POWERTEACHER GRADEBOOK INTERIM GRADING DIRECTIONS FOR THE ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM TEACHER Table of Contents GRADING DIRECTIONS FOR ELEMENTARY ALL Interim Periods... 3 Manual Export ITS SMS OFFICE... 5 Review Interim Period Tasks In Preparation for Grading... 6 Final Grades Mode... 7 Student View Mode... 8 Subjects and Classes... 9 Interim Scores For Core Subjects... 10 Interim Scores For Art, Music, Phycial Education and Strings... 12 When No Final Grade Score is Present... 13 When a Subjective Grade is Present... 13 Entering Scores for Sub-Objectives... 14 Overriding an Earned Average Score on a Single Student... 15 Entering the Conference Request... 16 Entering The General Comment... 17 Marking Class Grades Complete... 18 Viewing Completed Class Grades in SMS... 19 Common Errors to Avoid... 20 The Prince William County Public School Division does not discriminate in employment or in its educational programs and activities against qualified individuals on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, veteran status, or disability.
The Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) Student Information System (PowerSchool SMS) contains confidential data that must be properly safeguarded. The responsibility for protecting student information accompanies any need to access, use, or release this information. PWCS Regulation 295-Acceptable Use Policies and Internet Safety Policy govern all use and access to electronic student records. Any personally identifiable information, whether it pertains to staff or to students, is considered to be confidential. PowerSchool SMS users must protect the security and integrity of all confidential information at all times. These records shall be managed in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), The Virginia Public Records Act, and the Code of Virginia. In addition to PWC Regulations, the following are additional guidelines that must be followed for student information stored in PowerSchool SMS: The Information Technology Services SIS team has provided a standard security setup for the Student Information program that limits access to certain pages and fields based on a user s responsibilities. Below are some important reminders when accessing confidential student records and information: At no time should you divulge your passwords or allow others to use your password to your signed on workstation. Staff must exercise caution in the disposal of printouts and shred all personally identifiable information. This includes partial printouts that may result from printer paper jams or from trial runs of reports. All users must log off PowerSchool SMS and/or PowerTeacher Gradebook before leaving their workstations. Upon your return, type your User ID and password to reenter the program. Permissions are assigned to users based on their roles and training received. These roles are setup to distribute only needed access for users. Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) does not discriminate in employment or in its educational programs and activities against qualified individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability. PWCS provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The following individual will handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies, including Section 504 and Title IX: Associate Superintendent for Human Resources Prince William County Public Schools, P.O. Box 389, Manassas, VA 20108 PWCS SIS Office Page 2 of 20 September 2015
GRADING DIRECTIONS FOR ELEMENTARY ALL Interim Periods The following instructions will assist the Elementary School teacher in marking the Interim Period grades for their classes as complete and ready for export to PowerSchool SMS for the printing of the Interim Report Card. This document is intended to be used for All Interim Grade Reporting for the 2015-2016 School Year. The Interim Period # or Interim Mark # will be mention through the document which the # represents the current Interim Period. These should be inferred to include the dates and data for all subsequent interims. GRADING KEY The following scores are used to grade the Elementary Interim: CN Consistently or Adequately Meets Objectives NS Inconsistently Meets Objectives and Needs Support NG No Grade Given *CN or *NS Modified Curriculum The NG score is used when the teacher has not met with the student and has insufficient means to evaluate the student, as in the case of the Strings Teacher or the Homeroom Teacher of a student who has just enrolled in the school and has not been in class for more than 50% of the graded Interim Period. The Elementary Interim Report Card does not print any Comments other than the Homeroom Teacher s General Comment. Should a Specialist or other Teacher wish to add a Comment to a student s Interim Report Card, the text of the comment should be provided to the Homeroom Teacher for entry in the General Comment. Comments attached to Interim Grades or Areas of Difficulty WILL NOT PRINT. The Principal s comment is only used at Marking Period. At Interim, the Principal may have the SMS Administrator enter a School Message in PowerSchool SMS that will print the same message on every Interim Report Card. Should the Principal wish to add a comment to a particular student s Interim Report card, the text of the comment should be provided to the Homeroom Teacher to add to the General Comment for that student. PWCS SIS Office Page 3 of 20 September 2015
SAMPLE INTERIM REPORT CARD PWCS SIS Office Page 4 of 20 September 2015
Manual Export ITS SMS OFFICE The Manual Export is run from the PowerTeacher Administrator Program by the SMS Office. This export takes the final grades from the PowerTeacher Gradebook and prepares them for import into PowerSchool SMS: The process is as follows: Teachers complete grading in the gradebook The SMS Office exports from the school gradebooks as scheduled in the timeline. o Processing may take upwards to 45-60 minutes The grading information is then imported into SMS The SMS Administrator and ITC are advised that the export is complete. Teachers may review the imported grades in SMS Example: When a Teacher has grades finalized prior to 8:00 AM and the 8:00 AM Manual Export is successfully completed, the teacher should be able to check grades in SMS 45-60 minutes later. Once the Export has been processed and imported into SMS, the grades may be checked via the Missing Grades Report, the Grades Verification Report, or by creating the pdf file of the Report Cards. Teachers may log into SMS and check their class and student grades. PWCS SIS Office Page 5 of 20 September 2015
Review Interim Period Tasks In Preparation for Grading 1. Open the PowerTeacher Gradebook. Under the Classes, select the appropriate school and school year. For example, ANES 20XX-20XX which the 20XX represents the current school year. 2. Select the first Class to be finalized for Interim Period (#) Grade Reporting (where # represents the current Interim Period). 3. On the Scoresheet Tab, change the Reporting Term to Interim Period (#). 4. The assignments shown will be assignments that have a Due Date inside the date range of the current Interim Period. These are the only assignments that will contribute to the Letter Grade average shown next to the student name in the Final Grade column. Teachers in K-2 will see an Asterisk (*) instead of Letter Values. 20XX-20XX 3 2 4 5. Verify that the assignments shown are the assignments expected. If an assignment has been scored and does not appear in the listed assignments, go to the Assignments Tab, locate the assignment, and correct the Due Date of the assignment as needed. 6. Review the assignment score columns for missing, incorrect, or omitted scores. Enter or correct all entries as needed. 7. Save the Gradebook if you have made changes. PWCS SIS Office Page 6 of 20 September 2015
Final Grades Mode In Final Grades Mode, the gradebook displays the Final Grades columns to the right of the student roster. Score entries may be made directly into the intersecting cells by typing or rightclicking for score options. The teacher may also use various Fill functions to enter scores. 1. Change the Scoresheet Mode to Final Grades Mode. 2. The Interim Grade Reporting columns are displayed to the right of the roster. During the Interim Grade Reporting process, the calculated or displayed grades in PowerTeacher MUST be edited to reflect the grading scale for Interim reporting, i.e., CN, NS, NG and the markings for modified curriculum, *CN and *NS. 3. The assignments contributing to the Interim Period grade are shown to the right of the reporting columns. They are grouped according to their Category and display point values. The Category Header will have a number next to the label. This number is the number of individual assignments that contribute to the grades for the category. Teachers in K-2 will see an Asterisk (*) instead of Letter Values. 20XX-20XX 1 2 3 PWCS SIS Office Page 7 of 20 September 2015
Student View Mode In Student View Mode for Interim Mark (#) where # represents the current Interim Period, the teacher sees detailed information about the student s earned scores. The Student View Mode is very comprehensive and when the Terms button (located below the student s picture block) is selected, the Marking Period objectives are also displayed. 1. To view the current term and all other terms, turn on the Terms button located directly below the student s name in the display window. 2. To view the Assignments contributing to the Interim Score, turn on the Assignments button located directly below the student s name in the display window. 3. To the right of the term display are the objectives that will be marked on the Interim Mark Period Report card. 20XX-20XX 1 3 2 4 4. At the bottom of the Student View is an orange/pink Final Score display box. This box MUST be edited to report a different Final Score than the earned scored for the Interim Report Card. When a sub-objective is to be graded during the Interim, to the right of the Final Score will be entry boxes for marking the sub-objective with a value. PWCS SIS Office Page 8 of 20 September 2015
Subjects and Classes When viewing the Classes listing in the PowerTeacher Gradebook, the teacher has several viewing options. Each of the options displays the subjects and classes differently and the teacher may find that one view works best for daily use but that another view is better when working in Final Grades Mode. The following pictures demonstrate some of the available views: THE SCHOOL ACRONYM VIEW (RECOMMENDED VIEW) GRADE LEVEL VIEW (SUBJECTS) 20XX-20XX HOMEROOM VIEW (OBJECTIVES) PWCS SIS Office Page 9 of 20 September 2015
Interim Scores For Core Subjects To enter either the CN (Consistently or adequately meets objectives) or the NS (Inconsistently meets objectives or Needs Support) for a Subject, change to a Core Subject in the Classes list, for example, Mathematics. 1. On the Scoresheet, change to Final Grades Mode 2. Right Click on the first grade showing in the (Interim Mark #) Final Grade column. (Teachers in Grades K-2 will not see letter values) 3. From the right click menu, select Fill Scores. The Fill Final Scores popup window opens. 4. Select Replace All. 5. Select the checkbox in front of Manual Override and ALSO the checkbox after Manual Override. 6. Select the checkbox in front of Grade. 7. Enter the desired value (CN) to be applied to all students in the class. 8. Click on OK. 9. The CN will display in the Interim Mark # Final Grade column. It will appear BOLD and Italicized and a small red exclamation marker will display to the right side of the column. 10. Select OK. 11. Save the Gradebook. This will enter the CN value on ALL students in the Roster. PWCS SIS Office Page 10 of 20 September 2015
The letter grade averages have been overwritten with the CN score. Not every student will have earned the CN (filled) score. To change the score to another value for an individual student from Final Grades Mode, right click on the score for the student and select Show Score Inspector. (Double clicking the score may also open the Score Inspector). Note: This comment is not the General Comment and is left empty for Interims. Check the Manual Override checkbox. Select the Dropdown arrow on the Grade box, and change the grade from the fill grade of CN to the grade of NS, or to the modified curriculum values of *CN or *NS as appropriate. Click Close, and the fill grade that was previously applied to this student will be replaced by the new manual override grade. Repeat the steps above for Reading, Writing, Social Studies, and Science. When Art, Music, Strings, and Physical Education are also in the gradebook, enter the Interim scores for the students as provided by those teachers. PWCS SIS Office Page 11 of 20 September 2015
Interim Scores For Art, Music, Phycial Education and Strings To enter either the CN (Consistently or adequately meets objectives) or the NS (Inconsistently meets objectives or Needs Support) for Art, Music, Physical Education and Strings: 1. On the Scoresheet, change to Final Grades Mode 2. Right Click on the first grade showing in the (Interim Mark #) Final Grade column. 3. From the right click menu, select Fill Scores. The Fill Final Scores popup window opens. 4. Select Replace All. 5. Select the checkbox in front of Manual Override and ALSO the checkbox after Manual Override. 6. Select the checkbox in front of Grade. 7. Enter the desired value (CN) to be applied to all students in the class. 8. Click on OK. 9. The CN will display in the Interim Mark # Final Grade column. It will appear BOLD and Italicized and a small red exclamation marker will display to the right side of the column. 10. Click OK. Save the Gradebook. This will enter the CN value on ALL students in the Roster. NOTE: If the Strings Teacher has not met with the Strings students, the teacher may enter an NG score. PWCS SIS Office Page 12 of 20 September 2015
When No Final Grade Score is Present Teachers who are not currently using the gradebook for daily assignments will not have scores to review for the entry of the Interim Mark (#) Final Grade, where # represents the current Interim Period. The Entry and Override steps outlined in the previous pages still apply to this teacher. Right Click on a cell to use the Fill Scores When no score is present in the Interim Mark (#) Final Grades column, the teacher is still overriding the existing score, which is a BLANK. When a Subjective Grade is Present Teachers who grade all classes/subjects/objectives in the gradebook with S+, S, S- and N (subjective grading), or who have some subjects with subjective scoring may see some value already entered in the Interim Mark (#) Final Grade column when choosing final grade mode: Because subjective grades do not average in the gradebook, the gradebook may have automatically entered a score into the Interim Mark (#) Final Grades column. Right Click on a cell to use the Score Inspector to override the score to the correct value for Interim grading. This score MUST be overwritten according to the steps on the previous pages. PWCS SIS Office Page 13 of 20 September 2015
Entering Scores for Sub-Objectives Speaking, Listening, Handwriting, Technology, Work Habits and Conduct all contain subobjectives that require scoring for the Interim Report Card. When viewing Interim Mark (#) for these classes in Final Grades Mode, the sub-objective(s) appear to the right of the Interim Mark final grade column. The sub-objective columns are generally a darker green or blue in color to differentiate them from the Marking Period assignments. To view the text detail of the sub-objective, either hover over the title area until a description pops up, OR Click on the small grey arrow at the top of the title area to open the description bar. To close the description bar, click on the X in the description bar title (left). When a sub-objective is present to be graded for the Interim, enter the student s CN and NS values in the columns for the sub-objectives. Do not enter a score in the Interim Mark Final Grades area. The X value is NOT used in these columns at Interim. Select an intersecting cell and right click to obtain the right click menu. Select Quick Fill and then the appropriate value to enter the same value (either CN or NS) on all students. PWCS SIS Office Page 14 of 20 September 2015
Overriding an Earned Average Score on a Single Student Use the Student View to review and make changes to an individual student s Final Earned Average Score. Change to Student View Mode. To select a student, click on the student s name in the Student Groups on the left side of the Gradebook or use the forward and back arrows under the displayed student s name. The Student View has three small buttons under the student s name. These three buttons turn on and off the Assignment list, the Term list and the Comments list. The Assignment list displays the assignments that are contributing to the student s Final Score. The assignments will appear below the Term information. This list will display the grading trend. The Term List displays the available terms, and the scores that will be carried over from the current Reporting Term. This button may be turned off when reviewing a single term. At the bottom of the window, in the orange/pink colored area labeled Final Score, right click on the student s Final Score value (example shown is NS ). The Final Grade override window will open. Place a checkmark in the Manual Override checkbox. 1. Ignore the Percent value of the new score. 2. Type the CN or NS Grade, or use the dropdown arrow to select the score from the list. 3. Do not enter a comment to this change. Comments do not print. 4. Click Close. The student s score has been overridden with the new score. 5. Save the Gradebook. Repeat these steps to change the Final Score value of the Interim Mark (#) grade for any student previously marked with the CN through the fill function or as needed at any time during the grading process. Save the Gradebook after changes are made. PWCS SIS Office Page 15 of 20 September 2015
Entering the Conference Request To enter a Conference value of Y Conference requested or N No conference requested on a single student: 1. Select Parent/Teacher Conference from the Class List. 1. Change to Final Grades Mode. 2. To the right of the student roster will be the Conference Request entry. 3. Select the intersecting cell for the first student and the conference entry. 4. Right click for the menu. From the menu, select Grades. The N and Y values are shown. Select the appropriate value. 5. The selected value is entered into the column. When a conference is requested (or not requested) for all students, the Fill scores function will allow you to enter the same value in all cells at one time. Select the intersecting cell for the first student and the conference entry. 1. Right click for the menu. 2. Select Fill Scores. 3. Select either Students with No grade, to enter a value on any student that you did not already score, OR 4. Replace All to put the selected value on all students, even if there is already a value entered. 5. From the Score section, Grade dropdown, select Y or N. 6. Click OK. 7. The selected value is entered into the column. 8. Save the Gradebook. PWCS SIS Office Page 16 of 20 September 2015
Entering The General Comment The General Comment is found in the Classes list. Change to Final Grades Mode to see the column for this narrative comment. The General Comment may be entered for all students using the FILL COMMENTS function, or entered student by student using the Comment Inspector. Fill comments should not include any personal details, i.e., a student s name. Teachers should SAVE the grade book after entering a Fill Comment. Once the gradebook has been saved, the comment may be edited student by student for personalization, i.e., adding the student s name to the text. 20XX-20XX To enter the same General Comment text on all students in the class, use the Fill Comments option. 1. Select whether or not the comment is to be entered for Students with no comment (i.e., none has been previously entered) or the Replace all, entering this comment on all students in the roster. Replace All will overwrite any previously entered comment. 2. In the Comment text box, enter the text of the general comment. 3. Click OK. 4. Save the Gradebook. 1 The Fill Final Grade Comments window does include the Science and Social Studies comments that will be used at Marking Period grade reporting. Narrative Comments like the General Comment have a 1000 character limit. General Comments that exceed this limit WILL NOT PRINT on the report card. PWCS SIS Office Page 17 of 20 September 2015
To enter or edit the General Comment for a single student, use the Comment Inspector. Save the gradebook before editing the comment. Right click on the intersecting cell of the student roster and the comment column. Choose Show Comment Inspector. The Comment Inspector displays the student s name at the top of the window. Move to the next student by selecting the arrows next to the student name in the window. The text of the General Comment is entered in the comment text box. If a General Comment has already been entered through the Fill function, the text of that comment may be edited or personalized for an individual student here. Save the gradebook if changes have been made. In the event that a teacher submits a comment when the comment should be BLANK, the SMS Administrator or ITC must correct the error by removing the entry in SMS. A Blank comment in the gradebook does not overwrite an already submitted comment in SMS. To make a previously submitted comment in SMS appear to be blank, enter a comment that has a single period, an underscore or a dash. This will cause the comment to be overwritten. Marking Class Grades Complete GRADES ARE IMPORTED FOR THE ENTIRE SCHOOL AT ONE TIME. GRADES FOR ALL CLASSES IN THE POWERTEACHER GRADEBOOK WILL IMPORT TO POWERSCHOOL SMS. MARKING THE CLASS AS COMPLETE IS NOT A REQUIRED STEP. Marking Final Grades as Complete is a visual marker that a teacher may use during the gradebook review process to assist the teacher in recognizing which classes have been reviewed for completeness and accuracy and which are still in need of review. 1. Mark Final Grades Complete by selecting the Interim Period # in Progress button above the roster. 2. The Final Grades Completion Status box will open. 3. Put a check in the Final Grades Complete checkbox. 4. An optional comment may be added to state that your grades are complete. 5. Click OK. 6. Save the Gradebook. 7. Go to the next class and Repeat all grading steps. PWCS SIS Office Page 18 of 20 September 2015
Viewing Completed Class Grades in SMS Once grades have been imported into PowerSchool SMS, they may be viewed by the teacher from the Grades column on the My Classes Home page. Log in to SMS. From the My Classes Home Page, select the Grading column icon for the class. The imported PowerTeacher grades will appear in a class roster format. Verify the grades by comparing them to the grades from PowerTeacher. The grades roster may be printed by selecting the printer icon at the upper right corner of the roster grid. Comments will not print, but they can be viewed by hovering over the comment envelope. Be sure to select the correct grading period when viewing grades. Grades from PowerTeacher Gradebook will appear in these columns when grades are imported into SMS. Select Interim Period (#) to view the class grades. Where # represents the current Interim Period To view grades for a single student, select the link for the student s name. PWCS SIS Office Page 19 of 20 September 2015
Common Errors to Avoid Interim Report cards do not contain any grading comments on subject areas. The only comment that will print on the Interim Report Card is the General Comment. Please do not enter any comments on Final Grade items as these comments will not print and may cause issues with the submission of the scores to SMS. Comments entered on the Final Score column will not print on the Interim Report Card. Art, Music, PE, ESOL and Special Education teachers without Homerooms do not have access to the General Comment. If they wish to provide comments about the student s progress in their particular subject, those comments will need to be given to the homeroom teacher to be incorporated into the homeroom teacher s General Comment. Final Grades that are entered into the wrong column of the PowerTeacher Gradebook will not export/import into SMS. When in Final Grades mode for the current Interim, review the column headings to the right of the student roster to determine if the CN or NS score is to be entered directly to the right of the student roster or in a column further to the right that is labeled as a grade item. Example: Science versus Handwriting Science scored in the Final Grade column Handwriting scored in the column to the right. PWCS SIS Office Page 20 of 20 September 2015