Administrative Grade Processing

In order to ensure that your campus teacher grades will be calculated and posted correctly for the new school year you must setup and review the following items: 1. Grade Periods: Grade Posting Window (Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PS-CF-GP) 2. Category Groups Usage Report (Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-RE) 3. Teacher Posting Status (Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PA-Teacher Posting Status) 4. Grade Differences Report (Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PA-Grade Difference Report) 5. Grade Change Request (Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PA-Teacher Request for Changes to Previously Posted Grades) If there are any campus staff that needs access to any of the following Skyward areas please submit the proper form signed by your campus principal via a help desk ticket requesting that they be granted access. PART 1 GRADING PERIODS GRADE POSTING SCHEDULE The grading periods should be referred to as a Grade Posting Schedule because the time frame specified by each campus for the grading periods determines when their teacher s grade book gets posted to the Skyward administration side. Below is a sample of a grading period schedule. The grading period information circled in green shows the dates for each six week period and each progress report period; Midterm. These dates are set at the district administrative level and cannot be changed. The grading period information circled in red determines when Skyward will automatically post grades from the teacher grade book to the administrative report cards. This information also cannot be changed at the campus level but a change request may be submitted by each campus via a help desk service call. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 1 of 13

A copy of each campuses grading period schedule is distributed by the PEIMS department at the beginning of every new school year to give campuses an opportunity to review and change their schedule. Grade period schedule changes can be requested at any point during the school year but these change request must be kept to a minimum. When a grading period window is opened all grades that the teachers are actively working on will be instantly posted to the administrative side and all teacher grade books will be automatically posted overnight to the administrative side. It is important to understand this and schedule in some time for your staff to review and correct the teacher grade books. Make sure to communicate your campuses grading period schedule to your teachers to ensure that they are aware of your campus grade submission deadlines! McAllen High School, Memorial High School, Rowe High School and Lamar Academy must have their grading periods synchronized with one another since these campuses often exchange students and teachers. These campuses must communicate with one another and designate a single individual to submit any grade change request which confirms that the other campuses are aware of and agree to the request. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 2 of 13

PART 2 GRADE CATEGORY WEIGHTS The district s curriculum administrative department determines how campuses will assign grade weights for different scoring items such as Exams, Daily Homework, Quizzes, etc. It is the campuses responsibility to ensure that each of their teachers have properly set their grade weight categories at the beginning of the school year prior to the first progress report. Please note that the PEIMS department does not directly train teachers and most teachers at each campuses will already know how to set their weight categories. If you have a new teacher that needs to be trained on their teacher grade book you should buddy them up with a more experienced teacher or contact the districts Design Center for a new teacher training schedule. This document will show you how to access the Grade Posting Administration & reports menu items through the Student Management Skyward system. If you do not have access to this menu item please email me so I can adjust your Skyward security. Most campus administrators already have access to the Educator Access Plus Skyward system which also gives you access to the same Grade Posting Administration & reports menu items. Use which ever method you prefer to access the Grade Posting Administration menu item. Once you get to this menu item the instructions in this document are the same. To facilitate campuses with verifying their teachers grade category weights Skyward has created the Category Groups Usage Report which is located in Skyward at the following menu path: Student Management-Educator Access Plus -GB-SE-RE-GU The above screen shot shows the report template for the Category Groups Usage Report which is pretty straight forward. Make sure that you give the template a meaningful name, ensure that the proper school year is entered and most importantly that the two check boxes under Report Options are checked off. This report will show you the grade categories that are being used for each of your teacher s classes. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 3 of 13

PART 3 TEACHER POSTING STATUS Administrative Grade Processing Use the following Skyward menu path to see an onscreen listing of the grade posting status for your campus teachers for any given Term or Mid Term. Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PA-Teacher Posting Status When you follow this link you will immediately see a listing of all of your teachers and the posting status for the term listed in the screen heading; see screen shot below circled in green. You can click on any of the column headers to sort this listing based on that column header. The screen shot above is sorted on the Completed column header, circled in red, which indicates if the course section for the teacher listed has been posted or not. Click on the Filter Options button, circled in yellow, to change the term being displayed and/or to only display those classes that have not been marked as completed for posting. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 4 of 13

PART 4 GRADE DIFFERENCE REPORT Administrative Grade Processing In order to verify that all teachers grades have posted correctly to the administrative side for report cards you must run a Grade Difference Report for your campus. The Skyward menu path to find this report is: Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PA-Grade Difference Report The template to setup this report is show below. Provide a meaningful name for the template description. Ensure that the correct School Year and Entity are chosen. Select the grading period term that you want the report to generate and finally chose the sort options that you want for this report. When the report is created every line listed on the report represents a grade in a teacher s grade book that is different from the grade that has been posted to the administrative report card. You must verify why there is a grade difference and make any necessary corrections so that grades on the teacher s gradebook matches the campuses administrative report card. Refer to the next section PART 5 Grade Change Requests for instructions on how to approve a grade change request that a teacher has submitted. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 5 of 13

PART 5 GRADE CHANGE REQUESTS Administrative Grade Processing All grade changes in Skyward must be processed using the grade change request process outlined in this document. Help desk tickets requesting that your campuses grade posting window be opened will no longer be accepted! After a term has expired and a teacher has a need to change a grade the teacher must submit a grade change request via their Skyward gradebook. Most campus teachers are already knowledgeable on how to submit a grade change request. If you have any teachers that are new or do not know how to submit a grade change request you should either buddy them up with a more knowledgeable teacher on this process or contact the Design Center for a training schedule for your teachers. When a teacher logs into their grade book they have access to a skyward document which provides a wealth of information on procedures for performing critical task including how to request grade changes. A teacher can access this document by clicking on the link circled in green below. The linked document contains the grade change request information under the topic titled Posting Grades on page 2. The topic heading is also a link that will take them to that area in the document. The Request Grade Changes is listed as the last item under this topic and is located on page 99. Remember that all grade levels use the same Skyward Secondary Gradebook. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 6 of 13

Once a teacher has properly submitted a grade change request it can be viewed from the Skyward administrative side for review and approval. Please note that only a professional campus administrator should decide whether a teacher s grade change request will be approved or denied. If a campus administrator decides to delegate the data processing portion of approving or denying a teachers grade change request then a paper trail or electronic email trail must be present which indicates that a campus administrator has instructed a data entry clerk to approve or deny a teachers grade change request. To view any grade change requests that your campus teachers have submitted use the following Skyward menu path: Student Management-Educator Access Plus-GB-SE-PA-Teacher Request for Changes to Previously Posted Grades When you navigate to this menu item you will see a screen shot similar to the one below which will list all grade change requests for your campus. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 7 of 13

Use the Filter Options button, circled in green on the above screen shot, to filter the type of grade change items listed on this screen. When you click on this button you will see a small window appear with four options to choose from: Option 1 Show Changes that are In Progress or Ready for Review This option will show you all grade change requests that are ready to be approved or denied as well as all grade change requests that teachers are currently working on but have not yet released for approval or denial. Option 2 Show Changes that are In Progress This option will show you all grade change requests that teachers are currently working on but have not yet released for approval or denial. Option 3 Show Changes that are Ready for Review This option will show you all grade change requests that are ready to be approved or denied. Option 4 Show Grade Changes that are Completed This option will show you all grade change requests that have already been approved or denied. The remainder of this document has been directly copied from the Grade Change Request section of the Skyward Administrative Access Guide. This complete document can be requested from the PEIMS department along with the Skyward Secondary Gradebook Teacher Guide document as mentioned in these training document under Part 5 above. The Grade Posting Administration area allows you to monitor the grades posted for students. This is also the location you will need to come to approve grade change requests by teachers. The number displaying after the Teacher Requests for Changes to Previously Posted Grades is the number of requests needing approval. It represent Grade Change Requests from all entities you have security access to. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 8 of 13

Standards Gradebook Teacher Requests for Changes to Previously Posted Grades The Standards Gradebook Teacher Requests for Changes to Previously Posted Grades allows you to approve grade change request from the Standards Gradebook. In order for teachers to request a grade change there is an option within the configuration of the Standards Gradebook. Filter Options The Filter Options allow you to determine the entity and the requests that display on the screen. After selecting the entity, you can only select one option to choose the information displaying on the screen. Show Changes that are In Progress or Ready for Review This option will display classes with a status of In Progress or Ready for Review. Show Changes that are In Progress This option will only show the classes that currently have a grade change request in progress and are working on completing the modifications in the gradebook. Show Changes that are Ready for Review This option will only show the classes where the teacher as marked the grade change request as complete or the two hour time frame has passed. Show Changes that are Completed Whey selecting this option, only grade changes flagged as completed will display. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 9 of 13

Expanded Class Information You can see additional information and approve the grade change request by clicking on the arrow next to the gradebook/class. Reason for Requesting Grade Changes The Reason for Requesting Grade Changes will display the reason entered by the teacher when submitting their grade change request. Teachers are required to enter a reason before they can make the grade change(s). Term Grade Difference If the Academic Area is set up to Calculate a course term/semester/final grade based on weighted term/semester/final subject grades, you can approve the grade change and post the grades. You can either Post Grades individually or select Post All. Subject Grade Differences If the Academic Area is set up to Grade Subject, you will be able to view the changes made to the subject grade. There is no option to approve the subject grades because these grades do not get posted to the grades tab. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 10 of 13

Skill Grade Differences The Skill Grade Difference will display the changes made to the skill grades within the gradebook. There is no option for approval of the skill grades because these grades do not get posted to the grades tab. Event Grade Differences The Event Grade Differences display any events that were modified during the grade change request. Term Grade Differences for Dropped Students If the Academic Area is set up to Calculate a course term/semester/final grade based on weighted term/semester/final subject grades, you can approve the grade change and post the grades for dropped students. You can either Post Grades individually or select Post All. Approved Grade Differences The Approved Grade Differences display any term grades changes that were approved. It will display the date, time and who approved the term grade change. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 11 of 13

Mass Post Grade Changes The Mass Post Grade Changes option allows you to post the term grades for multiple gradebooks/classes at one time. You can view the grade differences by clicking on the arrow next to the gradebook/class. If you would like the grade differences to post, you will select the gradebook/class. Total Number of Requested Changes Selected The number that will display is updated every time you select a gradebook/class. If you click on the Clear All, it will unselect all of the gradebooks/classes at one time. Exclude Dropped Students from Mass Posting If this option is selected, the students displayed in the Term Grade Differences for Dropped Students will not be processed when mass posting of the grades. Select All On This Screen When you click on this option, all of the classes displaying on the screen will be selected for the mass posting process. Unselect All On This Screen When you click on this option, all of the classes displaying on the screen will become unselected for the mass posting process. Post Grade Changes for Selected Classes This option will mass post the grade changes for any class that is selected. After selecting the Post Grade Changes for Selected Classes, you will receive the message displaying above. If you want all selected gradebooks/classes grade changes posted and marked as completed, you will click Continue. After clicking Continue, it will complete processing in the Print Queue. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 12 of 13

Mark Completed After verifying and posting the term grades, you can highlight the gradebook/class and select Mark Completed. Once the option is selected, you receive the message above displaying that the grade change request has been marked as complete. You will receive the above screen if term grade differences still exist. If you need to review the grade changes, you will select the option to Return to Requested Changes without Completing. If the term grades should not be posted, you will select Mark as Completed. After selecting the Mark as Completed, the un-posted grades will not be available and display as ignored. Document Version 1.8 (10/21/2014) Page 13 of 13