Assignment Grades

The Assignment Grades page allows you to view and enter assignment grades for students by semester, cycle, and course section. You can view and enter grades for one assignment or all assignments, for one category or all categories, and for one student or all students. You can enter comments and indicators for each assignment grade (e.g., excluded, late, or redo), and you can print grades by assignment. The page also allows you to accept transfer students into a course and enter a walk-in average for those students.

• For courses with percentage-based weighting, grades cannot be saved unless category weights are set up and total 100.

• If the campus has disabled posting of grades for prior cycles, you cannot make changes to assignment grades for previous semesters/cycles. The Save Grades button is disabled.

Note:  If you have a large number of assignments for the current cycle, it is recommended that you avoid selecting All in the Assignments per Page field, as this can cause the page to load slowly.

To enter assignment grades:

1. From the Grades menu, select Assignment Grades.

The Assignment Grades page is displayed allowing you to select the course section for which you want to enter assignment grades.

2. The Semester field displays the current semester by default. Click to view another semester.

3. The Cycle field displays the current cycle by default. Click to view another cycle.

4. In the Course Section field, click to select the course section for which you want to enter assignment grades.

Notes:

• If you marked the course as ready to post on the Cycle Grades page, the message "[READY]" is displayed in the Course Section drop-down list next to the course.

• If you have created course groups on the Course Grouping page, the groups are listed in the drop down as well as the individual courses. Any group that does not have courses associated with it is not listed in the drop down.

5. Click Retrieve Data.

You only need to click Retrieve Data the first time you retrieve a course section. After the first time, the student list automatically reloads when you change the Semester, Cycle, or Course Section field.

5. The students and assignments are displayed according to your selections in the previous steps.

6. Students are sorted by last name, unless you have specified a custom sort order on the Arrange Student Order page.

7. You can click to add a course note about the student. The note icon is yellow if a course note already exists for the student. The Student Course Note dialog box opens allowing you to enter or update comments.

8. The student's name is displayed. Verify that you are adding/updating the note for the correct student.

9. Under Saved Notes, any notes that already exist for the student are listed. You can view all notes for courses to which you have access. The note category, author, and date last updated are displayed under Cat, Author, and Last Updated.

Note category codes

5. Under Note, you can update an existing note. The note can have up to 3269 characters. You can only update a note if you created it.

6. To delete an existing note, select Del? for the note. When you click Ok and then save your changes, the note is deleted. You can only delete a course if you created it, or if you are the teacher of record for the course. For example, the teacher of record can delete a note entered by an assistant teacher for the course.

7. Under New Note, click to select the category code indicating what the new note is related to, such as AT for attendance.

In the text box, type the new note. You can type up to 3269 characters per note.

5. Click Save to save the changes and close the dialog box. Otherwise, click Cancel to close the dialog box without making the changes.

A report of course notes can be run from the Reports menu.

6. In the Category field, click to select the category for which you want to enter assignment grades.

7. You can select one category or all categories.

8. If a color has been assigned to the category on the Administer Categories page, the drop down displays the assigned color.

7. In the Assignment field, click to select the assignment for which you want to enter grades. You can select one assignment or all assignments.

8. In the Due Date field, type a date (in the MMDDYYYY format) if you want to limit the assignments displayed to those that are due on or after that date. Or, click to select a valid date from the calendar. To close the calendar, you must click a valid date on the calendar.

9. In the Student field, click to select the student for whom you want to enter assignment grades. You can select one student or all students.

10. The assignment grades table displays all students currently enrolled in the course section and the assignments, according to your selections. Enter the grades in the fields provided.

• To temporarily hide the menu and selection options in order to see more students on the page, click Hide Menu. The logo, menu, and selection options disappear from the page. To make the information visible again, click Show Menu.

• The category for each assignment is displayed above the assignment description. The date due and total possible points are also displayed.

• By default, the page displays only the first five assignments. Click in the Assignments per Page field to change the number of assignments displayed.

Note:  If you have a large number of assignments for the current cycle, it is recommended that you avoid selecting All in the Assignments per Page field, as this can cause the page to load slowly.

• If there are more assignments than can be displayed on the page, click << Previous and Next >> to view the other assignments.

• By default, the assignment grades table has its own scroll bars that work independently of the page. As data is added to the table, you may need to use the scroll bars to view the entire table. The independent scroll bars are displayed or not displayed according to your setting for the Use Independent Scroll Bars on Assignment Grades field on the Update Profile page. If the field is selected, the table will have vertical and horizontal scroll bars that are independent of the page scroll bars. Otherwise, the table will not have independent scroll bars, and you must use the page scroll bars if the data exceeds one screen.

Note:  The independent scroll bars are not available on mobile devices.

• You can use the following keys to navigate the fields:

• Press ENTER after you enter each grade to move down the list to the next student. You can press SHIFT+ENTER to move up the list. You can also press the up and down arrow keys to move up and down the list.

• Press TAB to move across the list to the next assignment. You can press SHIFT+TAB to move back to the left.

• The Student ID field displays the student's ID. You can click the student ID to view the student's profile.

3. The Student name field displays the student's name.

4. Withdrawn students are not automatically displayed. To see withdrawn students in the list, select Show withdrawn. Withdrawn students are displayed in a blue row, and the message "Withdrawn" and the withdrawal date are displayed by the student's name. The withdrawal date may be the student's withdrawal date from school or his withdrawal date from the class.

To hide withdrawn students, unselect Show withdrawn.

Note:  The Show withdrawn field is disabled if you are viewing data for a course group.

3. No Show students are not displayed.

4. If the course is set up to post alphabetical grades, the Show averages as alpha check box is displayed.

• To display averages as alphabetical grades, select Show averages as alpha.

• To display the averages as numbers, deselect Show averages as alpha.

For courses that use alphabetical grades, a cookie is set to remember the setting, and the page will always display averages according to the setting by default. Averages are also displayed on the Cycle Grades page according to the setting. Courses that use numeric grades will always display grades numerically.

3. The Cycle average field displays the student's working cycle average. The average is updated every time you access the page, click Calculate Averages, and/or save grades. If the student does not yet have a working cycle average, the field is blank.

• The working cycle average is calculated according to the weighting selected on the Administer Categories page.

• The working cycle average is rounded to a whole number. If the decimal value is .5 or greater, the grade is rounded up.

• If you use percentage-based categories, and you have a category that does not yet have grades (e.g., if it is early in the cycle and you have not administered any tests), the student's working cycle average is calculated based on the percentages for the categories that have grades.

For more information on calculations, view the Help for Weighting Type on the Administer Categories page.

3. When you enter or change a grade, the table cell turns gray to indicate that the grade was changed but not yet saved. Once you save the assignment grades, the cell is not gray.

4. If you type an invalid grade, such as a letter grade that does not have a conversion value, the cell is shaded red. You must correct the entry before you can save the grades.

5. Only whole numbers can be entered for numeric grades.

6. Dropped grades are italicized.

7. Assignments are displayed left to right in ascending order by the due date. (If there is no due date, they are displayed by the date assigned. Otherwise, the date entered is used.) To change the assignment display order to descending, change the Sort Assignments by Date Due in ( Ascending Descending) order field to Descending.

3. The assignments are color-coded according to the category. If a color is assigned to the category on the Administer Categories page, the column displays the selected color.

4. If the course is set up for alphabetical or ESNU grade posting, you can type letter grades or numeric grades. If you type a letter grade, it is automatically converted to a numeric grade for calculating the working cycle average, according to the conversion values set by the campus.

5. Other codes can be entered in place of a grade:

• M - Missing

• I - Incomplete (If you enter I for any grade, the student's working cycle average will be I until a grade is entered.)

• X - Excluded (The X functions the same way as clicking the note icon and selecting Exclude from the Grade Properties dialog box.)

3. To mass exclude grades for an assignment for all students, click Exclude All at the bottom of the assignment grade column. The Exclude All button for the column turns red, and all indicator icons are red to indicate that the grade is excluded for the student. To override the exclusion for a specific student, click , unselect Exclude, and then click Ok.

4. To mass enter an assignment grade for all students, use the Fill button at the bottom of each assignment grade column.

5. If you entered grades for all students who turned in the assignment, and you want to enter zeros for all other students, type 0 in the field, and then click Fill. All blank grade fields for the assignment are changed to 0.

6. To mass replace blank grades with a value (e.g., 100), type the grade in the field, and then click Fill. All blank grades for the assignment are changed to the entered grade.

7. To change all assignment grades to blanks, delete any data from the field, and then click Fill. All grades for the assignment are changed to blank.

8. The Overall Averages (i.e., class averages) for the working cycle average and each assignment are displayed in the bottom row of the table. The overall averages are updated every time you click Calculate Averages and every time you save grades.

9. For campuses that use curriculum and test taking systems (e.g., eInstruction and Eduphoria), you can click to import a data file that includes the student's ID, assignment grade, first name, and last name. The icon appears in the column heading for each assignment.

Note:  Only .csv and .txt files can be imported.

Importing assignment grades

11. The columns can be sorted according to your preferences.

12. To add comments or indicators associated with an assignment (e.g., excluded, late, or redo), click next to the assignment grade. The Grade Properties dialog box opens allowing you to enter additional information about the student's assignment.

13. Enter comments and/or select the appropriate indicator(s), and then click Ok.

9. If there is no grade for the assignment, it cannot be marked as late or redo.

10. If you want the indicators and/or comments to print on the student's IPR and display in the parent access Web site, txConnect, select Print comment.

11. If the assignment grade is excluded (e.g., for a transfer student), the icon is displayed. The grade will continue to be displayed in the field.

Note:  If an assignment is excluded for a student, and you have entered a number in the # Drop field on the Administer Categories page (indicating that you want to drop a specified number of assignments for a category), the assignment grade does not count toward the number that will be dropped. Only nonexcluded grades are dropped.

9. If the assignment grade is marked as late or redo (but not excluded), the icon is displayed.

10. If the assignment grade has comments but is not marked as excluded, late, or redo, the icon is displayed.

11. Click Cancel to close the Grade Properties dialog box without saving changes.

Warning:  Your comments and/or selections are not actually saved until you type your PIN and click Save to save all data on the Assignment Grades page. When you click Ok, it only saves your notes until you save all data on the Assignment Grades page.

To view the comments or indicators for an assignment, click the icon. The Grade Properties dialog box opens and displays comments and indicators that were previously entered.

13. Make any changes, if necessary, and then click Ok.

14. To close the Grade Properties dialog box without making changes, click Cancel.

14. Before you leave the page, you must save the data. Any data that has changed since the last time you saved your grades is indicated by gray shading in the table cell.

Note:  Be aware that you may have changed data that is not currently displayed on the page. All changes are saved, including those that are not visible on the page. For example, if you are currently viewing assignment grades for one student, but you previously entered grades for other students, the grades for all students are saved, regardless of what is displayed on the page at the time you save the data.

1. In the PIN field, type your four-digit PIN. The field is disabled for inquiry-only users.

• Click Save Grades.

• If your changes were saved successfully, the page reloads, and a message is displayed indicating that the grades were saved successfully.

• If you typed your PIN incorrectly, the system notifies you that you provided an invalid PIN. You must provide the correct PIN to continue.

• If you change any data on the page and then attempt to leave this page without saving the changes, a warning message is displayed. This includes attempting to change the Semester, Cycle, or Course Section fields before you save changes.

• Click Continue to leave this page without saving your changes.

• Click Cancel to return to the page and save your changes.

15. From this page, you can print grades for one assignment at a time. If one assignment is selected, the Print button is displayed.

To print the assignment grades displayed on the page, click Print. The Print dialog box opens allowing you to select your printer and settings. Click Print to continue, or click Cancel to cancel printing.

Notes:

• Do not use the Print option in the browser's File menu. Instead, always use the Print button on the page. The printout using the Print button contains formatting to handle the features on the Assignment Grades page.

• To print assignment grades for all assignments for the course, use the Assignment Grades Report. To access this report, select Assignment Grades Reports from the Reports menu. View the Assignment Grades Report Help page for information about the report.

To accept a transfer student:

If a student transfers into the course, you must accept the student into the course and enter his walk-in transfer average and weight. The campus, student ID, course number, semester, and cycle must all be the same for the average to transfer.

Note:  iTCCS users can transfer an average from another campus within the district if the student ID, course number, semester, and cycle are all the same.

1. Beside each student's name is the transfer icon . If a student transfers into the class with grades from the previous class, and he has a transfer average without a weight, the icon is red or blue , and you must enter a weight for the student's transfer average.

2. If a student transferred into the course from a different section of the same course, and his grades from the previous course are transferred, the icon is red .

3. If the student transferred into the course from a different course, and his grades from the previous course are transferred, the icon is blue .

To enter a weight for the transfer student's walk-in average, click or . The Transfer Walk-In Average dialog box opens.

7. The Date field displays the current date by default. To enter a different date (if the student's transfer date is different from the date displayed), type over the date in the MMDDYYYY format, or click to select a valid date from the calendar.

8. If there is only one track for the campus displayed, the calendar is color-coded according to the track, and a legend is provided for the colors. If this is a multi-track campus, the calendar is color-coded for multiple tracks.

9. If you enter an invalid date according to the calendar, an error message is displayed on the right side of the Date field. You must type or select a valid date.

10. You cannot select a date outside the current calendar year. Valid school dates begin with the earliest meeting day for any track at the campus and end with the latest meeting day for any track at the campus.

11. To close the calendar, you must click a valid date on the calendar or click the calendar icon.

• In the From fields, the teacher name, course number, and section are displayed for the course from which the student transferred. This data is only displayed if the student transferred from a different section of the same course and has a transfer average.

• In the Average field, the student's transfer average is displayed, if available. Otherwise, you can type the student's walk-in average. This is the student's average in the class from which he transferred. You can enter a numeric grade or an alphabetical (ABCD or ESNU) grade.

• If a student transferred from a course that posts letter grades to a course that posts numeric grades, and a letter grade is entered for his transfer average, the student's working cycle average is displayed as a numeric grade.

• See the Calculate Averages page for an explanation of calculating averages for transfer students.

• In the Weight field, type the weight you want to apply to the student's transfer average. For example, if a student transferred three weeks into a six-week cycle, you may want to enter a weight of 50%. The maximum weight you can enter is 99.

Notes:

• The student's transfer icon remains red or blue until a weight is entered and saved.

• Any course assignments that were due prior to the student's transfer date are excluded for the student, and the icon is displayed for the assignments. You can override the exclusion if you want the transfer student to complete an assignment that was due prior to his transfer date. To override the exclusion, click , unselect Exclude, and then click Ok.

2. To save the transfer data for the student, click Ok.

3. If you entered and saved the transfer average data for the student, his walk-in average is calculated in his working cycle average.

4. If you entered a weight for the walk-in average, the transfer icon changes to .

3. To close the dialog box without saving any data, click Cancel.

4. To clear all data previously entered for the transfer student, click Clear.

Any changes made for a transfer student must be saved after they are entered. The data entered is not actually saved until you type your PIN and click Save to save all data on the Assignment Grades page. When you click Ok, it only saves the data until you save all data on the Assignment Grades page.