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. The assigned date 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 a category does not have subcategories, it must have a Date due entered. This date is also not currently used for anything but might appear on the parent/student view of the gradebook in the future.