Teacher: Secondary Teacher Grade Posting
Marking Period and/or Final Grades are posted during the posting window for secondary schools. Within 20 days of the grade posting window closing, an alert in the Alerts section will appear indicating that it is time to post grades for each graded section.
The Missing Grades Report can be used to insert grades for any ungraded assignments.
1. Click the Reports menu, then click the Grades arrow.
a. In the Grades reports menu, click Gradebook Reports.
2. Click Missing Grades in the reports menu. The Missing Grades report lists all students who have at least one ungraded assignment.
3. From the report, you have additional options listed along the top of the screen. Select the appropriate check boxes to Show all courses and Include Inactive Students.
Selecting Show all courses displays the Section Title column in the report.
4. You can enter grades for students directly from this screen. Click the black dash in the Points field to enter a grade.
5. To add a comment for the applicable grades, click the Comments field to open a Comment pop-up window OR enter the comment in the text box and click Ok. Use additional features, such as Bold, Format, Alignment, as needed.
6. Click Save to save any grades and/or comments entered. Once grades are saved, the student and assignment will be removed from the report.
7. Click the students' names in the Student column to open all assignments and grades for the selected student, which gives you the option to enter/edit grades student by student.
8. From the report screen, you can click on the Assignment title to open the gradebook for that specific assignment.
Teachers will not be able to post for the entire class using the Use Gradebook link on the Post Final Grades screen if there are ungraded assignments in the gradebook. The only exception is for Progress Periods.
Posting grades for the marking period, progress periods, and semesters use the same process.
This is a process that will need to be completed for each section that a teacher has, even if those sections are combined in the gradebook.
1. Click the Final Grades menu, then click Post Final Grades.
You also have the option to click the Portal alert. Clicking the Portal alert will open the posting window for the selected course. Note: Once grades are posted, the alert will disappear; however, grades can continue to be updated during the marking period window as needed.
Once on the Post Final Grades screen the current marking period is auto-selected for grade posting. The window during which grades can be posted is specified below. Once the end of the window is reached, teachers will be locked out of grade posting.
2. There are several ways grades can be posted for students; the first option includes clicking the Use Gradebook button, which will pull all gradebook grades for all students in the section automatically.
If there are ungraded assignments in the gradebook, and the Use Gradebook Grades button (for all students) is clicked, the system will respond with an error message stating that all gradebook grades need to be entered before grade posting can take place. This does not apply to Interim posting. If needed, you can then utilize the Missing Grades Report by clicking the corresponding link to enter missing grades. Here you also have the option to navigate to the Gradebook or Return to Grade Posting via the corresponding links.
a. Once the Use Gradebook link is clicked, a confirmation message displays. Select OK to proceed and post final grades. You can click Cancel to return to the Post Final Grades screen without pulling gradebook grades.
3. You can also click Use Gradebook Grades for each individual student. This allows you to decide whether you want to pull in the gradebook grade for select students while entering other students' grade manually. Upon clicking the link, the Percent & Grade letter fields are automatically populated, as shown in the image below.
The Percent & Grade column will vary depending on your district's system preferences. the district may only require a Letter grade or Percent, while others may require both the Percent and letter grade.
4. You also have the option to manually enter the grades. To manually enter a final grade, enter a numeric percent or select a letter grade from the pull-down. Both fields are located in the Percent & Grade column.
5. If the district has opted to set a Min Quarter Posted Percent or Max Quarter Posted Percent and a grade falls outside of this score range, a pop-up will appear indicating grades in the gradebook are lower and/or higher than the set percentage.
When you click OK in the above pop-up, if the grade was higher than the Max Quarter Posted Percent, the grade will be adjusted to reflect the max quarter posted percent value. If the grade was lower than the Min Quarter Posted Percent, then the posted grade will be adjusted to reflect that min quarter posted percent value.
6. If a grade is enter manually and differs from the grade currently documented in the gradebook, an explanation for the grade may be required. Enter an explanation and click OK to proceed. Otherwise, click the Use gradebook value button to revert to the gradebook grade.
7. Click Save.
Once final grades have been posted for the marking period, the system will give a confirmation that the grades have posted successfully.
Reposting can happen at any point during the Grade Posting Window and may be done as many times as necessary.
Once the end date of the Grade Posting Window has passed, teachers may no longer post grades. If grades need to be changed, submit a Grade Change Request.
If your district is using local posting fields specific to your district, while they may not be seen below, they will display on your screen. For clarification on these fields, refer to your administrator.
1. Click the Final Grades menu, then click Post Final Grades.
You also have the option to click the Portal alert. Clicking the Portal alert will open the posting window for the selected course. Note: Once grades are posted, the alert will disappear; however, grades can continue to be updated during the marking period window as needed.
2. Select the correct course section from the course pull-down.
3. Click the correct marking period from the available options listed along the top of the screen. The timeframe during which grades can be posted is specified directly beneath the listed marking periods. Note: If the timeframe for a specific marking period has already ended, the marking period will not display.
If the exam timeframe has ended, the posting period will not be available and a variation of the following message will display: "You can't currently post final grades for Semester 2 Exam. Grade posting for this marking period is already closed."
4. To manually enter an exam grade, enter a numeric percent and select a letter grade from the pull-down; both fields are located in the Percent & Grade column.
The Percent & Grade column will vary depending on your district's system preferences. the district may only require a Letter grade or Percent, while others may require both the Percent and letter grade.
5. Click Save to finalize the posting.
This is a process that will need to be completed for each graded section, even if those sections are combined in the gradebook or if custom groups are defined.
If exam grades are stored in an Excel file, they can be easily imported to the grades screen after resaving the file in CSV format.
1. There are a couple of ways grades can be posted for students; click Import CSV to import grades. This feature is useful if you have exam grades already recorded in an Excel spreadsheet.
The file uploaded must be in CSV format; otherwise, the file will not upload correctly.
2. Upon clicking the Import CSV button, browse via the pop-up window and select the file to upload. Once a selection has been made, you will need to complete the Column Setup via the pop-up window. If the first line displayed is the Header, select the corresponding check box. Next, select what type of information is displayed in each column from the pull-down. If the system recognizes the column information, it will automatically set it for you, as shown in the image below. Since the Grade Level does not need to be imported, you can leave the pull-down blank.
3. Once all columns are set, click the Submit button to import the grades. You can also click Cancel if you want to upload a different file or enter grades manually. Clicking Submit will populate the Percent & Grade column.
Quarter and Exam grades must be posted before the posting of Semester or Full Year grades; otherwise, the average will not calculate properly. However, based on your district's system preferences, all parent marking period grades may be recalculated when you (teachers) post a final grade for a child marking period; i.e. if a quarter final grade is changed, the semester and full year final grades will be recalculated. All parent marking periods that have grades will update according to their grade posting schemes. The recalculation process works with both letter and percent grades.
1. Click the Final Grades menu, then click Post Final Grades.
You also have the option to click the Portal alert. Clicking the Portal alert will open the posting window for the selected course. Note: Once grades are posted, the alert will disappear; however, grades can continue to be updated during the marking period window as needed.
2. Select the correct course section from the course pull-down.
If you do not see an option to post semester grades, semester grades do not apply to the selected section or grades are pulled and posted at the administrative level.
3. Click the correct semester from the available options listed along the top of the screen. The timeframe during which grades can be posted is specified directly beneath the listed marking periods. Note: If the timeframe for a specific marking period has already ended, the marking period will not display.
4. There are several ways grades can be posted for students; Click Use Weighted Average of Quater and Semester Exam Grades to calculate and post the Semester grade based on the system preferences set up by the district. The various options are shown in the image below. Note: This option is varies depending on the Grade Posting Averaging scheme set up by the district.
a. Once the Use Weighted Average of Quarter and Semester Exam Grades link is clicked, a confirmation message displays. Select OK to proceed and post semester grades. You can click Cancel to return to the Post Final Grades screen without averaging a semester grade.
5. You can also click Use Weighted Average of Quarter and Semester Exam Grades for each individual student. This allows you to decide whether you want to average the grade for select students while entering other students' grade manually. Upon clicking the link, the S2 Percent & Grade letter fields are automatically populated.
The Percent & Grade column will vary depending on your district's system preferences. the district may only require a Letter grade or Percent, while others may require both the Percent and letter grade.
6. To manually enter a final grade, enter a numeric percent and select a letter grade from the pull-down; both fields are located in the S2 Percent & Grade column.
7. Click Save to finalize the posting.
Quarter and Exam grades must be posted before the posting of Semester or Full Year grades; otherwise, the average will not calculate properly. However, based on your district's system preferences, all parent marking period grades may be recalculated when you (teachers) post a final grade for a child marking period; i.e. if a quarter final grade is changed, the semester and full year final grades will be recalculated. All parent marking periods that have grades will update according to their grade posting schemes. The recalculation process works with both letter and percent grades.
1. Click the Final Grades menu, then click Post Final Grades.
You also have the option to click the Portal alert. Clicking the Portal alert will open the posting window for the selected course. Note: Once grades are posted, the alert will disappear; however, grades can continue to be updated during the marking period window as needed.
2. Select the correct course section from the course pull-down.
If you do not see an option to post semester grades, semester grades do not apply to the selected section or grades are pulled and posted at the administrative level.
3. Click the correct marking period from the available options listed along the top of the screen. The timeframe during which grades can be posted is specified directly beneath the listed marking periods. Note: If the timeframe for a specific marking period has already ended, the marking period will not display.
If the marking period timeframe has ended, the posting period will not be available and a variation of the following message will display: "You can't currently post final grades for Full Year. Grade posting for this marking period is already closed."
4. The values for each of the marking periods will auto-populate, as shown in the image below.
5. Click the Use Average of Semester Grades link to to post grades automatically for all students in the course. You also have the option to click the link for an individual student if you do not want the link to apply to all students.
Reposting grades can be performed at any point during the grade posting timeframe.
6. Upon clicking the link, the FY Percent & Grade letter fields are automatically populated, as shown in the image below.
The Percent & Grade column will vary depending on your district's system preferences. the district may only require a Letter grade or Percent, while others may require both the Percent and letter grade.
7. The last option is to manually enter the grades. To manually enter a final grade, enter a numeric percent and select a letter grade from the pull-down--both fields are located in the FY Percent & Grade column.
8. Click Save to finalize the posting.
Most districts do not allow report card comments or conduct grades to be posted PRIOR to posting final grades. Comments may be open text or pull-down selections, dependent upon district setup. For pull-down comments, most districts set a limit on the max number of comments that may be selected per student.
Your district has the option to Hide Comments, Conduct and local posting fields for all marking period not setup as quarters. All marking periods not housed in the school_quartes table, which when enabled allows administrative users to select the types of posting options that should be restricted to quarters via the Hide Options pull-down.
1. Once grades are entered, you have the option to post comments. To use previous comments from the previous marking period, click the Copy Comments from Previous Quarter button.
You may have the option of posting comments without posting grades--this settings must first be enabled by your district.
2. Select the desired comment from the Report Card Comments pull-down for each student. Note: You can also post Report Card Comments via Grades > Report Card Comments.
If the district has not set up built in comments, this field may be a text field where you can enter any comments necessary.
You can select up to six comments from the applicable pull-down (Report Card Comments pull-down or Comments pull-down); if you try to select more than six comments at a time, the pull-down turns red and data cannot be saved.
3. You also have the option of using the Longer Comments text boxes, if applicable.
4. To enter Longer Comments for the course en masse, type the comment in the Mass assign longer course comments text box. Once the comment has been entered, click Replace to replace everything in all comment boxes with the entered text.
If adding additional comments, click Append to place the comment after the existing comment(s) or click Prepend to place the comment before the existing comment(s).
To remove all existing comments, clear the Mass assign longer course comments text box and click Replace.
5. If the district has enabled Conduct comments, you can select the applicable conduct from the pull-down. If the district enabled the system preference but did not have conduct comments configured by Focus, you will see a text box where you can enter data.
6. Click the Longer Comments icon to open a Report Card Comments pop-up window for lengthly comments (1121 characters max). When your comment has been entered, click Save.
You can also click the Click to copy comments from the previous quarter button to pull in the previous comment made to be used again.
Once saved, the Longer Comments icon displays with a green check mark indicating that a comment has been made.
7. Click the Mass Update button to update the Comments, Conduct, and/or Report Card Comments columns en masse.
Select the comment column to be mass updated from the pull-down.
Enter the comment in the text box or select the comment from the pull-down.
Click Run Mass Update to apply the comment to all students.
