Calculating student credits

PowerSchool SMS calculates the credits a student receives according to the grading table you are using.

If they meet the above rules, students are eligible for full credit at the end of the class; whether they receive full credit then depends on the student's grade.

From the Grading page, you can run credit calculations. Once the credits calculations are complete, you can override credits for individual students.

All credit overrides are recorded in the audit log so that an audit trail is kept.

Note: If a student's grade is deleted, the calculated credits earned and any overridden credits earned are also deleted, so the student will not have any credits.

Examples of Credit Calculations

Allow Partial Credits

When Allow partial credits is not selected for a course on the Course Grading page (set at the district level), only one grade item can be credit-awarding. Credit cannot be awarded to a student until a grade has been entered for that credit-awarding grade item.

However, when Allow partial credits is selected, multiple grade items can be set up to be credit-awarding. When a grade is entered for credit-awarding grade items, credits are awarded for each grade item based on potential credits, which is the maximum allowable credits for the course divided by the number of grade items with Award Credit set to Yes, and on the student's schedule for the class. For example, if a full-year course has a maximum of 1 credit and it has a grade item in each semester with an Award Credit setting of Yes, then the potential credits is 1 / 2 = 0.5. If the student is taking only the second half of the class, he or she is eligible for a maximum of 0.5 credits.

Once potential credits have been determined, credits are awarded based on the way that the grading table has been set up. For example, you can set up a grading table where receiving a grade of A, B, or C allows 100% of the potential credit to be earned, D allows 50%, and F allows 0%. At the end of the course with maximum credits of 5 and two credit-awarding grade items, students receive the following for each grade item:

Grade	% Credit	Potential Credits	Calculation	Credits Earned
A	100%	2.5	100% x 2.5	2.5
B	75%	2.5	100% x 2.5	2.5
C	50%	2.5	100% x 2.5	2.5
D	25%	2.5	50% x 2.5	1.25
F	0%	2.5	0% x 2.5	0

A student that gets a C for the first grade item and a D for the second grade item receives 2.5 credits (100% x 2.5) and 1.25 credits (50% x 2.5) for a total of 3.75 credits. The credits will be awarded for each grade item when the grade is entered for that item.

Class and Student Schedules

The other major elements that determine how credits are awarded are the scheduling terms set for the course, the schedule for the class, and the schedule for the individual student. PowerSchool SMS takes each of these into consideration when calculating credits.

For example, if a course is set up using a Semesters scheduling term set to accommodate setting up classes in each semester, as well as year-long classes, partial credits can be set up to allow a credit-awarding grade item in each term. If the student takes the full-year class, they are eligible for partial credit at the end of each semester. If the student takes the Semester 1 or Semester 2 class, they are eligible for the full credit at the end of the appropriate semester.

The key principle is that the student is eligible for full credit whenever their schedule matches the schedule of the class.

Note: Because the system now takes multiple factors into consideration when calculating credits, the grading properties for a course will no longer provide a visual cue for users as to how credit will be awarded.

The following table shows how credits are awarded based on the supported scheduling scenarios with the following assumptions:

Max Credit is set to 1 for each course.

The school uses full year and semester courses with nine-week grading periods, e.g., quarters.

If Allow Partial Credits is selected, there is only one credit-awarding grade item in each semester.

The student has earned a grade that allows them to receive full credit based on the grading table:

Scheduling Term Set	Student Schedule	Allow Partial Credits Not Selected	Allow Partial Credits Selected
Full Year (1 class scheduled across the full year) Note: If Partial Credit is not enabled, the credit-awarding grade item is in Semester 2.	Entire Class	1 credit awarded at the end of the year.	Half of the potential credits awarded at the end of Semester 1 and half awarded at the end of Semester 2, adding up to a potential of one credit for the full year course.
	Semester 1 only	No credit awarded.	Half of the potential credits awarded at the end of Semester 1, adding up to a maximum potential of .5 credits for taking half the course.
	Semester 2 only	1 credit awarded at the end of the year.	Half of the potential credits awarded at the end of Semester 2, adding up to a maximum potential of .5 credits for taking half the course.
Semesters (2 classes, one in each semester, e.g. Math-1 in S1 and Math-2 in S2) Note: If you want to schedule a single course across two semester, e.g., Math-1 in S1 and S2, use a Full Year term set.	Both classes Note: Student may be retaking the course to get a better grade.	Not supported because you cannot have two credit awarding grades when partial credits is not selected.	1 potential credit awarded at the end of Semester 1 and 1 credit awarded at the end of Semester 2, adding up to a maximum potential of two credits for taking both classes.
	Semester 1 only	Not supported because you cannot have two credit awarding grades when partial credits is not selected.	1 potential credit awarded at the end of Semester 1, adding up to a maximum potential of 1 credit for the course.
	Semester 2 only	Not supported because you cannot have two credit awarding grades when partial credits is not selected.	1 potential credit awarded at the end of Semester 2, adding up to a maximum potential of 1 credit for the course.
Fall (class offered in the Fall semester only)	Entire class	1 credit awarded at the end of the Fall semester.	Half of the potential credits awarded at the middle of the semester and half awarded at the end of the Fall semester, adding up to a maximum potential of 1 credit for the semester course.
Spring (class offered in the Spring semester only)	Entire class	1 credit awarded at the end of the Spring semester.	Half of the potential credits awarded at the end of quarter term 1 and half awarded at the end of the Spring semester, adding up to a maximum potential of 1 credit for the semester course.

Performing Student Credit Calculations

You perform student credit calculations from the same page as calculations for grades and GPAs.

Note: When you open the Student Credits page, the credits are automatically recalculated.

To perform student credit calculations:

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

In the Admin menu, click Grading. The Grading page appears.

Under Step 7, click Calculate Grades, Credits, & GPAs. The Calculate Grades, Credits, & GPAs page appears.

Under Students , to run the calculation for all students, choose All students in the school.

To run the calculation for selected students, choose Selected students. Use the Basic or Detail tabs to search for and select all students for which you want to perform the calculation.

Under Cumulative GPAs & Credits , select Calculate cumulative GPAs and credits for students selected above. Note: You can run this calculation with other calculations on the page.

From the Actions menu, click Run Calculation.

In the Define Schedule dialog, select when the calculation should be run and click OK:

Run now - The calculation is run immediately

Schedule calculation - The calculation is run at the defined time.
Credits are calculated in the background. You will receive an alert when the task is complete.

Overriding Student Credit Calculations

You can manually override the credits PowerSchool SMS calculates for a student. When you manually override a student's credits, all calculated credits are no longer used and attendance rules are ignored. Only your manually entered value is used.

To override student credit calculations:

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

Open the student record. The Student Demographics page appears.

In the control bar, click Credits. The Student Credits page appears [Figure 79].

Review the following information:

Grade Item - Only credit-awarding grade items are shown with the grade item name and the grading period short code. Grade items are grouped by class.

Grade - The grade the student received for that grade item.

Potential Credits - The potential credits for that grade item

Credits Earned - The credits earned for that grade item, based on the Maximum Credits value for that course. A tilde (~) indicates that the earned credit has been manually overridden.

Override Reason - If a grade item has an override reason, an icon appears in this column. Pause your cursor over the icon to see the override reason.

From the Actions menu, click Override/Recalculate Credits. The Override/Recalculate Credits page appears.

Specify the following information:

Grade Item - Only credit-awarding grade items are shown, with the grade item name and the grading period short code. Grade items are grouped by class.

Potential Credits - The potential credits for that grade item

Credits Earned (calculated) - The credits earned as calculated by PowerSchool SMS. Use this as a reference for the override value.

Credits Earned (overridden) - Enter the overridden credits earned for this grade item, to a maximum of three decimal places.

Override Reason - Enter a reason, if appropriate. While this is not a required field, giving a reason helps others understand why the calculated credits earned was overridden.

To delete an overridden earned credit, delete the value in the Credits Earned (overridden) column and remove the reason for the override. The calculated credits earned is now used for that grade item.

Click OK.