Course cumulative grades match report card calculations

Patricia Krueger

We are really struggling with how to show students and parents the correct cumulative grades that match what is calculated and shown on their report cards. This is an issue for full year courses that span Semester 1 and Semester 2. For report cards (grading tab) Semester 1 we use 40%Q1, 40%Q2 and 20% Midterm. Then for Semester 2 we use 40%Q3, 40%Q4 and 20% Final. However, the cumulative that shows on a course for the parents/students only uses the Gradebooks and weighs them evenly. Therefore students and parents do not have a good idea if they are going to fail a course, especially as we get to the end of the school year.

Our previous SIS allowed us to weight the gradebooks in the cumulative calculation. I have been told that Blackbaud cannot do this. I have created a New Idea asking for this in Blackbaud. The cumulative grade we show for a course should match what goes on the Report Card. And parents shouldn't have to wait until report card grades are entered to see how their students are doing.

If you have found a way around this please share. If you want to see this in Blackbaud please vote for the idea - Cumulative grade based on weighing gradebooks K12OR-I-3031. TIA

Bill Freeman

@Patricia Krueger
Have you set the assignment percentages in the gradebook (Faculty > Classes > class > Launch gradebook > more > settings > Grade calculation).

Patricia Krueger

@Bill Freeman My understanding is that those percentages are weightings for various assignment types WITHIN the gradebook. I am looking to weigh the entire quarter gradebook 40% of the cumulative grade.

Nancy Kierstead

@Patricia Krueger@Patricia Krueger We do not show the School Year Cumulative Average to avoid the confusion of an inaccurate “year” average. We only show the Marking Period Cumulative grades. (Academics>Grading Setup>Gradebook Settings> Edit Marking Period.) This way parents/students just see the cumulative grade for each marking period (e.g. Q3, Q4, S2Exam).

We also don't calculate a yearlong average, but we do calculate semester averages on on the Grading Tab which, as you mentioned, only show on the report card.

Perry Kong

@Patricia Krueger
Hi Patricia, did you ever figure out how they calculated the year percentage. I added up the 4 quarter percentages and it did not mage what was shown in BB. Thanks in advance.

Patricia Krueger

@Perry Kongrungparkorn NOPE - we have escalated it with Blackbaud but just is not something the system is currently set up to handle. We are still trying to decide how to handle it.

It seems very strange that a lot of other schools do not have this issue.