Grading Best Practices

*For Quarter grades only

**For grades after 1st Qtr Progress Reporting

• *Publish ALL your grades prior to the closing of the grading window. If you fail to publish your grades by the established deadline, you will need to submit to the Grade Manager a printed, signed and dated copy of all your missing grades for post-cutoff-date entry into the system. The unpublished grades are due to the Grade Manager by 10:00 AM on the day after the close of the grade publishing window. This document will be forwarded to the Principal together with the "Failure to Post" form. Failure to publish grades will also result in disciplinary actions.

• *If you need to make any grade corrections/adjustments AFTER the close of the grade publishing window, you must submit an electronic Grade Change Authorization Application (PGCPS>Staff Portal>Applications) by the deadline set by the Principal (WHS internal deadline). You need to be in the PGCPS network domain in order to access the form. See Electronic PS-140 User Guide for reference.

• **Once you have published grades for a particular class, please go back and check to make certain that the grades you just published are accurate. Compare the published grades to any grades you have overridden in the previous grading period. SchoolMax tends to hang on to the override grades. To correct the override, please follow these directions. This process must be completed; otherwise, the override grade will repeat for the remaining grading periods.

• The due date for each assignment should fall within the grading period start and end dates. Otherwise, the assignment will not be counted towards the grading period grade. Please refer to the current school year calendar for the grading period start and end dates.

• Grade Overrides Permissible. Per AP 5121.3, if the following conditions are met, Grade Overrides are permissible: 1) The teacher has complied with grading and reporting procedures; 2) The new grade more accurately reflects the student’s performance during the grading period than does the old grade; and 3) The teacher can support the change by producing upon request sufficient documentation to show the new grade more accurately reflects the student’s performance than the old grade. The teacher is required to retain and make available for inspection any and all documents and/or materials that the teacher contends support the grade override.

• Please remember that you can submit (and resubmit) grades for a class AS MANY times as necessary prior to the closing of the grading window.

• You MUST make certain that your gradebooks are configured correctly (i.e., Content Grading Factors are accurate) in accordance with AP 5121.3 and have an adequate amount and equitable distribution of assignments across all grading categories: Assessment, Classwork, Homework, etc. For assistance with setting up your gradebook assignment categories and percentages, please click here.

• We only submit grade PERCENTAGES; DO NOT submit letter grades (A, B, C, D, E, P, F, N, I, or W) unless directed by the Grade Manager or an administrator to do so.

• Do not submit an empty grade. Every student on your roster MUST have a grade submitted for your class. Remember: Unless you applied an override, no grade will be published for a student who does not have at least one graded assignment in his gradebook. If the student did not turn in a work assignment or missed an assignment due to an unexcused absence, you must enter a grade of "0" for that assignment prior to grade publication.

• If you have a student whom you have never seen, contact the Guidance Office to see if he is receiving Home and Hospital services, on long-term suspension, or a case of "missed" No-show who needs to be withdrawn from our system. For proper submission of his grade, please check with his Guidance Counselor or Grade Level Administrator.

  • Please send to Guidance any student who is sitting in your class but is NOT on your roster AND in your gradebook. We need to address this issue ASAP.

• If you have any students who have just been added into your class roster, you should contact their respective Guidance Counselors to check if they have any incoming grades for your class. Please do not wait until the last day or hour to resolve your missing grades, if you have any. If the student is a transfer from another class, please ask the original teacher to generate a grade report for this student. If you don’t have information about the original teacher, please contact the student's Guidance Counselor. He/She can tell you the teacher whom you need to communicate with in order to get your new student's incoming grades. If the original teacher is not able to provide you with the needed grade report even after you communicate with him/her, you may email me or the Counselor (prior to the opening of the grading window) the name and course-section of the student and we will try to generate for you an electronic/PDF copy of the grade report.

• If you have any students who have just been dropped from your class, please generate a Student Assignment and Grades Report for these students and be ready to share the report with their respective new teachers. Another option is to run an Individualized Student Report.

• Please make certain to check for missing grades once you have submitted all of your classes. Please run the Missing Grade Report in APEX even if you get a Y to show that the class grades have been submitted, just to be safe. See directions on how to do this. Remember: You CANNOT access APEX Reports at home; You MUST be logged in to the PGCPS network domain in order to utilize this tool.

• You do NOT always get a Y once you have submitted grades. The best way to ensure that grades have been submitted is to run a  Missing Grade Report in APEX.

Please note that you are responsible for submitting grades for every student on your roster EVEN IF:

• you've never seen the student;

• the student has never attended your class;

• the student attended for a very short time;

• the student is physically attending another class and hasn't had a schedule change;

• the student just got a schedule change;

• the student is going to get a schedule change;

• the student transferred out of your class;

• you signed withdrawal papers;

• the student transferred from another class/school/country; or

• the parents/administrators/counselors are going to request a schedule change.

REMEMBER: You MUST submit a grade for EVERY student appearing on your roster. One missing grade will prevent our ENTIRE school from having our grade reports printed.

For Help with Grading, please review the Grading "How-To" documents and other resources found on the Staff Grading Resources page of the WHS Scheduling Website and the Staff Grading page of our school website.