Setting up a letter grade grading table

Set up a letter grade grading table when your school uses letters to represent a student’s grade. Letter grades appear as letters on the report card. You can design letter grades in any format; for example, A, B, C, D, and F, or G, S, and N for Good, Satisfactory, and Needs Improvement.

Note: For secondary schools, if you plan to use calculated grades with a letter grade grading table, you must set up grade points and use a 100-point grading scale. Calculated grades and GPAs use grade points to determine the value of the letter grade.

To set up a letter grade grading table

[You can do this if your role is School Administrator.SA]:

Follow the steps in Defining a grading table [>>].

For Type, select "Letter Grade".

For Grading scale, enter the maximum value of any grade.

For example, enter 100 for a 100-point scale or 4 for a 4-point scale.

Under Letter Grade Grading Table, enter or change Information, which includes:

Level: For secondary schools only, if your school provides courses with different difficulty levels, such as remedial or honors, links to grading table versions for the other levels appear here. Click a link to add or edit the grading table version.

Letter Grade: A shortcut key sequence, up to 3 characters, long that staff can use to enter this grade on a report card. For example, "A" enables the staff to press the A key to enter this grade.

Lower Cutoff: The lowest mark required to earn the grade. The range of marks for this grade start at this value and go to the next highest grade, with the specified grading scale determining the highest possible value [Figure 107].

The marks you enter in the Lower Cutoff column must be of the same format as the scale you entered for Grading Scale. For example, if you enter a grading scale of 100, the lower cutoff marks must also be on a 100-point scale.

Grbk % Cutoff: If grades will be transferred in from a gradebook, the lowest mark (as a percentage) required to earn this grade in PowerSchool SMS. This value can differ from Lower Cutoff.

Grbk % Value: If your school uses PowerTeacher, enter the percentage represented by the letter grade. For further information, refer to the PowerTeacher Gradebook Installation and Setup Guide - PowerSchool SMS, available from thesupport site.

Grade Points: For secondary schools only, the number that represents this grade in calculations, such as GPAs or calculated grades. This value is used in calculations only; it is not displayed on the report card. For example, the grade point equivalent of A is 4.0.

If your district offers courses of varying difficulty levels, such as regular, remedial, advanced placement and so on, you can enter different grade points for each level.

P/F: Indicates that the grade is considered a passing ("P") or failing grade ("F"). For example, if the a subject or course requires 50% to pass, select "F" for all grades under 50%.

% Credit: The percent of total credit that the student receives for this grade.

Description in Legend: A description of the grade, up to 15 characters long, which PowerSchool SMS displays in the report card’s legend. Ensure the description includes the grade itself. For example,"3.0-4.0 - Excellent", "A = 85-100", "I = Incomplete", "D - Poor", and "J Good".

Click OK.