SIS Gradebook

Overview

The SIS Gradebook is a web program that's integrated with the rest of SIS for Web and allows teachers to enter scores for student work in a course and to calculate marking period marks and a final average from those scores. SIS Gradebook is based on the concept of a "gradebook". A gradebook has two basic components:

A layout
Scores

A gradebook layout indicates the things students are scored on and how those scores are used to determine the students' marking period mark and final average. The things students are scored on are typically things like homework, quizzes, exams, papers, projects, class participation, and so on. Groups of scored items can be organized together as part of a category. For example, all homework assignments might be grouped into a homework category, and weekly quizzes might be group into a quizzes category. The SIS gradebook provides an arbitary level of categorization so that a homework category might contain a Civil War assignment which might contain indivually scored items for Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. Probably, most teachers won't go to that level of granularity but it is easy for teachers who wish to to do so.

The scores in a gradebook consist of the scores the students received for the items specified in the layout. Since the SIS gradebook is integrated with the rest of SIS, the students in a section will automatically be present in the gradebook for that section so all a teacher will need to do once an item is specified in the gradebook layout is enter the scores for that item. In addition to the simple score, teachers are also able to attach comments to a score, exclude the score for an individual student (for example for a medical absence or family emergency), or indicate some standard qualifiers for the score such as Late or Absent.

Each section in a course has its own gradebook for each marking period and, in fact, there is also a gradebook for the Final Average. The Final Average gradebook will almost always consist of the equally weighted marking period marks but might also contain additional items such as a final project or a Regents Exam (though teachers are generally discouraged from using Regents Exam grades as part of a course grade). Different marking period marks might also be weighted differently though his would probably be very unusual and should not be done casually.

Getting started

To get started using the gradebook, a teacher simply has to select "Gradebook" from the drop-down list in the teacher's list of courses and sections. The teacher will then enter the gradebook for the selected section. The first thing the teacher must do in this case is specify the final average gradebook layout. Fortunately, final average gradebook layouts are almost always the same or very similar, simply consisting of equally weighted marking marks. Because this is by far the most common final average gradebook layout, the SIS gradebook provides this as the default layout and all the teacher has to do is click on the "Save New Data Button" and the final average gradebook will be created for the section.

Linking section layouts

In addition to creating a final average gradebook for the selected section, this will create a final average gradebook layout for all sections for the same course, taught in the same marking periods by the same teacher. That is, if a teacher teaches three sections of AP US History in Marking Periods 1 and 2, creating a final average gradebook layout for one of those sections will create one for the other two. In fact, these gradebook layouts are said to be linked because any additions or changes to a gradebook layout for one of the sections will be reflected in the other sections. Since it's common for the same sections of the course to have the same assignments, quizzes, tests, and so on, this can be very convenient, saving the teacher the work of entering the same item in multiple gradebook layouts.

If, however, a teacher has different assignments for different sections of the same course, this linking of gradebook layouts can be more a hindrance than a help. In such a case, the teacher can unlink the sections by clicking on the Unlink checkboxes on the gradebook layout page. These Unlink checkboxes only appear in the layout page for the final average and the marking period marks and do no appear on the layout pages for subcategories (more on this later). Be careful — if you unlink section layouts you can never link them back together again. While not the end if the world, it means that the teacher has to enter assignments separately for each of the unlinked gradebook layouts.

If a course consists of two sections, it's simple to unlink them. Simply go to the gradebook layout update page for the final average or marking period and click on Unlink. If there are multiple sections, it can be trickier to unlink sections. If a teacher is looking at section 002 that's linked to sections 003 and 004, unlinking only section 003, leaves sections 002 and 004 still linked and 003 unlinked from both of them. Unlinking both 003 and 004 would result in section 002 not being linked to any section and 003 and 004 still linked. A teacher could then go into section 003 or 004's layout update page and unlink the other to make all sections unlinked. All this said, the recommendation is to keep sections linked to save work.

The final average score entry page

Once the new final average gradebook layout is saved, the SIS gradebook will present the teacher with a page showing the scores that make up the final average. These scores will, of course, include the marking period marks. Of course, since there have been no scores entered yet, all scores will be blank and, since marking period marks are calculated from their gradebooks, it will not be possible to enter scores on the final average scores page.

Instead, the teacher should click on the link for the Marking period mark for which he or she wishes to define a gradebook layout (probably the earliest one). Since this is the first time the teacher has worked with the gradebook for the section, there will be no gradebook layout for the marking period so the SIS gradebook layout will take the teacher to the page to define the the marking period's gradebook layout. Because there is no definitive set of scored items that make up a marking period mark, none are assumed by the SIS gradebook. However, there are some common ones like quizzes, homework, exams, and class participation that the SIS gradebook provides for easy selection. To select one of these categories, the teacher simply has to uncheck the Remove checkbox in front of the item. The teacher can also add a new item by typing in the name of the new item in one of the empty Description boxes on the page. Once the teacher saves the gradebook layout for the marking period, it becomes possible to start entering scores for the marking period. More details about the gradebook layout follow. One important thing to keep in mind is that it is possible to change the gradebook layout after scores have been entered for the section. The one exception to this is that a gradebook layout item for which scores have been entered cannot be removed. However, if for some reason a teacher wishes not to use an item for which scores have been entered, the teacher can:

Delete all the scores for the item and then remove the item from the layout.
Exclude the scores from the mark calculation on the score input page.
Set the weight of the item to 0.

In any case, the point is that the teacher is not locked into a layout at any point and has a lot of flexibility in changing the layout as the marking period proceeds.

Gradebook layout update

The gradebook layout update page allows a teacher to enter the items that are scored and then used to calculate student marks for the marking period. These items are called categories. As the name suggests a category can consist of items that are each individually scored. These items are subcategories of the containing category. For example, "Hamlet quiz" might be a subcategory of the category "Quizzes". The marking period mark can be thought of the outermost category that contains the categories that are used to calculate the marking period mark. Those categories themselves can also contain subcategories some of which can contain subcategories. The gradebook layout update page only allows updating of one category and its subcategories.

Each category has a description which is simply text that describes the category. Some standard categories such a "Midterm Exam", "Regents Exam', or "Marking Period Exam" cannot have their descriptions changed but for all other categories, thee description can be whatever the teacher wishes. The descriptions must be unique within a gradebook so a teacher can't have two categories both called Quiz. At the very least the teacher should distinguish them by calling them "Quiz 1" and "Quiz 2" or perhaps "Quiz on" followed by the date n which the quiz was given.

On the gradebook layout update page, every category has a checkbox next to it that indicates whether or not the category can have subcategories. If not checked, the category cannot have subcategories added to it and scores can and must be entered directly for that category. If, on the other hand, the checkbox is checked indicating that a category has subcategories, those subcategories must be added using the gradebook layout update page. To get to the gradebook layout update page for a category that has subcategories, simply click on the Place of interest symbol (⌘) next to the category name on any gradebook page on which the name appears. Scores cannot be entered directly for a category with subcategories. Instead, scores must be entered for the subcategories and the the category's score is calculated from the subcategory scores based on the rules in the category's layout. Once a category has subcategories, the subcategories checkbox cannot be unchecked. Of course, if all the subcategories are removed, then it becomes possible to uncheck the subcategories checkbox.

Every category can also have an assigned date. This date is currently not used for anything though might appear on the parent/student view of the gradebook in the future and might be useful to the teacher.

If a category does not have subcategories, it must have a Date due entered, with one exception. This date is also not currently used for anything but might appear on the parent/student view of the gradebook in the future. The one exception to the requirement that a subcategory with no subcategories must have a Date due is the case where the containing category has a date due set, in which case that due date is also assumed for the subcategories. An example of where this might be used is if a teacher has a final paper due on a certain date but enters the scores for the paper as three separate subcategories: "Originality", "Grammar", and "Reasoning". The Assigned Date and Date Due dates can be manually entered in MM/DD/YY (month, day, year) format or selected from the calendar by clicking on the calendar icon next to the date input area or hitting the PgDn (Page Down) key when the cursor is in the grade input area. If both are specified, the Date Due cannot be before then Date Assigned and the dates for either of these must be inside the marking period cntaining the category or the previous marking period. The latter should be rare but can occur if students must hand in an assignment or quiz right at the end of a marking period but the teacher won't be able to grade it before the marking period marks are finalized.

Max Score and Weight

When students receive a score for a subcategory, that score's meaning depends on the maximum possible score for that category. For example, a student might receive a score from 0 to 10 on an assignment, or 0 to 20, or 0 to 100. A score of 10 means something very different depending on the maximum score.

In addition, a score for a subcategory has a particular weight. The weight indicates how important the score is in determining the score for the containing category. A subcategory with a weight of 2 will count twice as much as one with a weight of 1. It is the relative weights of the subcategories that is important, not the absolute values. So giving two subcategories weights of 1 and 2 is identical to giving them weights of 10 and 20, at least in determining their relative importance.

While the SIS gradebook allows arbitrary values for the maximum score and weights of subcategories in a category, there are really two basic models used in practice. One is that all subcategories have the same maximum score (often 100) but have different weights indicating their importance. A common special case of this is that the weights are actually percentages of the category grade that the subcategories make up. This is common in the "Marking Period Mark" (outermost) category for a gradebook where the marking period mark might be calculated by counting "Homework" as 30% of the grade, "Quizzes" as another 30%, a "Final project" as 20% and "Marking Period Exam" as 20%. To help a teacher set up such a category layout, the SIS gradebook shows the contribution of each category to the final grade as a percentage. If the weights and the percentages are all equal the teacher knows that the entered weights which were intended to be percentages add up to 100 so are, indeed, percentages. For example, if a teacher enters weights of 30, 30, 30, and 20 for four subcategories their percentages would not match the weights because these weights don't add up to 100. If the teaher changed two of the 30s to 25s, the total would be 100 and the percentages would match the weights.

The other commonly used model for subcategory grades and weights is that each subcategory is worth a certain number of points and both the weight and the maximum score are equal to the point value. For example, a test might be made up of three subcategories (sections): "Multiple choice questions", "Long answer questions", and "Essay" that are worth 30, 40, and 30 points respectively. Again, it's not uncommon for a teacher to want the points to equal the percentage of the category score made up by the subcategories and the SIS gradebook helps the teacher gets this right. On the other hand, sometimes the points for a subcategory is a somewhat arbitrary number like the number of questions on a quiz. A "Quizzes" category score might be made up of the scores of 5 quizzes that are worth respectively 9, 8, 11, 7, and 12 points because that's the number of questions on each of the quizzes. The gradebook layout update page will shows the percentage of the category score each quiz comprises but this might be of only academic interest to the teacher. Because the points model (weights and max score equal) is so common, the SIS gradebook facilitates this model by setting a subcategory's weight equal to its maximum score as soon as the maximum score is entered.

Note the the term "maximum score" is a bit of a misnomer as the SIS gradebook allows a teacher to give a student a score up to 20% higher than the maximum score. Such a score would typically result from the student getting extra credit.

Dropped scores

It is possible for a teacher to have the gradebook automatically drop one or more of the lowest score for a category for each student. While a reasonable thing to do, it does present some complexities that a teacher should be aware of. In the SIS gradebook the automatic dropping of low scores is indicated by setting the Number of lowest scores to drop to a number 1 or greater. It is possible to set the number of lowest scores to drop to a number equal to or greater than the number of subcategories in the category. This is because subcategories can always be added later. However, if the number of lowest scores to drop is greater than or equal to the number of subcategories, it is impossible to calculate a score for any student for the category because all scores for the category will always be dropped. This will usually prevent the marks from being submitted (finalized) at the end of the marking period.

It is also usually a bad idea to use the drop low grades capability when the weight of the subcategories are different, especially if they differ significantly. To see why, consider the case where a teacher drops the lowest quiz score and one quiz is weighted much more heavily than the others. A student who bombs the heavily weighted quiz will have that quiz's score dropped. However, a student who gets a below average (for the student) but not disastrous score for the heavily weighted quiz will see her score dragged down significantly by the heavily weighted quiz because it won't be dropped. So, a student will often be penalized more for doing slightly badly on a heavily weighted quiz than one who bombs it, if low scores are being dropped. In fact, if low scores are dropped for subcategories with different weights, it's possible for student A to get a better score for the category than student B, even if student B did better on every subcategory than student A. Clearly, this is unfair and is a situation best avoided.

If a category does contain a more important subcategory than the others but low scores are being dropped in the category, it's probably a good idea to prevent the important subcategory from ever being dropped. This can be accomplished by checking the Don't drop checkbox to the left of the subcategory description.

The calculated percent of the overall category score for a droppable subcategory is weighted based on the probability of the subcategory score actually being used. So, if there are 11 equally weighted quizzes in a category with droppable scores where the lowest score in the category would be dropped, each one shows up as comprising 9.09% (1/11) of the overall category score not 10%, even though when a subcategory score is not dropped it makes up 10% of the category score.

The final word of warning about dropping scores is that doing so make mid-marking reporting problematic. To understand why, consider the case where a student will have 10 equally weighted quizzes in the marking period and the lowest two scores will be dropped. At mid-marking period time the student has gotten a 100, 90, 80, 70, and 60. So the gradebook score calculator will drop the low two scores and produce a score of 90 by averaging 100, 90, and 80. But this is likely to be an overestimate as if the student repeated his performance exactly on the next 5 quizzes, the students final quiz score would end up being 85 (the average of 100, 90, 80, 70, 100, 90, 80, and 70). In general, the mid-marking period values for scores will tend to be overly optimistic as a grater percentage of low scores will be dropped than at the end of the marking period. Teacher's can try to compensate for this by adjusting the number of dropped scores between mid-marking period and the end bu this can be error prone and can still produce biases that give students and their parents an incorrect picture of how the student is really doing.