Defining the format and meaning of grades

A grading table defines the format and meaning of the grades and - at secondary schools - GPAs that students receive on their report cards.

You need to create a grading table for each way that you will capture grades. For example, at an elementary school, subjects might be graded as a G (Good), S (Satisfactory), or N (Needs Improvement), while conduct or participation are graded using teacher comments. In each of these scenarios, a different type of grading table is required.

At a secondary school, courses might be graded as percentages or as letter grades. Conduct or participation may be graded using teacher comments. A GPA might be graded using grade points on a 4.0 scale. With secondary school grading, you can create different versions of the same grading table to accommodate different course difficulty levels (e.g., remedial, honors, advanced placement) and allow marks to be valued differently.

The core purpose of a grading table is to list all the possible grades a student can receive and the meaning of each grade. Grading tables can also identify:

Grading tables appear as legends on report cards to help readers interpret the grades [Figure 190]. Since a report card often includes items with different grading tables, report cards often display multiple grading table legends.

You can choose from five types of grading tables. The type of grading table is determined by how the grade is entered, not how it is displayed on the report card. For more information, see About grading table types [>>].

Note: Where a student gets grades for a grade level at another school that is not supported at her home school, PowerSchool SMS calculates how to best present that grade; for example, if student in grade 8 at her home school of Miller Middle School, but she is taking grade 7 courses at Paradise Elementary School, which does not support grade 8, then PowerSchool SMS would use a grade 7 report card setup.

At a secondary school, you can also enter a numeric grade scale that allows you to manage bonus points and specify equivalent numeric values or grade points for multiple course levels, as required, so that you can set up your GPA definitions to use the appropriate method of calculating your GPAs. See Setting up for bonus points [>>] and Setting up GPA calculations (including course leveling) [>>].

To create a grading table:

[SA]

Grade items and report cards

Once a report card item is associated with a grading table, you must enter grades for that item throughout the school year. You cannot turn off a report card item for a specific grading period. For example, if you collect grades for "Able to add single digits" for Math in grading period 1, you must collect a grade for it in all grading periods.

If you want to only display a grade for a grade item in one grading period, create a special grade, for example, "DB" grade, that displays as blank on report cards and progress reports [Figure 191]. Teachers can enter the special grade in all grading periods where a grade for the report card item is not collected. In this way, the grade does not appear on the report card or progress report and the report card item is not included in the Missing Grades Report.

To	You need this permission	Set to	Details
Specify standard comments	School Setup > Standard Comments	Delete	[>>]
Create grading tables	School Setup > Grading Tables	Delete	[>>]
Define grading periods	School Setup > Grading Period Sets	Delete	[>>]
	School Setup > Define Report Card Periods	Yes	[>>]
	School Setup > Define Progress Report Periods	Yes	[>>]
Set up report cards and progress reports	School Setup > Report Card Setup	Delete	[>>]