
S1 = Semester 1 Courses
T13 = Sections that meet Terms 1 & 3
Helpful Hints!
Check
the boxes to identify the Terms when the sections meet. Assign a value to each Grade Heading that
you wish to use in the Calculation of Horizontal Averages or GPA. The total must equal 100%.
You may
change the values in this table before processing either an Average calculation
or a GPA calculation if you want different weighting.
Horizontal
Averages/Percentage (%) Rules need to be assigned to the course sections. This can be done individually in the Course
Details or globally under
<Scheduling System><Course Catalog><Assign Average Rules
to Sections>.
If you
use the Horizontal Averages/Percentage (%) Rules for both GPA and Averaging,
then you may need to change the values to insure equity among term grades.
Figure
1.4
E. Transfer or Summer School
Courses
Transfer or Summer School
Courses must be entered in the students’ transcript record and properly defined
if they are to be included in GPA calculations.
Student
Transcript Record: Defined under <Grading System> <Student Transcripts>.
Select the student and then click on the add button to create records for a
Transfer course, Summer Course, etc. See figure 1.5
Figure
1.5
Academic Year: Select the appropriate Academic Year from the pull down list. This would be the academic year that the
student took the course and was given a grade.
Helpful Hint!
When you
are in add mode and entering course information for students, the software will
remember and default to the academic year and school you have previously
entered.
School: Enter the name of the School where the student was
enrolled and received a grade for the course.
Course ID:
Enter the identification
number of the course.
Grade: Enter the grade that the student received for the
course. This field accepts alpha or
numeric values. The grade must be a
value already defined in your grade definitions under <Grading System>
<Grade Maintenance> <Grade Definitions>.
Grade Level: (required for GPA Calculation) - Enter the Grade Level of the student when they took the course.
Name: Enter the name of the course. This is the name
that will display when printing Transcripts.
Curriculum Level: (required for GPA Calculation) -
Enter the curriculum level of the
course. Be sure that the curriculum
level is properly translated to your school’s curriculum level definitions.
Include in GPA: (usually only for transfer
students) - Click and place a check mark
in this box if you want this course to be included in GPA calculations for this
student. This option is not available
while you are adding records, you must “Submit” and save your initial record
and then go back and modify to adjust quality points (this extra step is by
design in an attempt to protect the integrity of the data).
Helpful Hint!
Attempted
Credits, Curriculum Level, Department, Grade and Academic Year need to be
defined prior to using the “Include in GPA” option. Grade Scales and Grade
Definitions should also be defined for all Academic Years. The program will then calculate the quality
points for that course. The Quality
Point Values may be adjusted if necessary.
Remember you must “submit” to saves changes.
Check to Delete this Transcript Record: Click
and place a check mark in this box if you want to “delete” this transcript
record. You must “submit” to complete
the process.
Helpful Hint!
Using
this option will only delete transfer/summer school courses. This option will Not permanently delete a
students grade record that has been entered by a teacher and is driven through
the scheduling module.
Delete: Check this box to delete the credits assigned to
the course
Department:
Select the appropriate
department from the pull down list.
Credits: Enter the credits received by the student
for this course. Be sure that the credits are properly translated to your
school’s credit criteria. You must
adjust for credits earned in quarter, semester or full year courses.
Attempted Credits: (required for GPA Calculation) Enter the attempted credits received by the student for this course. Be sure that the credits are properly translated to your school’s credit criteria.
F. Calculating GPA – (running the program)
Calculating GPA: Locate the program under <Grading System> <Grade Maintenance> <Calculate GPA>. See figure 1.6
Figure 1.6
Select School: Select the school for which you are going to
calculate GPA.
Academic
Year: Select
the appropriate academic year to calculate.
Grade Level: Select the appropriate grade level to use in the calculation as defined.
Helpful Hint!
You must select a grade level
when calculating GPA (it cannot be left blank). The grade level is used to determine ranking. If you are running it in previous years then
select the grade year you wish to run it in and assume the students’ grade
level for that year.
Example:
A Student is currently in grade
level 12 for the 2002-2003 academic year and you want to recalculate grade
level 11 for the 2001-2002 academic year.
You would run GPA for grade level 11 using academic the year of
2001-2002.
Grade Scale: Select the appropriate scale to use in the calculation as defined under <Grading System> <Grade Maintenance> <Grade Scales>.
Students: You may
enter a single Student ID# or a string of ID #’s separated by commas (no
spaces) in order to process a batch of students.
Helpful Hint!
Leave
this field blank if you want to calculate GPA for all students in a selected
grade level. Be sure to select the
appropriate Grade Level value.
Include Withdrawn: All students will be included in the GPA calculation regardless of their enrollment status. If you select “Yes” when running the Class Ranking Report, the program will include students that were withdrawn during that academic year.
Final Grade Only: Select “Yes" if you only want to use courses that have a final grade and ignore courses that are not completed.
Average Grade Column: Select
the Grade Heading Column that you want to use to calculate GPA. If a grade
value exists then it alone will be used, otherwise the Horizontal Average Rules
will count individual grades proportionally.
Helpful Hint!
Leave this field blank under
most conditions. It is generally used
when you want to calculate a GPA using a semester average that may include a
mid-year exam rather than using only the individual term grades.
Detail
GPA Report: Select
“Yes” to automatically generate two reports (GPA Rank & GPA Report) that
will be sent to you in <My Data> <My Reports>. The “GPA Report” can also be printed at
anytime, and sorted differently, without re-calculating GPA under <Grade
System> <Grading Reports> <GPA Rank>. See Figure 1.7
Helpful Hint!
If you are re-calculating GPA
for prior years, then you must start with the earliest academic year that you
need to re-calculate. You must also
re-calculate all other academic years, in order, finishing with the current
year.
Sort
for Rank Report: Select a
sorting option from the pull down list.
Figure 1.7
For
Year-to-Date (YTD) GPA
The Final Grade for the course will be used, if
available. Otherwise, each grade that
has been assigned a percentage in the Horizontal Average/Percentage Rules will
be used proportionally to determine the GPA Quality Points and GPA Attempted
Credits for the course.
The Final Grade for the course or each of the individual
grades stored for the selected term and all prior terms are converted to the
GPA Grade Scale value. The GPA Grade Scale Value is multiplied by the Full
Credit for the Course if it is a Final Grade.
If it’s not a Final Grade, then each grade is multiplied by the Full
Credit and then by the Percentage from the Horizontal Average/Percentage Rules
to get the Quality Points for each grade.
Grade converted to GPA value X Credits X Horizontal % = Grade Quality Points
The Course Credits are multiplied by the Percentage from the Horizontal % Rules to get the Attempted GPA Credits for each grade.
Course Credits X Horizontal % = Grade Attempted Credits
The total of the Grade Quality Points for all course divided by the total of the Grade Attempted Credits for all courses gives you the YTD GPA.
Total Grade Quality Points / Total Grade Attempted Credits = YTD GPA
Year-to-Date GPA – Sample calculation using a simple 4.0
scale with the following values;
GPA Scale Value Courses Credits
4.5
95 Full
Year Courses 1.0 (1 credit)
4.2
92 Semester
Courses .5 (1/2
credit)
4.0
90 Quarter
Courses .25 (1/4 credit)
3.4 84
Assuming the following percentages defined in Horizontal Averaging Rules and Grade Heading %
Course Description MT1 Q1 MT2
Q2 MidEx S1Avg
MT3 Q3 MT4
Q4 FEx S2Avg
FinGr
Full Year Courses 20% 20% 10% 20% 20%
10%
Semester One Courses
40% 40% 20%
Semester Two Courses 40% 40% 20%
Course Description MT1 Q1 MT2
Q2 MidEx S1Avg
MT3 Q3 MT4
Q4 FEx S2Avg
FinGr
Quarter Course 77 79 80
Semester Course 80 85
Full Year Course 90 95
Example:
Grade converted to GPA value x Credits x GH% = Quality point
80 = 3.0 x .25 x = .75
85 = 3.5 x .5 x .40 = .70
95
= 4.5
x 1.0 x .20 =
.90
Total
Quality Points 2.35
YTD
GPA
Total
Quality Points 2.35 =
3.615
Total Attempted Credits (.25x.20x.20) .65