My DE grade book
Note that Blackbaud (the supplier of our My DE site) did a significant upgrade to the My DE grade book during summer 2021 so the interface may look a bit different as compared to some of the information below. If something is confusing or very out of date, please email help@d-e.org so we can address it.
If you want to jump right in and get started with Gradebook now, take a look at Back to School - Gradebook Setup.
A grade book is available to teachers in My D-E to track student work and calculate various statistics. You also have the option to publish assignment grades to students if you wish. Other features include:
automatically adding grade book entries at the same time as posting homework assignments
viewing individual student analytics and scores including comparisons to class averages for an assignment
calculating overall averages using your choice of methods including weighting assignments by type (e.g. projects 50%, quizzes 20%, etc) or using a total points system
To access the My DE grade book, select a class under Classes then click on "Launch gradebook". Here is a four-minute video introduction to using the My DE grade book:
The Assignment Grades and Grading Teacher's Guide video above is a good introduction to the My DE grade book. However, if you prefer written information here are directions from Blackbaud (the publisher of the My DE software):
One-Time (per semester) grade book setup
Click here for step by step directions for setting up your My DE grade book. You only need to do this once per semester. Also, note the recommendations below.
Setup Recommendations:
For the Gradebook calculation setting, use Marking Period. This will allow you to calculate separate averages for semester 1 and semester 2.
If you want to enter numeric grades for each assignment of a particular type, do NOT choose a Letter Grade Scale. This is time consuming to change after you have entered assignment grades.
Calculation method:
If all of your assessments within an assignment type/category are worth the same, choose Percentages. For example, if you want every quiz to have the same weight toward the semester cumulative and every essay to have the same weight as every other essay, choose Percentages. (Essays can still be worth more than quizes based on what you enter for the Assginment Type Weight %.)
If you want each of your assessments to have different weights even within the same assignment type, choose a Total point method. For example, a Total point method is appropriate if Test 2 should be worth twice as much as Test 1.
Click the blue circle with white "i" icon next to the calculation method if you want to read more details on a setting.
Make sure that "Add to cumulative grade" is enabled (with a check) for each assignment that you want to include in your semester average calculation. You can enable this be default in Assignement Center using More > Preferences. (See animated image below.)
Ignore the marking period that says "do not use 2nd semester marking period xxx". There is no need to set that one up. For sem 2 use the one that says "S2 marking period" or "2nd semester marking period" (without the XXX).
If you want to share individual assignment/assessment grades with US students, you need to enable that in grade book under Display Options > Access > Students AND you need to enable Publish in each assignment when you create it (or edit it later). Students will only be able to see their own grades not those of peers. By default, students can not see grades unless you enable this. Principals and chairs suggest and request that you do not show cumulative grades so only enable "Show assignment grades" and "Show assignment comments" under grade book Display Options.
Letter Grade Scale
The rules used to convert a letter grade to a numeric percentage or points is called a Letter Grade Scale. They are defined system wide. Letter Grade Scales can be modified or more can be added but it is for everyone so contact help@d-e.org if you have a need for that. Requests to add a Letter Grade Scale for an department or group of teachers are preferred over adding something used by only a single teacher. Current scales available are here: My DE Gradebook Letter Grade Scales
Questions/Issues and Answers
Click/tap on a question/issue below to unhide/expand the area with the answer.
A teacher is unable to enter numeric grades
When trying to enter assignment grades in a Gradebook teachers may only receive the option to enter in Letter Grades and cannot enter numeric grades. This can happen when a Letter Grade Scale has been selected in the Gradebook Settings.
Follow the steps below to resolve:
Navigate to the Gradebook.
Click Settings under ...More.
Select Grade calculation on the left
Select the blank (at the top) grade scale choice from the dropdown next to each assignment type or leave the dropdown blank.
Repeat for each assignment type.
Click Save.
Source: Blackbaud Support article 112880 - A teacher is unable to enter numeric grades
Students are unable to see assignment grades or comments
Confirm you have comitted the grades. This one-minute video demonstrates that.
Confirm you have enabled/checked the Publish box in the assignment details.
Confirm you have enabled access for Assignment Grades and Assignment grade comments under Settings > Gradebook access in the grade book for each class. (Do not enable MP or Year cumulative per school policy.) Detailed directions here.
If the assignment is an online Assessment (aka online test administered through MyDE), confirm you have enabled sharing the student results page (as shown in this video).
How to do I access assignment grades for a student who dropped my course?
This is useful if a student is moved between sections after assignment grades were recorded since you can no longer see students in a gradebook after they are withdrawn from a section.
If a student changes course sections, Gradebook Grades do not automatically transfer to the new section's Gradebook. However, you can see the previous section's grades through the Grade book Report: Grades - For Dropped Courses.
To access this, navigate to:
Classes > Select ANY Class the Student is CURRENTLY enrolled into
Click Launch gradebook
Click Reports > Grades -- For Dropped Courses
It's near the bottom of the not-alphabetized list so you many need to scroll down to find it.
Select the Marking Period and click Generate Report
What if the student moved to a section taught by someone else?
ANY teacher who runs the "Grades -- For Dropped Courses" report for ANY course where the student is currently enrolled will see the gradebook grades for that students from ALL dropped courses including ones not taught by that teacher or completely unrelated courses. So you have one or both of the possible options:
If that student is CURRENTLY on the roster of ANY "class" listed under the Classes section in My DE, you will see the grades you are looking for in the dropped course. For example, a MS teacher who has the students in a TAG section that shows under Classes can run the report and see grades from a science section the student moved out of.
If that student is no longer on the Roster of any sections listed under Classes for you, ask a teacher who CURRENTLY has that student on the Roster to run the report and send you a PDF of the results. They can run the report by Launching Gradebook (see the directions above) even if they don't use the gradebook.
In addition, you can pull up the grades (and work collected online) for any students who have dropped your section by going to each assignment details page (the one where all student names are listed) then click on the More button and choose "Show dropped students". Note that the show dropped students option does not show if no students were dropped from your class.