The Graduation Requirements feature allows administrators to set graduation criteria for student cohorts by defining graduation subjects, establishing graduation programs, and assigning students to specific programs. Multiple graduation programs can be created for individual schools or student cohorts, or made available for use by any school. Administrators and counselors can track student progress to ensure they meet the requirements to graduate using the Graduation Requirements Report.
Several system preferences, set by the district, impact the data displayed on the Graduation Requirements Report. These preferences can be configured at the district level under Default School Preferences or adjusted at the individual school level under School Preferences. They are located on the Grading tab.
1. In the Setup menu, click System Preferences.
2. Click the Default School Preferences tab.
3. Click on the Grading tab.
- Default Credit: Enter the default number of credits to populate the Credits per Course History Term field on the course in Courses & Sections and the Cred. Attempted field in Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank when manually adding a grade record. The credits can be edited on the course or grade record as needed.
- Hide Class Rank: Select the check box to remove the class rank information from Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank and remove the class rank fields from More Search Options and the Advanced Report.
- Hide Class Rank from Parents/Students: Select the checkbox to hide the class rank information on the Parent and Student Portal.
- Hide GPA: Select the checkbox to remove the GPA from Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank and from More Search Options and the Advanced Report.
- Use Weighted GPA: Select the check box to calculate a weighted GPA for students. When this preference is enabled, a Weighted GPA Value column is available when setting up the grading scale in Grades > Grading Scales & Comments. The weighted GPA will display in Final Grades, GPA, & Class Rank, and will be available in More Search Options and the Advanced Report.
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Weight GPA by Credits: Select the check box to calculate GPA using the credit value of each course. This also applies to GPAs calculated through the Calculate Class Rank and GPA scheduled job.
- When this preference is enabled, the Credits column is added to the Student Schedule screen and on schedules printed from the Print Student Schedules screen, which displays the attempted credits.
- When this preference is disabled, and a course is added to a student’s schedule that exists in the student’s Course History but without any credits awarded, the warning message “The student has already taken this course, please verify the reason for the retake before rescheduling this class” displays. This warning can be disabled for a course using the “Exclude from Schedule Warning” option in the Course Catalog.
- Base Class Rank On: Select to base class rank on unweighted GPA, weighted GPA, or local GPA.
- Partition Class Rank by (Florida only): Select to partition class rank by Grade level or Cohort. When cohort is used, the grade_total column in student_gpa_calculated will reflect the number of students which are a part of the cohort, and not the grade level.
- Default Term for Graduation Requirements Report: Select the term that will be selected by default on the Graduation Requirements Report.
- Round GPA: Select the number of decimal places that should be used to round GPAs.
- GPA Rounding: Select an option for GPA rounding: Round normally or Round down (Truncate). This preference works in conjunction with the “Round GPA to X Decimal Places” preference.
- Show Graduation Met Column on Graduation Requirements Report: Select the check box to display the Graduation Met column on the Graduation Requirements Report. This column displays an indicator of whether the student has met the requirements of their graduation program.
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Use Personal Fitness Option on Graduation Requirements Report: When selected, the following logic will be used on the Graduation Requirements Report:
- The report will look for the HOPE course first when filling the PE graduation requirement.
- If HOPE is not currently scheduled, or a passed HOPE course is not included in the student's Course History, then the program will look for .5 credits in Personal Fitness.
- Additional courses marked with the PE graduation subject will not be considered for placement under the PE graduation requirement until the student has completed the .5 credits in Personal Fitness. These additional courses will appear in the Elective section until the Personal Fitness requirement has been satisfied. (Note: No hourglass displays for other scheduled PE courses until Personal Fitness is met).
- Select All Possible Personal Fitness Graduation Subjects: Select all the graduation subjects that are applicable for Personal Fitness.
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Use Personal Fitness Waiver Option on Graduation Requirements Report (FOR JROTC Only): When selected, the following logic will be used on the Graduation Requirements Report:
- If a student has a Personal Fitness course in Course History and/or is currently scheduled into a Personal Fitness course, Focus will grant .5 credits for PE and 1 credit for PA when either 1500480 or 1500460 AND 1500450 is present in Course History.
The district will first set up all the graduation subjects. Once the graduation subjects are set up, they can be assigned to courses in the Course Catalog or Courses & Sections.
1. From the Grades menu, click Graduation Requirements under the Setup submenu.
2. Click the Graduation Subjects tab.
Existing graduation subjects that have already been set up are listed. New graduation subjects can be added at the bottom of the list. For public schools, each state designates the graduation subjects.
Adding a New Graduation Subject
1. To add a new subject, scroll down to the blank row next to the plus sign.
2. Enter the Sort Order. The sort order determines the order the graduation subject appears on this screen, the order in which subjects display within a graduation program, and the order in which requirements display in a progression plan. The sort order is also used when creating student schedules. Courses in a graduation subject with a lower sort order (e.g. sort order of 1) have a higher priority over courses in a graduation subject of a higher sort order (e.g. sort order of 10). Required subjects should have a lower number entered for the sort order so that they have a higher priority than electives.
3. Enter the Title for the graduation subject.
4. Enter the Short Name. The first two digits of the short name are used in state reporting. Focus allows short names that are longer than two digits, but only the first two digits are reported to the state. This is useful if you want to split a subject area, for example HOPE and traditional Physical Education. In the example below, both of the short names start with PE, but HOPE has an underscore and CP added to the short name. This allows you to separate HOPE and traditional Physical Education when associating courses with these subjects and when setting requirements, but both HOPE and Physical Education are reported to the state using PE.
5. You also have the option to set a Min School Year and a Max School Year for specific subjects. Setting a Min and Max year determine the years the subject is active.
6. If the selected school is post secondary school, you can select the AHS Subject from the pull-down to determine the Adult High School Program Type applies to the graduation subject.
7. When finished, click Save. The new subject is added to the list.
Editing Graduation Subjects
Existing graduation subjects can be edited by clicking any fields underlined in blue. Once changes are made, be sure to click Save before navigating away from the screen.
Deleting Graduation Subjects
To delete a graduation subject, click the delete button (black minus sign) to the left of the row.
a. In the confirmation screen, click Delete to delete the subject or Cancel to go back to all listed subjects without deleting.
It is not recommended to delete a graduation subject. Instead, set the Min and Max School Year as described above to make the subject inactive.
- From the Grades menu, click Graduation Requirements under the Setup submenu.
- Click the Graduation Programs and Requirements tab to view the existing programs.
- Select the graduation program you wish to edit by clicking its corresponding tab.
- Review the programs requirements. Each program will display the subjects and credits required for graduation.
- To edit a specific requirement:
- Click on any editable field, such as the Title, Type, Credits, or Sort Order.
- You can also modify the graduation subjects, assessments, or custom course lists associated with the program by selecting the desired value from the pull-down menu.
- Once all changes are made, click Save at the top-right corner of the screen to confirm your updates.
Once graduation subjects are set up, the Graduation Subject Area/Graduation Requirements Subject can be assigned to courses via the Course Catalog or Courses & Sections.
Depending on District setup, the district may assign graduation subjects to courses via the Course Catalog. These values will not be able to be modified from the Courses and Sections screen or the Master Schedule Report.
Assigning Graduation Subjects to Courses via the Course Catalog
1. In the Scheduling menu, click Course Catalog.
2. Scroll to the right to enter the graduation subject area(s) for the course. Up to three graduation subject areas can be defined for a course: Graduation Subject Area, Graduation Subject Area 2, Graduation Subject Area 3.
3. Select the applicable subject area from the pull-down.
The modified field will turn yellow and the Save button will turn red to indicate changes have been made.
4. Click Save.
5. Optionally, in the pop-up window, select which areas of Focus you want to copy the changes.
a. Click Save.
Assigning Graduation Subjects to Courses via Courses & Sections
1. In the Scheduling menu, select Courses & Sections.
2. Select the applicable Subject and Course.
At the top of the screen, locate the Graduation Requirements Subject fields. Up to three Graduation Requirement Subjects can be assigned to each course. The order that the subjects are assigned will determine the order that the course will meet the requirements.
3. Use the applicable Graduation Requirements Subject pull-down to assign the graduation subject to the courses.
If the Graduation Requirements Subject field has the name of a subject and is grayed out, this indicates that the subject was assigned at the Course Catalog level and cannot be modified on this screen. If a subject is selected in the Graduation Requirements Subject field, then the course will count towards the completion of this subject before it counts towards the completion of the subjects listed in Graduation Requirements Subject 2 and 3.
4. Click Save and continue to assign Graduation Requirements Subjects as needed.
Assigning Graduation Subjects to Course(s) via the Master Schedule Report
Graduation subjects can be assigned to multiple courses at once via the Master Schedule Report. Note that if Graduation Subjects have been assigned at the Course Catalog level, then the Grad Subjects column will display in gray and will not be able to be modified from this report.
1. In the Scheduling menu, select the Master Schedule Report.
2. Select the Courses tab.
3. Turn Filters: ON to display a row of filters above each column in the report.
4. In the text box above a specific column, enter information, such as a course number or course title. Verify that only the applicable courses display in the results.
5. Click Mass Update.
a. Select the Grad Subject from the Column pull-down.
b. Select the applicable Subject from the Value pull-down.
c. Click Update.
- The pop-up window closes reverting to the Master Schedule Report.
- Use the scroll bar if necessary to view the Grad Subject field. Affected rows will display in yellow.
6. Verify that the proper subject will be assigned to the courses shown. If the change is incorrect, click on any other tab, or on the logo to refresh the page and the information will not be changed.
7. If the change should be confirmed, click Save in the top right corner of the screen.
Objective: Learn how to set up new graduation subjects and assign them to courses in the Course Catalog.
Instructions:
- Navigate to the Graduation Requirements under the Setup submenu of the Grades menu.
- Click the Graduation Subjects tab.
- Add a new graduation subject by scrolling to the blank row next to the plus sign (+).
- Enter the following:
- Sort Order: Determines the order of priority.
- Title: Name of the subject.
- Short Name: Used in state reporting (first two digits are crucial).
- Optional: Set the Min and Max School Year for the subjects active years.
- Click Save to finalize the subject.
Follow-up Task:
Go to the Course Catalog and assign the graduation subjects to at least two courses. Verify that the subject assignments are saved correctly.
Graduation & Middle School Promotion Programs are used to monitor and track existing students’ progress towards graduation/middle school promotion requirements. Graduation Programs identify the credits and subjects required to graduate. Middle School Promotion identifies the number of “credits” in each subject required for promotion to high school. Districts and/or schools can set multiple Graduation Programs.
1. From the Grades menu, click Graduation Requirements under the Setup submenu.
2. Click the Graduation Programs and Requirements tab.
Any existing graduation programs are displayed, each represented by a tab.
3. Select a tab to view the subjects and credits required for the graduation program.
Adding New Graduation Programs
1. To add a new graduation program, click the plus sign (+), located at the end of the listed programs.
Any existing graduation programs are listed in the table with the Program Title, Sort Order, Short Name, Default, Weight by Credits, Min School Year, Max School Year, Hide Merit Designation Requirements, Hide School Designation Requirements, Hide Biliteracy Seal Requirements, and Hide Header.
If a post secondary school is selected, the CTE column displays as well.
2. To add a new program, scroll down to the blank row next to the black plus sign.
3. Enter the Program Title, Sort Order, and Short Name. The sort order determines the order in which the graduation programs appear.
4. Select the Default check box to automatically assign the graduation program to a student when the student enrolls. Setting a program as the default will not change the program for existing students who already have a program assigned.
5. Select the Weight by Credits check box to determine if the program will be weighed by credits when running the Graduation Requirements Report.
When the check box is left cleared, the enrolled courses will display as 1 credit.
When the check box is selected, the enrolled course will look to course_weight_credits or credits in master_courses.
The check box can also be applied to Middle Schools. When the check box is selected, the enrolled middle school courses will display as 1.
6. You also have the option to set a Min School Year and a Max School Year for specific programs. Setting a Min and Max year determine the years the program is active.
7. Select the Hide Merit Designation Requirements check box to hide these requirements from the Promotion Requirements Report as they requirements do not apply to middle schools, or from the Graduation Requirements Report, if needed.
8. Select the Hide School Designation Requirements check box to hide these requirements from the Promotion Requirements Report as they requirements do not apply to middle schools, or from the Graduation Requirements Report, if needed.
9. Select the Hide Biliteracy Seal Requirements check box to hide these requirements from the Promotion Requirements Report as they requirements do not apply to middle schools, or from the Graduation Requirements Report, if needed.
The Merit Designation Requirements, Scholar Designation Requirements, and Biliteracy Seal Requirements are Florida specific fields.
10. Select the Hide Header check box to remove the header including GPAs, credits, and testing information from the Graduation Requirements Report.
11. If a post secondary school, select the CTE check box to determine if the program is applicable to CTE.
12. Click Save.
Adding Requirements to New Graduation Programs
Once saved, a tab will display for the new graduation program. Now, you will add the graduation subjects and number of credits that are required to the program.
1. Click the Program to which requirements need to be added.
Clicking the graduation program lists all graduation requirements including the Title, Type, Credits, Grad Subject, Courses, Assessment, SQL, Sort Order, and Credits.
You can designate the credit requirements per year that students would be expected to complete while working towards the fulfillment of requirements in their assigned graduation program. This allows school users and parents/students to actively monitor a students progress toward meeting the benchmarks associated with each year of the students' attendance in school.
2a. To add and/or view requirements by a specific grade level, click the applicable grade level, such as 11.
2b. To add and/or view requirements in order to complete the program, click Complete Program.
Requirements need to be added to the Complete Program tab and to each specific grade level tab. Each grade level year will contain all requirements from the previous year; for example, you'd add English Credit 1.00 to the 9th grade tab, English 2.00 to the 10th grade tab, English 3.00 to the 11th grade tab, and English 4.00 to the Complete Program tab; the Complete Program tab represents 12th grade or graduation year.
3. To add a new graduation requirement, scroll down to the blank row next to the black plus sign.
4. Enter the graduation subject in the Title text box.
5. Select the Type of graduation requirement from the pull-down. Options include:
Grad Subject: If selected, this allows you to select the graduation subject set up via the Graduation Subjects tab.
Assessment: If selected, this allows you to set one or more tests that students must pass to graduate. When multiple tests are selected on one row, students only need to pass one to complete the requirement.
Custom List of Courses: If selected, this allows you to select a list of courses that serve as a custom graduation subject.
SQL: If selected, this allows you to specify an arbitrary SQL query that return three columns, student_id, matched (true or false), and display_text (the text displayed in the report upon hovering over the check box).
Placeholder: If selected, the title of the requirement displays as a "Placeholder" descriptor without requirement criteria when an admin, parent, or student views the graduation requirements report. When this type is selected, the only editable fields become the Title and Sort Order. This will separate sections of the requirements.
6. In the Credits field, enter the number of required credits for the subject.
7a. If you selected Grad Subject as the Type, select the applicable Grad Subject from the pull-down. Note: Subjects must first be set up in the Graduation Subjects tab.
7b. If you selected Assessment from the Type pull-down, select the applicable tests from the Assessment pull-down. This ensures that students pass one of the selected tests before earning the designated graduation subject.
If you belong to California district, a Language pull-down displays to the Assessment column from which you can select a specific language for the test administration.
7c. If you selected Custom List of Courses from the Type pull-down, select the applicable Courses from the pull-down. This ensures that students pass all selected courses before earning the designated graduation subject.
7d. If you selected SQL from the Type pull-down, enter the customized SQL in the provided text box.
The SQL query entered here must correctly contain "as display_text, 'hourglass'" in order to display the hourglass for the applicable graduation program, such as
SELECT sr.student_id, 'Advanced Met' AS display_text, 'hourglass' AS matched
FROM student_report_card_grades sr, master_courses mc
WHERE sr.course_num=mc.short_name AND mc.syear=sr.syear AND sr.course_history='Y'
AND (mc.course_level IN ('3','4','5') OR mc.AP='1' OR mc.IB='1' OR mc.custom_field_2 = '1' OR COALESCE(custom_field_3,'Z') IN ('A','B','C','E'))
7e. If you selected Placeholder from the Type pull-down, the Title and Sort Order are the only required fields.
8. The Sort Order text box should be left empty as it pulls from data entered via the Graduation Subjects tab. Note: A Sort Order must be entered if Custom List of Courses or SQL is select as the subject Type.
9. Click Save.
Editing Graduation Program Requirements
Graduation programs can be edited by selecting the program tab, clicking the desired field, and making the change. Click Save to save your changes.
Deleting Graduation Programs & Subjects
To delete a graduation subject from the program, click the delete button (black minus sign).
To delete a graduation program, click the Delete this program link at the bottom of the graduation program tab.
a. In the confirmation screen, click Delete to delete the program or Cancel to go back to the previous screen without deleting.
A Graduation Program that is currently in use cannot be deleted.
The District Programs and Requirements tab allows users to assign a program to schools. The items set up on District Graduation Programs and Requirements are available for all schools in the districts to use.
1. From the Grades menu, click Graduation Requirements under the Setup submenu.
2. Click the District Graduation Programs and Requirements tab.
This tab has similar functionality as the Graduation Programs and Requirements tab, except these programs are assigned district-wide and not just to one school. Follow the steps described in Graduation Program & Middle School Promotion Setup above.
Be sure to click the Save button in the upper right corner of the screen if changes are made.
Graduation Programs can be assigned to an individual student on the enrollment record at the time the student is enrolled or at any time thereafter.
If a Graduation Program is designated as Default in Graduation Programs and Requirements Setup, then the Graduation Program will be automatically assigned to students when they are enrolled.
1. To set up a student's graduation program, locate the student via Students > Student Info.
2. Enter Search criteria such as partial or full student name or complete student ID; alternatively, use the Student/Staff pulldown in the portal header to locate a student.
3a. Click the Enrollment tab.
a. Click View to the left of the enrollment record.
b. Select the applicable program from the Graduation Requirement Program pull-down for the student.
c. Click Save.
3b. Click the Graduation tab and/or field to select the correct Graduation Plan for that student.
a. Select the applicable graduation program from the Graduation Plan pull-down.
The information entered/selected on the Graduation tab does not drive the Graduation Requirements Report. For the report to populate for the specified student, the Graduation Requirement must be set on the Enrollment screen.
Graduation Programs can be assigned to multiple students at once, for example by cohort year, in Mass Assign Student Info.
1. In the Students menu, click Mass Assign Student Info.
2. Enter applicable search criteria, including using More Search Options to locate a group of students by grade level or year entered ninth grade.
a. To locate a group of students by grade level, click More Search Options and select Grade Level from the pull-down.
b. To locate a group of students by the year they entered ninth grade, click More Search Options, then filter your search by entering the word "ninth" into the Search... text box.
You can also locate the search option by clicking Student Fields > Graduation > Year Entered Ninth Grade.
i. Select the appropriate year from the pull-down.
3. Click Search.
4. Click the Enrollment tab.
5. Select the applicable Grad Program from the pull-down.
6. Scroll down to select the students that should be assigned the applicable program.
7. Click Save.
A confirmation message displays.
Objective: Learn how to assign Graduation Programs to individual students or en masse using the system.
Instructions:
Part 1: Assigning a Graduation Program to an Individual Student
- Go to Students > Student Info.
- Search for a Student:
- Enter search criteria such as a partial/full name or student ID.
- Alternatively, use the Student/Staff pulldown in the portal header to locate a student.
- Access the Enrollment tab:
- Click the Enrollment tab on the student's profile.
- Click View next to the appropriate enrollment record.
- Assign a Graduation Program:
- From the Graduation Requirement Program pull-down, select the correct program for the student.
- Click Save.
- Optionally, click the Graduation tab to select the correct Graduation Plan for the student, but note that this field does not impact the Graduation Requirements Report.
Part 2: Assigning Graduation Programs to Multiple Students
- Navigate to Students > Mass Assign Student Info.
- Search for Students:
- Enter applicable search criteria such as grade level or year entered ninth grade using the More Search Options:
- For Grade Level: Select Grade Level from the pull-down.
- For Year Entered Ninth Grade: Type ninth in the search box and filter by the appropriate year.
- Enter applicable search criteria such as grade level or year entered ninth grade using the More Search Options:
- Assign Graduation Programs:
- Click the Enrollment tab.
- From the Grad Program pull-down, select the appropriate program.
- Select Students:
- Scroll down and check the boxes for the students to whom you want to assign the program.
- Save Changes:
- Click Save.
- A confirmation message will appear.
Discussion:
- Why is it important to correctly assign graduation programs to students?
- How does assigning a Graduation Program impact the student's Graduation Requirements Report?