A teacher can enter one policy and use for all their courses or enter multiple policies. When the teachers are allowed to define their own policies, they must enter at least one policy before they can enter assignments and grades.
If the district/campus has mandated a grading policy, you — as a teacher — can begin adding assignments immediately. When you open the Assignments tab in Grade Book, you'll see a Add Assignments command.
If the district/campus has not mandated a grading policy, the Policies tab in Grade Book will display the message, "No Grading Policies Defined." You must then create at least one grading policy before you can add assignments.
If a grading policy is to be partially or completely based on skills, the administrator must first create the skill sets.
Once a policy has been created, you must link it to any courses that will use it before assignments can be entered for the course section.
Grading policies created by teachers can't be changed once they're applied to course sections.
Extra credit grades are entered in the Grade Book when entering student grades.
Extra credit grades are either added as points to an assignment's category OR treated & graded as a regular assignment, but only reported for students who receive a grade for the assignment.
Click here for more information about district- vs. teacher-created grading policies.
Select Students from the Jump to Module pull-down list in the upper right corner.
Select Grade Book from the Grades menu, then click on the Policies tab.
Click Add Grading Policy, and the Grading Policies window opens.
Complete the fields as described. Required fields are marked with a red asterisk (*).
Name: Enter the label that will be displayed on the Assignment tab. If using multiple policies, we recommend that you assign a name that indicates either the course area — e.g. Math, ELA, Art, Specials — or the course level — e.g. Elem, MS, HS, Honors, Beginner, Advanced.
Grading Scheme: Defaults to Numeric Averages; but you may select from either Points Based or alpha options that have been created by the administrator. Alpha schemes function in the same way as numeric schemes with alpha characters replacing the numeric values.
Default Cz Code: Select from None, E, S, N, or U. If a code is selected, it will be the default citizenship grade for all students in the courses associated with this grading policy.
If you want to use a default, you must set it up before working in Grade Book because this code won't be updated in the student records after work has begun. The default can be edited by the teacher for individual students.
When using the default in Grade Book, complete the citizenship grade only for students who shouldn't receive the default grade.
Term Exam Weight: Enter the percentage of the term grade assigned to the term exam. For example, if the term exam weight is 10%, the term exam is worth 10% of the semester average. If left blank, no term exam scores can be entered.
Total Drops: Enter the total number of drops allowed. If less than the sum of category drops, student advantage dropping will apply.
Extra Credit: Enter the limit of extra credit points allowed. If left blank, no limit is imposed on extra credit.
Available Modifiers: Check the appropriate box(es) to designate the codes that can be used to stand in place of a traditional grade. Modifiers are defined by the administrator. Depending on the setup for the modifier, it will be treated as either a zero or a blank grade for averaging purposes.
Click Add Category.
Complete the Category fields as described. Note: The sum of category weights must equal 100. Any category that isn't used in the course won't be averaged and therefore won't impact the students' grades.
Name: Enter the name that will be displayed when entering assignments. The category name is also visible on the Grade Book > Grades tab and in the Parent Portal.
Weight: Enter the percentage of the grade to be earned in this category.
Drops: Enter the number of grades in this category that can be dropped. If Total Drops is set to zero, no grades will be dropped, regardless of the number of drops specified in the category.
Repeat steps 5-6 until you've entered all categories for this policy.
Click Save. Sample Honors Policy
Continue with Link Courses with Teacher-Created Grading Policies
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