We're a new school to BB, coming from another SIS. I'm tasked with importing about 160,000 grade entries from student records and I've run into a wall with using the "GPA Points" in the way we did previously for post-average weighting of AP/Honors classes. The short version is I can either get the term grades to show correctly, or I can get the YTD/Cumulative grades to be correct, but not both… no matter which "GPA points" option I choose.
I think there needs to be another option for when to calculate these points. Right now there is the "once a year" and "at the end of the calculation". This creates problems for getting both the term grade and the YTD/Cumulative correct at the same time. If there was another option for "each term" then I could create a separate calculation set for these items and get it dialed in.
I'm going to post a test student's grades, not a real student. In our last SIS I could add a "GPA point" config of "0.25" to all AP classes and so if she had 4 APs and 3 regular classes she could have a 5.0 for her average and wouldn't be diluted by the non-AP classes.
So, using the same points, if I have added grades for two terms of 2-term length classes. In these screenshots you will see that the term grades are correct, but then it adds the GPA points again at the YTD and Cumulative totals, when showing more than just term 1.
Term 1 only: (Correct)
Term 1 and 2: (Incorrect) 6.0 instead of 5.0
Here are the details on one of these grade entries, you can see they are split into two terms and follow the marking periods:
It handles transfer grades slightly different from "local/native grades". Even though I have an "equivalent course" selected, it WILL NOT pull from that course GPA Point config, it will only pull from the transfer grade record, even though it would pull other weighting values from the "equivalent course" (such as weight and alt-weight). So I need to make sure I have this resolved BEFORE my 160,000 record import or else I'm going to be in trouble. If it was just a weight/alt-weight issue I could post-update the course config and fix it, not so with the GPA Points. Painful.
I did also test and find out that BB somewhat fixes this with "local/native" grades, but not completely. If you have GPA points set in a course of length 2, it will divide your GPA points and apply it over each term. Which ONLY fixes the YTD/Cumulative issue, but not the Term issue.
For instance, if using a local/native length 2 course with a GPA Point of 0.25 and an A for both terms (assuming only 1 class per term for simplicity). Your GPA for Term 1 and Term 2 would be 4.125 while your YTD/Cumulative would be 4.25. Philosophically I have a problem with having my term grades being 4.125 and my YTD/Cumulative averaging higher to 4.25. Also, my historical transcripts would no longer match current grades.
Without being able to see under the hood, I don't know what the solution should be. I have a feeling the best way forward would probably be to add another calculation option to the "Add GPA points" selection. Maybe one for "only on term grades". That way it won't impact anyone else's previous settings. Then we could create different calculation sets for Term grades, and another for YTD/Cumulative values.
Hopefully we can resolve this and my 160,000 historical grade import can procede with fidelity.
