You will need to create four gradebooks per semester: two quarter-long gradebooks, a final exam gradebook, and one special gradebook for calculating the first semester grade. These tables illustrates how these gradebooks should be created:

SEMESTER ONE

FALL 2012

SEMESTER TWO

SPRING 2013

To create these gradebooks, hover over the Course Center menu on the navigation bar of your Portal homepage and choose one of your courses from the pull-down menu that appears.

Since School Loop starts you off with a default gradebook, it's easiest to make this the first of your separate gradebooks by simply editing the name and date range.

1. In the box titled "Gradebooks" click the Edit link next the name of the default gradebook in the Course Center.

2. On the next page, enter a name for your gradebook. We recommend that you include the term (e.g. "Algebra I Q1").

3. Set the start and end dates to correspond to the first and last day of the Q1grading period according to the table above.

4. Click Submit.

To create additional gradebooks:

Be sure to give each gradebook an appropriate name and be careful that the start and end dates are accurate for each term.

To work with categories, click the Settings link near the top right of any page in your portal and then look for "Course Settings (Universal)" on the next page. Click the Go button.

For any of the preset categories, you may click either the Edit or the Delete link. If you need to add a new category, enter the desired category name in the field at the bottom of the page and then click the Submit button.

Note: Categories are universal - meaning all categories are available for use with all gradebooks. So, when setting up categories, create all the categories you will use for the all the courses you teach.

When publishing assignments for any course, your universal list of categories will be available in a drop menu on the Add Assignment form.

Use this link to learn how to create categories: Creating Categories

Use this link to learn how to set weighting: Setting Weighting

The Semester 1 gradebook will have three assignments -- one for each of the two quarter gradebooks and one for the final exam. To keep it simple, we'll make all the assignments worth 100 points each. Just be sure to assign the proper category to each of these assignments.

Go to Semester gradebook.

Add New Assignment and include:

1. Name:
2. Dates 12/15 to 1216
3. Gradebook onl
4. Category Q1
5. Max points 100
6. Assign to Periods
7. Publish

Use the following link to learn more about creating assignments:

Creating Assignments

After creating the three assignments -- let's call them Q1 Grade, Q2 Grade and Final Exam -- click the assignment titles in the gradebook to access the Assignment Scoresheet.

Use the Import Gradebook Scores drop menu to select the appropriate gradebook as the source. When you import the scores from another gradebook, the cells will populate with the value equal to the student's percentage score from the imported gradebook multiplied by the maximum value of the assignment. For example, the Q1 Grade assignment in our example is worth 100 points; let's assume the student's average from the Quarter 1 gradebook is 75%. In this case, the cell value would be 75 points (100 point maximum X 0.75).

Gradebook Settings

Keep in mind that each gradebook can have its own unique settings so it is important that you check the settings for each gradebook created.

Grade Export

For those using School Loop's Grade Export (an optional feature in School Loop Plus), you should also keep in mind that you will have the option to choose any of your gradebooks as the source of grades to submit. When submitting grades for second quarter, for example, be sure to select your second quarter gradebook as the source of grades. Some schools require multiple grades per student for certain marking periods (e.g. a second quarter grade and a semester grade). Multiple gradebooks makes such submissions a snap since our system allows you to choose different gradebooks as the source for the various grades you need to submit.

Publishing Grades

Parents and students will only see the grades you publish. When publishing from multiple gradebooks over the course of a term, students and parents will see a "Current Grades" progress report, which consists of the grades you publish from the current gradebook. If you had published grades from other gradebooks, those progress reports are available to students, parents and teachers via the All Progress Reports menu when viewing the current progress report.