Are you able to copy over gradebook calculation set up to the new semester?

Nathan Ong
Nathan Ong
Third Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant
in Blackbaud K–12 Education Solutions™ General Discussions

Say a teacher has 4 English sections, English 1A-4A for Semester 1 and English 1B-4B for Semester 2.

They were able to set up gradebook calculation (25% classwork, 25% homework, etc.) for one section and copy it over to the other sections, like setting for English 1A and coping the set up for English 2-4A.

But for some reason it doesn't let them do it from English 1A to English 1B (new semester).

I was watching them try to do it, opening an English A section where it let you check off the boxes for English B sections and save, but then when reopening the gradebook for the English B sections they tried to save it to, the box would be unchecked and it didn't save the calculation.

We ended up with a workaround by just setting it up again for an English B section and then being able to do the rest of the B classes--so my question is, is this intentional/because it's a different semester? Or maybe I am missing some kind of setting or such that wasn't letting us save that.

Thanks!

Comments

  • Megan Day
    Megan Day
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    @Nathan Ong I'm not totally clear on whether this would help or not but here are a couple things to check.

    When a teacher sets up their gradebook, they have the option to set the calculation by “School year” or “Marking Period”. (It's also possible to have this set by administrators so teachers can't change it.) Is it possible they've set it to “Year” in the previous semester?

    The other thing that always trips my teachers up is - if they have already added an assignment to a class section, then they can't copy grade calculations to that section. The box next to that section name will be grayed out and they will have to go into each individual section to set up the grade calculations. No matter how many times I try to remind them to setup their grade calculations before ANYTHING ELSE, I always get a couple teachers who get confused because they start adding assignments.

  • Nathan Ong
    Nathan Ong
    Third Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    @Megan Day
    Thanks for the reply!

    Yes, it was set to school year so I'm guessing that might be it. If this comes up again I'll check on that setting and change it to marking period to see if that works.

    I guess I now have a question on what that setting in the gradebook does? I was reading this article on the section in Grade Calculation but just trying to understand what setting it as School year or by Marking period does, if you or anyone happened to know.

    Thanks again!

  • Megan Day
    Megan Day
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    @Nathan Ong

    If it's set to year, it means the teacher plans on using the same grade calculations through the entire school year. For us, it means that the teacher has the same setup for semester 1 and semester 2 or the same setup for trimesters 1, 2, & 3. This also means they only have to setup their grade books once at the beginning of the school year.

    If it's set to marking period, then it means the teacher will be having different calculations for each marking period. For example, in semester 1, the “Tests” assignment type is worth 15% but in semester 2, that assignment type is worth 20%. Setting up by marking period also means the teachers will need to remember to setup their gradebook for the new marking period.

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