Nov. 20, 2008 Gradebook Committee Notes

Becky Sullivan went over known issues—items that Pearson knows about but have no solution at this time.

POWER TEACHER GRADEBOOK KNOWN ISSUES

1. ERROR WHEN ENTERING AN ASSIGNMENT: When entering an assignment, it will auto fill the abbreviation field with what is being typed in for the assignment name. The abbreviation may only be 15 characters long, so if getting an error when entering an assignment check this. You can just change the abbreviation field, the assignment name itself does not need to be shortened.

2. COMMENTS DO NOT SHOW: First check and make sure that the comments were entered in score inspector under the attendance class under the current term (ie: Q1) To check this go to the attendance class and make sure that the final grade listed is the current grading period. If it is then there is an indication next to the child’s name that the comment is there. To see the comment right click and select Show Score Inspector. The comment for the child should then display. If there is no indication of a comment, change the term and see if the comment was entered under the incorrect term.

3. WILL NOT LAUNCH GRADE BOOK: Click on the link under Launch Gradebook to have Power Teacher check for Java. If it is not installed it will bring a screen to allow you to install it. If it shows it is fine, go to the start menu and select run, then type cmd in the window. In the next window type java –version. Check and make sure that java is running and that it is the most current version (1.4.2 or 1.5 may work okay with 1.6 also). If the version is not current, then do an elevated install of java from the Teacher Items Drop folder on the server. If this still does not work or the correct java version is installed, then open a web browser and type 10.1.1.14. This will take you to the Parent Portal, click Teacher log on and it should work now.

4. Clear your browser cache often to improve performance.

5. REENROLLED STUDENT ISSUES: If a student drops and then reenrolls into the same section all assignment scores may either be listed twice or do not display on the Power Teacher Individual Student Report.  All assignment scores show on the Power Teacher Grade book Scoresheet screen and the "missing" assignment scores are included in the Final Grade calculation. The scores do appear in the Teacher portal under Quick Lookup.

Bob McGregor discussed the Enrollments section under the same drop down in Powerschool where the Quick look up is located. The Enrollments report shows every class a student has ever been enrolled in, even dropped classes, so that you can see the assignments that make up a grade. This is especially useful if a new student enters your class. You don’t need to ask the previous teachers for a print out of grades/assignments anymore.

Bob also discussed that for elementary specialists (art, library, music, pe) who are using PowerTeacher gradebook, they will not need to use Powerschool to enter grades for Quarter 2. However, this does not mean that ALL specialists have to switch to the PowerTeacher. Those preferring to enter grades into Powerschool and not use a gradebook will still have that option.

Bob showed how to set preferences for rounding. Use no decimal places –or experiment—to adjust rounding. Also, .5 rounds down, not up. There is no way to change this.

Substitutes cannot see the seating chart. Bob thinks he can fix this.

Grading issues need to be directed to Ruth Uecker or Tom Moore. Issues brought up were cut-off percentages, particularly the 97% A+ and the #for modified curriculum. Eight reps felt that the 97% A+ was a major concern at their school. For modified curriculum--Since the number sign has to be hand-done, it does not show on the stored grade. Teachers feel that something needs to be done about this. Comments don’t work since they do not show in historical grades and it looks as if the student did satisfactory work based on regular curriculum since no indication is given otherwise. The only option now is to give the student an N on the Y1 grade, which doesn’t seem right either.

Next year, and this is important, PowerGrade will not be an option. No one will use the PowerGrade gradebook. HS teachers may wish to switch to PowerTeacher at semester time. Contact Becky with their names. Any elementary specialist who wants to switch may call Becky; however, if you switch, you will lose all previous assignments that were entered into Powergrade. You would have to reenter them into PowerTeacher if you wanted them to show up.

Thanks to Pam Dougherty and Kristin Winder for showing HowTos:

Pam showed how to create groups and how she uses groups. By creating groups, teachers can click on an individual in the group to print an report for one student that lists all of his/her assignments.

Kristin showed how to create a missing assignments report. Steps are shown below:

In order to print all missing assignments for an individual student on one page the directions are as follows.

1. Create a group for the individual student and highlight that name in the left column (can create a group with all of your students and just highlight one name).

2. In scoresheet, choose the reports icon and missing assignment report.

3. Under the Criteria tab:

Output :PDF

Layout: By student

Marked missing: Missing indicator

Sections: Active classes

Order by: Student

Students: Selected groups/and or students

Student field: Student name

Start Date and End Date for quarter or week

4. Under Layout tab:

Deselect all page breaks

Katie took notes on areas that we need to talk to Pearson about.

Top issues—Bob, please report to Pearson

Create a seating chart on which the teachers can take attendance

More report flexibility: teachers want to be able to select certain students without creating groups, preferably from the spreadsheet and not from the student area. This way, they could click on the students who just have F’s, for example. They would also like to query for reports. For example, ask to print a report for all students who have D’s and F’s, or below a certain percentages. They would like to be able to print reports for all students without having to open each individual class.

They really want specialty scores that they can create themselves and determine how the specialty score will be recorded. For example, they would like to be able to enter ab for absence and set whether the score is zero or excused. If teachers cannot create their own, they would like, at the bare minimum, ex, mi, ab, and unex.

They want to be able to sort their spreadsheet different ways: alpha by first name, by percentage or rearrange (drag and drop) in any order they so choose.