Grading Procedures – Finding and Dealing With Gradebook

Discrepancies

28.0212. Finality of Grade. (a) An examination or course grade issued by a classroom teacher is final and may not be changed unless the grade is arbitrary, erroneous, or not consistent with the school district grading policy applicable to the grade, as determined by the board of trustees of the school district in which the teacher is employed.

Education Code - Subtitle F. Curriculum, programs, and services Chapter 28,

Subchapter A

Discrepancy between teacher gradebook and report card

• Which one is the correct grade?• What happens if a parent asks for a grade

clarification?• What can be the consequences?

– Parent can sue– Teacher/school district can be reported to TEA– Teacher can be charged with falsifying

official/academic records which is a misdemeanor– Teacher can be required to pay a fine– District can lose state funding– District can lose federal funding if it is a Special Ed

student

Gradebook Discrepancy IndicatorTeacher’s Gradebook

The grade columns will indicate the discrepancies. S1 grade is 74; S1 Report Card is 73. T2 grade is 82; T2 Report Card is 80. The grades are in bold black and preceded by an * asterisk.

Gradebook Discrepancy IndicatorAdministrator’s Report

Common Mistakes

• Incorrect dates• Maximum Score set at “1”• Proposed due date vs Actual due date• Category Percentages set at “0” or less than “100”• Grade Changes after the Grading Window is closed• Failure to change Incompletes• Transfer Grades• Coaches Syndrome

How we do fix these?• Incorrect dates

– Make sure that the assignment date is inside the grade period dates. Calendar

• Maximum Score set at “1”• Proposed due date vs Actual due date

•Category Percentages set at “0” or less than “100”•Grade Changes after the window closes

–Make sure that you follow the campus grade changes procedure.

•Failure to Change incompletes•Transfer Grades:

–New Students to the district:•Choose the appropriate class in your gradebook•Click the Display Options button. Select Grade Period Display.

Show assignments and grade periods for all terms. You do not have to show interim grades.

Enter the student’s nine weeks grade in the last assignment for the appropriate grading period. Use the comment “Transfer”. Repeat this for each nine weeks that he/she was not part of your class.

For a student that comes in the middle of a grading period:

Enter the transfer grade into each assignment up to where the student started getting grades for your assignments for that grading period.

In-school Transfers

Click on the yellow “New” button next to the student’s name.

The View Assignments screen will appear. Put any un-matched grades on existing assignments. You will also want to put a note in the comment reflecting the name of the assignment, teacher, and the date.

Handling grade changes and grade transfers and in the correct manner will eliminate the necessity for office personnel to spend time reconciling gradebooks and report cards. This in turn will eliminate any discrepancies between the gradebook and the report card and insure the integrity of the teacher grade book.

•Coaches Syndrome – Coaches find very creative ways to enter grades in the gradebook, ie, create one assignment for the first grading period and then just change the date of that original assignment for each following grading period.

Post to Family Access

Questions?

For those using Family Access: If the teacher does not check the “Post to Family Access”, there will be a discrepancy between the gradebook and the grade displayed in Family Access.

Grade Reporting Schedule 2009-2010

Interim 1A 8/24/09-9/11/09 Input Dates 9/9/09-9/15/09Interim 1B 8/24/09-10/2/09 Input Dates 9/30/09-10/06/09Term 1 8/24/09-10/16/09 Input Dates 10/14/09-10/20/09Interim 2A 10/19/09-11/6/09 Input Dates 11/04/09-11/10/09Interim 2B 10/19/09-11/24/09 Input Dates 11/22/09-12/01/09Term 2 10/19/09-12/18/09 Input Dates 12/15/09-01/05/10Interim 3A 01/06/10-01/22/10 Input Dates 01/20/10-01/26/10Interim 3B 01/06/10-02/12/10 Input Dates 02/10/10-02/16/10Term 3 01/06/10-03/12/10 Input Dates 03/10/10-03/23/10Interim 4A 03/23/10-04/08/10 Input Dates 04/07/10-04/13/10Interim 4B 03/23/10-05/07/10 Input Dates 05/05/10-05/11/10Term 4 03/23/10-06/03/10 Input Dates 05/30/10-06/04/10