Focus University Training Document

Focus University Training Document FOCUS Training: Secondary Interim Grade Processing Training Agenda Gradebook Usage Report Grades Teacher Completion Report Posting grades for absent teacher How teachers post grades Missing Grades Report Grade Verification Sheets Processing Grade Change Requests Generating Interim Progress Reports 2016 Training Objectives o To view and analyze the Gradebook Usage Report o To view and analyze the Gradebook Teacher Completion Report o To post grades for an absent teacher from the Teacher Completion Report o To understand the teacher process for posting grades o To view and analyze the Missing Grades Report o To generate and view the pdf of Grade verification sheets o To process a request for a grade change o To generate and view the pdf of the Interim Progress Report Focus School Software 1

Introduction To assist districts with a smooth process for posting or pulling grades for progress reports or report cards, Focus allows administrators to monitor teacher usage of the gradebook and the posting of grades at the end of marking periods. Through the Gradebook Usage Report, administrators can quickly note any teachers who are not consistently or regularly entering assignments and/or grades in their gradebook anytime prior to the start of the grade-posting window. Through the Teacher Completion Report on the Grades menu, administrators can monitor the process as teachers post grades during the grade posting window as well as post grades for teachers if they should be absent during the posting window. Both reports can be downloaded as excel spreadsheets or pdfs. Gradebook Usage Report This report allows administrators to track how frequently teachers are using the Focus Gradebook, including the number of assignments, recent due dates, recently created assignments, and recent grade changes. 1. From the Grades menu, select Teacher Gradebook Usage A comprehensive list of the school s teachers is displayed in the first column. NOTE: The Number of Assignments is a total across all courses taught by the teacher. 2. Click on any of the column headers to sort the Report by the data in the selected column. Focus School Software 2

Teacher Completion Report (Grades) The Teacher Completion Report displays the teachers who have not posted their marking period grades yet, and is broken down by Periods. In the event a teacher is absent or for some other reason is unable to post their own grades, this report can be used to post grades for the teacher. From the Grades menu, select Teacher Completion Interpreting the Teacher Completion Report: o A comprehensive list of teachers who have not posted grades is displayed in the first column. o The current quarter marking period will be highlighted by default; users will have to click on the Interim marking period. o The Grade Posting window dates are indicated at the top of the report. Once the time indicated has passed, teachers will be locked out from posting grades. o Red X s indicate periods for which the teachers have not posted grades. o A blank field indicates that the teacher has posted grades for that period OR does not have a graded section assigned for that period. o As teachers post grades, the red X s will fall off the report until there are no periods for which grades have not been posted. Focus School Software 3

To post grades for a teacher, click on a red X for the selected teacher. This will display the Post Final Grades screen in a pop-up window. 1) The selected teacher s name will display in the upper right corner with a red X to the left of the name. 2) Use the Course pull-down under Post Final Grades-Teacher Program to select the course. It defaults to the course connected to the period column from which the red X was clicked. 3) Users can click on the hyperlink to Use Gradebook Grades for the whole class at one time (as long as no grades are missing when posting quarter grades) or enter grades manually for each student. 4) Save the manually entered grades by clicking on the Save button. Choose another course from the pull-down if applicable and repeat the above steps. Focus School Software 4

Teacher Process for Posting Grades When the grade-posting window opens, teachers will see Alerts on their portals very similar to their attendance alerts. They have two options for accessing the Post Final Grades screen for their courses: Option 1: They can click on the Portal Alert Period link to go to that class period: Option 2: They can go to the Grades > Post Final Grades menu, which will open the Post Final Grades screen for the course displayed in the Course dropdown menu. Once in the Post Final Grades screen, teachers will have two options for posting grades: Option 1: They can click the Use Gradebook Grades link at the top of the column listing the student names to post for the entire class at one time: Once this Use Gradebook Grades link is clicked, the system will ask for a confirmation before posting final grades. Focus School Software 5

Option 2: They could post grades individually by student by clicking the Use Gradebook Grades link for each student or manually entering grades in the grade boxes. Teachers could override the posted grade by manually entering a grade in the grade boxes. This discrepancy would show on the Posted Grades Verification Report. Once grades have been posted for the marking period, the system will display a confirmation that the grades have posted successfully. ACTIVITY: Go to the Teacher Completion Report and post Interim grades for two of a teacher s courses. Administrator Grades Reports Focus School Software 6

Focus has additional built-in reports to help administrators monitor the grade posting process. One of these is the Missing Final Grades Report. Missing Final Grades Report The report shows a comprehensive list of students who were enrolled in a course through the end of the grade-posting period and do not have a grade posted for that course. The student appears in the list for each course with missing marking period grades along with the period in which they are scheduled. If a student withdrew from the course, an end date will appear for the dropped course. From the Grades menu, select the Missing Final Grades option. Administrators will see a search screen from which missing grades for a specific student or group of students can be viewed. More Search Options can also be used to search for students scheduled with a specific teacher. To view all missing grades for the selected marking period, click on Simple List on the search screen. The report displays alphabetically by student. Sort and view the report by teacher simply by clicking on that column header Focus School Software 7

Print Grades Verification Sheets The Grades Verification Sheets compares teachers posted grades to the Gradebook grades and can be printed for teachers to sign, verifying that their posted grades are correct. This report will show any Gradebook Grades that are different from what is posted for Interim progress reports. These grade discrepancies will be highlighted in red. From the Grades menu, select the Print Grade Verification Sheets. The Print Grades Verification Sheets screen will display options to select Teachers, Terms, Comments, Directions to teachers and whether to include or exclude specific Course Numbers: Focus School Software 8

o To print for an individual teacher, select the teacher s name from the drop-down menu. o To print for all of the teachers at the school, select the All Teachers option in this menu. o Check the Terms boxes to identify which marking period grades to print on the sheets. Check all that apply. o Check the Comments box to print any comments that teachers have included with the selected terms grades. o Use the Directions box to relay any directions to the teachers, which will be printed on the teachers sheets. o Use the Course Numbers to Include if there are specific courses that need to be printed, or leave the All value to print all of the teachers final course grades. o Use the Course Numbers to Exclude if there are specific courses that need to be excluded from printing. o Click the Run button to a generate.pdf file of the Grade Verification Sheets. Each course will be on its own sheet when printed. If there are any discrepancies between the Gradebook and the Posted Grades, they will be highlighted in red. A signature line is provided at the bottom of each sheet for the teachers to sign and verify their grades. Focus School Software 9

Approving Grade Change Requests The Approve Grade Changes screen allows administrators or designated staff, to approve teacher requests to have Interim progress report grades changed after the grade-posting window has closed. Administrators or the designated staff will receive a Portal Alert stating how many grade change requests are awaiting review. Once the request is approved, the grade (and GPA for high school students) is updated in the Focus database and is reflected on the student s Interim progress report as well as the appropriate Course History Interim tab. Click on the Portal Alert (or go to the Grades menu and select Approve Grade Changes) The Approve Grade Changes screen is displayed. New requests pending review are listed at the top of the table. Any previously reviewed requests are listed but cannot be edited. Review the date submitted, student, term, teacher, course, current grade percentage and letter grade, explanation for the change and the new grade percentage and letter grade. In the Status Explanation field, type in an explanation for the approval or denial of the request, if desired or required. Click the Approve or Deny button. Changes are auto-saved and the teacher can then view the status of the request on their Request Grade Change screen. Focus School Software 10

Focus School Software 11

Generating Interim Progress Reports from Posted Grades Once teachers have successfully posted grades and administrators or other designated users have posted for any absent teachers, the school can print the Interim progress reports. Navigate to the Grades Menu and select Report Cards. 1. Use More Search Options to select a grade level or specific student group if desired or leave blank to generate for all grade levels at one time. 2. Check Letter Grade, Teacher and Percent 3. Uncheck the Comments box as comments are not entered or printed for Interim Progress Report 4. Scroll to select the appropriate Interim marking period 5. Select the Letterhead for the school level: MS Interim or HS Interim Focus School Software 12

NOTE: clicking Save Settings as Default will save the selected options for the next time Interims are printed 6. Click Continue after making all selections 7. Use the check box in front of STUDENTS to select all students in the list or check students individually. 8. Click the Print button to create the report cards. Sample Interim: Focus School Software 13

Focus School Software 14