Transcript Builder and Final Grades in One Column

Susan Swensen

In our transcript, we want all the final grades from semester 1 classes, semester 2 classes, and yearlong classes to appear in the same column called Final Grade. I was told the solution was to name our Grade Plan for Semester 1 and Semester 2 a common name such as Semester. This worked great, but I was told by someone else that this would limit our reporting by semester and the ability to limit access by semester. Has anyone else done this and did you run into any problems? Or do you have another way to nicely display all Final Grades in one column?

Scott Chrysler

Susan -


Our academic year is split into a fall and spring semester. Each semester grade is composed of 2 quarter grades and an exam grade. The fall and spring semester grades are averaged for a final grade for the course. For semester-long courses, the semester grade serves as the final grade for the course as well. Here is how it all needed to be set up if you want all of your final grades to appear in the same column:


Note: I get all turned around because of how similarly everything is named in this system: Grade plans, Grade Plan groups, Grade Plan grades, etc. So I will refer to each by the field heading you actually see in the system.


For each Grade Plan Group that will include a final grade calculation that you want to appear in the same column on the report card, you need to have a calculation with a Grade Plan description (these are created under the Grade Plan tab of Grading setup) that is the same so the report card builder may put them in the same column. So this is how it looks for a one-semester course in the fall:

Grade Plan Group: Upper School Letter Grades: Semester-long

Grade Plan description: 2nd Quarter/Fall Semester. In this section, the 2nd quarter grade for the course, the exam grade, and fall semester grade are calculated/posted by the teachers.


This Grade Plan Group also contains:

Grade Plan description: Report Card Final Display. The formula with this description the report card grade from the Fall Semester column and enter it in the column we need to get all of our final grades in one column. This flagged with the F to indicate it is the final grade for the course to the system)


This is how it is set up in our year-long courses:

Grade Plan Group: Upper School Letter Grades: Year-long


The final Grade Plan description in the Spring Semester is titled: Report Card final Display. Under this description, the following grade and comments are calculated/entered:

4th quarter grade

Spring Exam Grade

Spring Semester Grade

Final Grade for the Course (which is flagged with an F to indicate to the system it is the final grade for the course)

Final Comment for the Course


In our grade report, the last column of grades is set up as follows:

Column: Grade
Grade Plan Grade: Final Grade for Course
Grade Plan: Report Card Final Display


We have no problem reporting on quarters, semesters, final grades - it all works pretty seamlessly.


Hope that helps.


Scott

Susan Swensen

That sounds very similar to what we have done. It looks very nice on the transcript with all Final Grades in one column. I was worried that one support person who is very knowledgeable said we may have limitations on reporting because of both having the same name. This is our first year, so I have no idea what kind of reporting we will need. I think we are going to stick with this solution as it seems like what we need. Thanks so much for your help.