Why don't course grades look right?

There are several reasons why course grades may appear incorrect to you (or are missing).

• assessments are connected to the wrong course (or not connected to any course – check the "Course" on the assessment)
• assessments aren't included in the course's grading methodology (check the "Assessment Type" of the assessment)
• the assessment questions aren't linked to standards (only relevant for standards-based grading courses; check question details on the "Input" tab)
• student enrollments aren't correctly set up (students must be enrolled in a course through the end of a grading term to get grades)

 

Read on for more details on each of these items.

Assessment Setup

Put simply, there are several things that determine whether an assessment counts for grades. This article is the shortcut to understanding these factors.

It's important to check that the assessment has the correct course selected and that the assessment type is one that's included in the course's grading methodology. For example: if you use "Homework", "Exam", and  "Final" in your grading methodology, any other type of assessment entered ("Exit Ticket", "Interim', "Quiz") will not contribute to the overall grade and will not factor in to progress reports or report cards.

The type of assessment is chosen when the assessment is created. This is a mandatory field, but can be edited, and is found in the upper right when viewing an assessment. The course to which an assessment applies is also listed clearly in assessment details. This is not a mandatory field, so ensure that assessments that should count toward course grades are linked to a course.

In the following course, the assessment types that count toward grades include: "Benchmark," "Classwork," "Exit Ticket," "Homework," "Exam," "Interim," and "Quiz." "Participation" does not count towards the Quarter 1 grade. 

Standards-Based Grading

If the assessment type or assessment course is not the problem, and your course using a grading system based on standards, the problem may be caused by assessments missing standards. First, check your course to see if it's configured to grade students based off of standard results. By clicking the "Edit" link next to the course name, this option can be toggled to "Yes", "No", or to whatever your school default is (as defined in your school's academic settings). 

If your course has "Yes" or "School Default (Yes)", problems with grades may be the result of assessments missing standards. Check the assessments in the course and make sure that they all have objectives aligned to questions. Any questions that do not have standards tied to them will not count toward student grades in a standards-based course.

Student Enrollment

Lastly, if student enrollment dates from your SIS do not match up with term dates (quarter, semester, etc.), then grades will not show as being a part of that term, and will not calculate. To check this, go to the student page of any student enrolled in the course, and look at his/her "Sections" tab. Enrollment end dates must match the end dates of grading terms. If a student's enrollment in a course ends before Q2, for example, that student will not be eligible for a Q2 grade on his/her report. You will still see student grades for Q2 on the course page, but this is for purposes of showing student progress only; final grades are not given to students that don't complete a grading term (i.e. have an enrollment that reaches the end of a quarter/semester/year).

Student enrollment dates are determined in your school's SIS. Any updates should be done there. Contact your Customer Support Manager if enrollment updates are not syncing through as expected.

Locked Terms and Recalculations

Perform a manual recalculation of course grades to ensure all grade updates factor into the most recent course grades. Be aware that it's possible to lock grading terms as well. This means that course grades for that grading term cannot be changed by any means until the grading term is unlocked. Even if assessment results are drastically altered for a grading term, course grades will not be affected if that grading term is locked. 

If you determine that these are all correct and grades are still not appearing correctly, reach out to [e-mail] with an explanation of your issue and any relevant screenshots.