PowerGrade Help

Power Grade main instructions____________ Click here to download in Word format

Powergrade Parent Portal Info

Copying your categories and final grade setup
1. First, setup one class with the categories and grade scale you intend to use and with the final grade setup completed.
2. Open the class you want to copy the setup information into.
3. Pull down the Utilities menu to Copy Class Info and specify the class containing the setup info you want to copy.
4. Select the items you want to copy into this class.

I can't get logged on to PowerSchool
A--is the caps lock on? It won't work with caps lock.
B--are you on the "teacher" log in page? Be sure to click on "teacher log in" before entering your information.

I forgot my password or I want to change it. What do I do?
1. We cannot look these up and yes, they are case sensitive. Do not have caps lock on and remember your password--make it the same as another such as email or PIR, where we can look them up. If you must, call info serve for help.
2. How to change passwords. There are separate passwords for Powergrade and Powerschool. Changing one will not change the other.

In Powergrade, click on the light switch icon (preferences) and click on the 'general' tab if not highlighted. Click on the "require password..." box and then click on 'change password'--enter your password twice.
Just a reminder-- since we have had many questions about passwords not 'taking" in PowerGrade.
Teachers need to put a check in the "require password on startup" box in the preferences folder before the password will be required to open the grade book.

In Powerschool, click on the 'personalize' button on the left, and then click on passwords.Fill in the required fields.

When I go to the log on page, the password part is filled in with stars all the way across
What is happening is that the computer is 'remembering the password,' but not giving clues to how long it is. Apparently, you clicked "yes" to remember password. WE do NOT want this. So here are the steps to fix it:

Help! All of last semester's/quarter's classes disappeared and I have to make a grade change.
They didn't really disappear. Classes that are no longer in session or are future classes can be accessed by going to "file" to "open" class, but they will no longer be available from the 'classes' menu. Please note: grade book changes you make after the end of a term will not change the historical grades stored on the server. Contact your Powerschool administrator at your school. At elementary this is the secretary; and at middle and high school, it is the scheduling clerk.

How can I hide or unhide columns on my spreadsheet?
To hide a column, click on the column heading, e.g. Q1, and then uncheck 'show on spreadsheet.' If you want to get a column back, click on any heading, pull down to the one you want back, and check 'show on spreadsheet'. Be sure to click 'okay' and not just exit out. If a teacher hides all the quarters/semesters from the spreadsheet, go to "final grade set up" and select the quarter/sem and click on 'show on spread sheet.' Note: Do not hide the current grading term or the grades will not print on the report card.

How can I show just certain assignments on my spreadsheet; for example, I don't want to see Quarter one's grades anymore, just quarter two.
Click on the light switch (preferences) and then the 'display' tab. Make sure the 'show only attendance and assignments in this date range" is checked. Then enter the date range you wish to see on the spreadsheet.

Why is the attendance icon greyed out?
You clicked on "Concurrent Attendance" in Preference, which means you want to take attendance for all of your classes at once; therefore, there is not seating chart for all classes together. Uncheck Concurrent Attendance and the icon will be active.

How can I print a roster of my class?

You can print these either from PowerSchool or Powergrade through "reports." Below are the directions.
1. PowerSchool
Log on to Powerschool. Click on "reports" on the left-hand menu. In the 'which report would..." pull down to GF Grid Roster or GF teacher class list alpha. Then click on the submit button. The first time you do this, the report will show up at the top of a list with the word "running" next to it. Don't wait, just click on the name of the report. Then click on the blue name next to "results file." A pdf will pop up for you to print. Note: you do need Adobe Reader installed to open the pdf. If nothing happens or the computer freezes when you click on the results file, you probably don't have Adobe Reader and will need to put in a tech ticket to get it installed or go to www.adobe.com and click on download Adobe Reader.
Also note that these rosters do not have ID numbers. First, keep in mind we do not need ID numbers anymore. But if you want them, you will have to create a roster report in Power Grade--see below.
2. PowerGrade
Open PowerGrade and open a class. Go the report menu and pull down to 'create.'
Type a name for the report such as class Roster, or whatever
Then pull down to type of report to 'roster' report

Then click on the 'options' tab. Click on Column one and pull down to whatever you want in column one, such as 'student last name, first name' Then give a title to the column such as "name."
Then click okay and click on any other columns you want and pull down to the info you want such as Student number or final grades or student points. Continue clicking on columns and pulling down to what you want in each column until you have all the info you want. Note--you can ask for a 'blank' column too to create a check off list or attendance sheet. The blank option is at the bottom of the options.

When you are done, click okay and then select the students--you can select them all by clicking on the first name and then holding the shift and clicking on the last name or command A. Then click 'preview'--if okay, you can click the printer icon in the upper left of the window.

Now that this report is created, you can go straight to 'print' under the report menu and get to this report so you don't have to recreate it when you need it again. When you go to 'print'--from the report menu, you will see a list of the reports you can print from previously created reports. You may also edit this report, such as changing the date range or students.

How can I print an attendance report that shows each day the students were absent?

Open a class in PowerGrade. Go to the Reports menu and pull down to ‘create a report.’ Then name the report Attendance or something similar. Pull down to Attendance grid in the Type of report box. Suggest changing the width to .25 and the font to size 8 or 9 to fit more on each page.
Click on the Options tab and select the options you want. Pay particular attention to the date range and click on ‘fill grid with actual attendance.’ Then click the header and footer tabs if you want to add your name or other information at the top or bottom of the report. Next, click on the ‘students’ tab and choose which students you want the report for. Then click on preview at the bottom. If it doesn't’t look right, click the ‘stop sign’ and go back to reports to Edit and pull down under name to the report and fix what you don’t like. Now that the report is created, you can always rerun the report without recreating it. You can go to the ‘reports’ menu and pull down to preview or edit as you need. Note: to turn the paper to landscape, you cannot use preview. You can preview, cancel by clicking the 'stop' sign and then go to Reports to Print, select the report you want and then in the print dialogue box, choose landscape.

A trainer sent me a report an an email attachment, but I can't open it.
The reports can't be 'opened' except through the powergrade program. Put the reports into the reports folder (probably located on the C/program files/powergrade folder or the C/documents and settings/Powergrade folder). Once the report is put in the folder, open powergrade, pull down the 'reports' menu and go to 'preview' to view the reports. You could go directly to print if you prefer.

Is there a way to print out a class list of scores for just ONE assignment?
Here are the directions:
1. Go to REPORTS tab and click on "Create"
2. Name the report.
3. The type of report you need to make is a "Roster Report"
4. Open up the OPTIONS tab and in Column 1 choose "student number"
5. In Column 2 choose either Asmt score, Asmt %, or Asmt grade depending on what you want to view. If you want them all, open the others in columns 3 and 4.
6. It will ask you for the name of the assignment - use the abbreviated name - I tried the full name and it didn't work.
7. Open up the STUDENTS tab and choose a report to produce
8. Choose how you want your students sorted.
9. I always preview the report first because I always seem to forget to add something. If you make a mistake and need to fix it, you can always "Edit" your report once you've made it.

How can I delete a report that I don't want?
Go to the 'reports" menu and pull down to 'edit." When the popup opens, pull down to the report you want to delete in the "name of this report" box. When the correct report is showing, click the 'delete' button in the bottom left-hand corner. Or, find your 'reports folder' on your computer, hopefully in the documents folder, and delete any reports from this folder that you do not want.

I have created a report and want to send it to someone else. How do I do that?
Find your reports folder on your computer, hopefully in your documents folder. If not, check your Powergrade folder in the program files on the C drive. It may be there. Then find the report and copy to a flash drive or attach it to an email and send to the person. This person needs to put it in his/her Reports folder for it to be used.

I want to send an individual's grades home via email. Is there a simple way to do this?
There is a way by creating an individual student report, copying the screen, pasting into Word and then emailing as an attachment. Here's how:
Open the class the student is in
Pull down the report menu to create
Name the report
Make sure the second drop down is on Individual Student report
Click on the options tab and fill out what you want to send home
Click the Preview button at the bottom of the page
Select the student you want the report for
Magnify the page so it is readable.
Then while holding down the control and alt keys, press the print screen key located on the top row of keys on the right-hand side.
Then open Microsoft Word and go to paste under the edit menu
You can crop if necessary by clicking on the grades graphic and using the cropping tool. You can also enlarge the grade graphic by clicking and dragging a corner handle.
Then save and send as an attachment.

How do I print a class progress report including all assignments?
1. Open PowerGrade, and then the class for which you want a report.
2. Go to REPORTS>CREATE.
3. Notice the 5 tabs in the window that appears: BASIC REPORT INFO; OPTIONS; HEADER; FOOTER; WHICH STUDENTS. You’re on the BASIC REPORT INFO tab: give the report a name, e.g. “Period 3”, and remember what you called it. (This is important, & I’ll explain why later.)
4. Click on TYPE OF REPORT and select “Spreadsheet formal report”. You may also want to change the font size if you want to try to fit several assignments on one page.
5. Click on the OPTIONS tab. If you only want the student IDs, deselect “Show each student’s full name”.
6. The first pull-down menu, “Show each assignment’s…” lets you decide if you want the assignment’s name, date, number, etc. Select the boxes you want.
7. Next you can change the width of the assignment boxes. If you selected “Abbreviated Name”, the default works fine.
8. Be sure to select the following:
a. “Only assignments in this date range”;
b. *“Show final grades” (*you will probably need to deselect, then select this box, or else you won’t be able to select “Grade & Percent”)
c. “Current grade only” or “These final grades”
d. *“Grade” & “Percent” (*remember, if these are dark, click in the “Show final grades” box 2 times, and they will light up so that you can select them)
9. Click on the WHICH STUDENTS tab. Select “All students currently enrolled in the class” or whatever choice you want to print.
10. In the “Sort order” pull-down menu, you can choose how the names will be sorted; I like the “random” choice, as it makes it harder for students to figure out what other kids’ grades are.
11. If you want to add your own name to the report, you will need to go to the HEADER tab, click on “Insert comment code” pull-down menu, select “General codes”, and then select “Teacher name”
12. Now I highly suggest going to the “Preview” button. If you don’t see all of your assignments, click the open book with blue arrow, they’re probably just on the next page; when you’re through, you can either click the stop sign to close the preview window, or click the printer to print; if you do choose print, it will automatically print in portrait layout. (If you want to get the landscape layout to fit more assignments on one page, see #14 below.)
13. Be aware that once you’re on this preview page, you cannot get back to the window that lets you edit it. If you see something you want to change while previewing it, here’s what you have to do:
a. Click the stop sign; it takes you back to the class assign page in PowerGrade.
b. Go to REPORTS>EDIT. Here’s why you needed to remember the name of your report: you have to type the name in to bring it back up.
c. Once you have the name typed in, select the OPTIONS tab, or whatever tab you need to fix what was wrong.
d. If you CAN’T remember your report’s name, click “Cancel”; go to REPORTS>PREVIEW. You will be given a list of the reports that you
have created. Be aware, however, that you can’t get to edit from this list, you can only preview these reports; soooooo, note down the name of your report, click “Cancel”, and then go back to REPORTS>EDIT, etc.
14. In order to print your report in landscape mode:
a. go to REPORTS>PRINT; again, you must remember your report’s name, and highlight it. Click OK.
b. On the “Print Setup” window, select “Landscape”; click OK twice to print the report.

PowerGrade and Transfer Students

How can I figure total points for kids who transfer into my class?.
Transfer students are those who are added and/or removed from your classes. The students could be transferring in from another school outside the district, from one building to another within the district, from one class to another within the same teacher’s schedule, or from one teacher’s class to another teacher’s class. No matter what the situation, the procedures for dealing with the student’s grades and attendance are similar.

Any student who drops a class during the first two weeks of the marking period or comes into a class during the last two weeks of a marking period will not receive a grade for that class.

Following are the steps to follow when a student has been dropped and/or added to a current marking period:

1. A student is transferred out (dropped) from your class.
The student’s name is dropped from the active class list.
The button, Current Students, changes to Dropped Students
The dropped student can still be accessed by clicking on the Dropped Students’ button.
Grades can still be added or changed for the dropped student on the Dropped Student screen.
The report function is also still active from the Dropped Students’ screen.
If it is necessary to forward assignment or marking period grades, reports can be printed and Notification is given when a class is opened that a student(s) is being dropped.
Should the student return to the class, he/she will be returned to the Current Students’ list. All assignments that have been missed will be entered as Excused. (EX) Teachers can override the ex by typing in a score or grade.

2. A student is transferred into your class from within the same building.
The added student is listed as part of the class. All assignments are entered as Excused (EX).
If the student has come from a like class, the teacher can obtain the grades from the former teacher and fit them into the current class assignments as appropriate. The teacher decides is any of the Ex assignments should be done by the transfer student. The teacher can override the 'Ex' by typing in a grade for the assignment.

How to handle transfer grades—two methods

The current teacher can create an assignment called “Transfer Grade” and put the student’s average from the former class into that assignment. Other members of the class would be excused from the “Transfer Grade” assignment. The “Transfer Grade” assignment must be placed in one of the current categories OR a category, Transfer Grade, should be created.

If the teacher is using the Total Points method of grade calculation, the “Transfer Grade” assignment should be given the desired number of points as Possible Points. Another possibility is that the teacher could also weight that assignment on the Assignment Screen so that it will be added in more times than the other regular assignments that have been given the default weight of 1 on the Assignment screen.

If the teacher is weighting grades, the “Transfer Grade” must be created under a category that already exists or a new category, Transfer Grade, must be created and added to the weighting in the Final Grade Setup. Caution: If a new category, Transfer Grade, is created for the “Transfer Grade” assignment and it is not included in the Final Grade Setup, the grade will not be included in the average of the current marking period.

OR
The teacher can give the student too many points on the latest assignment (enough to total his/her percentage on your point total) and turn all other assignments for this student to zero (or a code that records as zero, such as Ab, or set a code for transfers) or create a new assignment worth the number of points the student missed and enter his percentage of those points. Exempt all other students from this new assignment. For example, if a student enters class with a transfer of 87% and you have had 520 points, take 520 x .87 which equals 452 points. Create a ‘transfer’ assignment and make it worth 520 points. Give the transfer student 452 for a score on this ‘assignment." Just keep in mind that if you are determining final grades by weighting categories, that if you give all of these points in one category, it may skew this student's final grade. You may want to give too many points in one of each of your category assignments so that it equals out.

Also, if this student reenters the class at a later time, the student and all his/her grades will go onto the active students spreadsheet.

How can I add comments
Final Grade Comments
• Comments may be given but must be kept to 140 characters (includes spaces—two school comments or one school comment and one short teacher comment). Elementaries will give comments in their AM class ONLY. Secondary may use the preset comments if they choose. To add a preset comment to the report card, double click on the number to the left of the student name on the spreadsheet and pull down to ‘school comment." Assign the comment by double clicking on the comment code. It should appear in the top box. If adding your own comment, type it in the top box. Make sure this is on "parent note." Then you can scroll to next student by using the arrows at the top of the box.

Teachers may create their own preset comments as well.

To clear all comments, click on any student's number. Then when the box appears, you will see a button at the bottom that says 'clear parent notes.' Click on it. A warning will ask if you want to clear all students' notes. Click okay.

To clear one student's comment, double click on the number to the left of the student's name. Select the info in the top box and delete it.

Adding comments in Powerschool
You can also add comments in Powerschool. Log on to Powerschool. Click on the backpack for the class you want. Then click on a student in the student list on the left. Pull down the drop down menu on the right to "teacher comments." Click edit and type in your comment or choose a standard comment and then click the arrow to move it over.

To pull Powerschool comments into Powergrade, open your grade book and resynch comments with the server under 'utilities.' Now you can edit comments or follow the directions above to clear the comments.

Assignment comments
To give a comment on a particular assignment, click on the student's score and hold down the control (PC) Command (mac) plus the "N" key. A note window will appear. Type in the appropriate comment and close the box. The score will now appear in red indicating that a note accompanies the score. To change the comment or delete it, simply hold down the command plus "n' key and edit as needed.

Can I over ride a final grade?
How to handle truancy reduction, incomplete grades, rounding grades higher/lower
• To override a grade, double click on the grade in quarter one (or whatever grading period); click in the box to override the grade and pull down to the appropriate grading code. You will have to manually adjust the grade each term up until semester time for secondary, quarter grade for elementary.
• Another option for truancy reduction would be to make an assignment worth zero points and then use a negative number for five percent of the points. However, this number would have to be adjusted to reflect the correct number of points come quarter, 2nd midterm and semester grades.

To undo grade overrides for all students, go to 'utilities' to 'clear manual final grades." Choose the correct grading period and clear. For one student, double click on the final grade and uncheck override.

Or if teachers try to 'remove' a certain grade from the grading scale that some students had been assigned; for example, if the teacher removes the A+ when some students have been assigned an A+ already. What they need to do is redefine the A+, not remove it.

It is best to 'fix' the grading scale and the specialty codes under the scores tab the way you want it BEFORE assigning any grades at all.

Otherwise, the teachers have to go back and fix it the way it was before the question marks started showing up or we can push out an earlier back up but if they do the same thing again, the question marks will appear again.

My grades look funny; the percents do not match the grades, and my score points aren't right.

First, did you override grades? If so, the override will stay until you undo it. Double click on the final grade and uncheck the override.
Second, did you make assignments weighted? Assignments should have a weight of one in almost all cases. (if you want to weight categories, do this under Final Grade Set up). If you weight a 200 point assignment at 70, for example, your assignment would really be worth 14,000 points! (200x 70) If this is really what you want, just make the assignment worth 14,000 points to begin with and put the weight at 1. To fix this, click on each assignment name at the top of your spreadsheet and change the weights to 1. You will need to do this for each assignment. Otherwise, you probably want to weight categories if you want tests worth 70 percent of the grade, homework worth 20, etc. Go to final grade set up to do this.
Another area that can throw the grades and percents off is if you set the preferences to "use averages." To check this, click on the light switch or go File to Preferences, click on the general tab and make sure there is no check mark in this field.

I want to type in a letter grade instead of a score or percent--how do I do that?
You need to set this up in the grading scale. Here's how: Open a class. Pull down the 'window' menu to 'grade scale.' Click on the letter grade you want in the grading scale on the left-hand side of the screen and enter a percent in the "value" window on the right. click on the next grade you want to be able to type and enter a value. For example, if you want to type an "A," enter a 95 or whatever percentage will stand for the A. Repeat for all letters you want to type and repeat for all classes. Caution: if you want to do this, make sure you don't use an A for absent in the preferences score tab or you will not be able to type in an A for a grade. It will count as exempt or zero or whatever you chose in the scores tab. Make sure no letter grades are used in the specialty scores tab under preferences.

This would be very handy, if for example, all of your homework assignments were worth 5 pts or all of your essays worth 100. Then you wouldn't have to type this in when creating the assignments. Of course, if you have one homework assignment that is worth a different amount, you can still type over the default when setting up the assignment.

What do the grading codes mean?
A+ EXCELLENT
A Superior
A- Superior
B+ Good
B Good
B- Good
C+ Average
C Average
C- Average
D+ Poor
D Poor
D- Poor
CW Credit Withheld
IR Credit Recovery
IP Not Yet Proficient
X Audit 0.000
NP No Pass
F Failure
I Incomplete
P Passing

Known Issues
There is a "known issue" entitled "Segment_1" appearing as Assignment name and category in PowerGrade". If the assignment name is exactly the same as the category name, Segment_1 will be displayed. Changing the
name of the assignment should take care of the problem. This may also be happening if the assignment name has the complete name of the category within its name. Also, categories must be more than one character.

Grouping problem
There is a known issue according to Article 4254 at the PS support site
regarding grouping that is important to know about:

Assignments Applied through Class Groups Don't Save To Server

When assignments are applied to a Class Group in PowerGrade in the
Assignments window, they appear correctly in the other class. However,
the other related sections do not automatically save the assignment to
the server. The assignment will not appear on the Quick Lookup detail view screen
even after the assignment is graded.

The workaround is -
Open the Assignments window in each section in the Class Group. Click
on any assignment, then click Accept and save the class information to
the server.

Class info
The description a teacher puts in class info does not show up in Powerschool the way it used to. Next version should fix this function, but it is currently not working.

I have a teacher who, when she goes to attendance on powerschool, finds that there are no students in her 9th period class; all we see is the pull down menu for choosing present,etc, and under that we see: *not enrolled. She does have students in that class, but they are not showing up. All of her other classes are showing students as they should.

First synchronize with the server. Then if that doesn't work, check that the secretary/scheduling clerk has everything set up correctly for that teacher--tell her what is going on.

Our building tech, says he knows nothing about powerschool/grade. You had said that sometimes a tech will have to step in and help with problems, such as removing powergrade when it has been improperly installed: which tech were you talking about?
The techs know how to deinstall and install programs--that's their job. They don't know how to operate the program. See your building trainer for help in how to operate the software.

I still want to use Easy Grade Pro. How can I get the names from PowerGrade to Easy Grade?
Exporting Names from PowerGrade into Easy Grade Pro
These directions assume you have downloaded PowerGrade to your machine already…

1. Open PowerGrade and go to REPORTS?CUSTOM EXPORT
2. From the list on the left, drag each field you want to take over to the right side, forming a list.
3. Write down the order so you remember (you’ll need to know once you get to Easy Grade Pro.)
4. For our purposes, let’s say you are taking 1) First Name, 2) Last Name, 3) Student Number (remember – First Name, Last Name is different from the first choice on the list which is Last,First.)
5. In the two small pull-down menus at the bottom, leave them as Tab and CR and UNcheck the box that says column headings in first row.
6. Click Export.
7. Name it something logical and put it somewhere you can find it (like your desktop.)
8. Do this same thing for each of your classes.
9. Next open Easy Grade Pro and set up classes – just go to Add?Classes and quickly create a different class for each period… remember to select a term for each…
10. Click DONE.
11. Open the first class and choose IMPORT FROM ANOTHER FILE.
12. Choose New Format (at the bottom).
13. Name the format (at the top) something like PowerGrade Import
14. Double-click on each field in the same order you took them from PowerGrade, so in our example above, you would double-click on First Name, then Last Name, then ID in that order…
15. Click DONE
16. Choose the Import you just created (PowerGrade Import) and click NEXT.
17. Choose CURRENT CLASS and a window will pop open that asks you to locate the file you saved from PowerGrade (the one you saved in step #7.)
18. Find it and click OPEN.
19. You will then see a list of student names…click IMPORT RECORDS and then DONE.
20. When it says “Do you want to import again?” Answer NO…
21. Open the next class in Easy Grade Pro and start over at step #11 only this time, you can skip steps 12-15 (since you already created the import format you need.)
Teachers who travel between buildings will use their six-digit employee ID number followed by N, E, C, G (initial for North, etc). They will have two separate log ons and two separate grade books, one for each school, or three if they travel between three schools. This should not apply to any elementary teachers yet, as librarians, PE etc are not in the system.

Once you have Power grade all set up on your own computer at school, can you then enter grades and even assignments from home via Power school?
Right now you can enter a NEW assignment in PowerSchool provided you have set up categories in Power Grade first--Click on the notebook icon and click on "new" and put in an assignment--refer to the quick start bright yellow sheet. However, once the assignment has been pulling into the grade book, you will no longer be able to access it from the web, so makeup work will have to be entered using Powergrade.

Teachers who teach at more than one building
They will have log ins for each building and separate grade books for each building. They will use their username with the school initial after it; for example, a 'c' for CMR after the user name.

Naming grade books
The biggest problem is naming of the grade books. Some teachers are leaving the default PG (PC) or Powergrade (mac) as the name of their data file. Then when another teacher downloads and doesn't rename the file--keeps it the same default name--it wipes out the first teacher's file. Ditto with a teacher with two different schools--if she downloads one school grade book and names it the same as the others, she will just keep downloading over the top each time. To avoid this, teachers should use their name plus the school name for each grade book. For example, katie_myersNORTH or katie_myersML.

Then, these teachers need to hold the alt or option key when opening Powergrade each time and navigate to the correct school data file. You have to start the program first and then immediately hold down the alt until the window appears. If the other teachers grade book or password screen appears, you weren't quick enough on the alt key. Quit and try again.

A note--those teachers on computers set up with active directory, you can drag their Powergrade folder and data file to their server area. Then no one else can even get to their grade book without their log on to the computer. This will also help traveling teachers as they can pull up their file from whatever computer they are using, provided it is on the directory.

More than one teacher is using the same computer. How can we get to the other teacher's grade book?
Hold the alt/option key while opening the Powergrade program. Note, you do have to start opening the program first and then immediately hold down the alt/option key. Then when the pop up box appears, navigate to the place where the other teacher has his/her grade book saved.

How should I set my preferences?
Open a class in Powergrade
Click on the light switch icon (or pull down the file menu to 'preferences'). Then change the following items under the various 'tabs' at the top of the window

Password General tab--Click "use password at startup" and change your password
Teacher Name General tab--Type the name you want to print for Reports
Hide Citizenship Display tab-- check to hide citizenship box
Show Assmnts Dates Display tab--Set Dates for the current qtr
Alternate Row Color Display tab--alternate row color?
Show Absences/tardies Display tab
Add students order Display tab
Scores-Unrecorded Scores tab-- create symbols to count as unreported
Scores-Exempt Scores tab-- create symbols to count as exempt, ex, for ex.
Scores-Zero Scores tab-- missing or absent should be a zero
Notification Notification tab--set beeps, birthdays
NOTE--Do not click on Use Averages. It will mess up the grades.

Categories: Non Weighted Grades are calculated on total number of points. Choose Windows Categories. Create your categories. Fill in description and default points possible ONLY if all of your assignments are worth 100 points, for example.
Categories: Weighted in the final grade setup. For examples Test 60% Homework 20% Quiz 20%. Choose a name for the category, description. Click Accept. Do this for each category. To weight each category choose setup weighting. Click the total points and change to category points. Click the plus sign for however many categories you have. Pull down in Set the category to your desired weight. Continue until all categories are set and the weight equals 100%. REPEAT FOR ALL GRADING PERIODS.
Final Grades Pull down to Final Grade Setup. For middle and high school, if you want Q1 to be worth 50% of the semester grade and Q2 to be the other 50%, choose S1 from the drop down box. Click total points and change to % from another grade. Choose Q1 and set it to 50%. Click the + sign and choose Q2 and set it to 50%. Choose Accept. Choose S2 from the drop down box. Click total points and change to % from another grade. Choose Q3 and set it to 50%. Click the + sign and choose Q4 and set it to 50%. Choose Accept.

Creating Groups to copy assignments to
Class Information Pull down to Class Information. Choose a group name for your classes so assignments can be entered across all the classes. Repeat for each section of the class.