Average Final Grades
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In most cases, final grades are determined by the classroom teacher based on rules defined in the gradebook. This leaves the control over students' grade reporting, and the calculation methodology of those grades, in the hands of the most authoritative source. However, there are times when schedules are set up in a way where administrators want to average grades themselves instead of the teachers or they want to average grades across sections. The final grade averaging function provides school administrators an alternative means of calculating final grades.
The Process
The final grade averaging function can be run periodically by the PowerSchool administrator after storing grades. Final grades are calculated using up to six existing stored grades from each unique course taken during the current school year. Unique courses are identified by course number, not course name or section. Consequently, only grades that have been stored via the store grades process or hand-entered with a course number may be used in the calculation.
Once the stored grades for each course have been identified, the GPA points from each grade are averaged and the resulting value is used to create a new stored grade record. The averaging method can either be a simple arithmetic average, which is used by default, or could be weighted using a user-specified method. Each store code may receive a different weight. The weighting scheme used (20/30/50, 1/1/2, 0.2/0.2/0.6) is configurable.
The GPA point value is compared against the grade scale for the course. If an exact match is found, the letter grade corresponding to that value is used. For example, if the three grades A (4.0), B (3.0), and C (2.0) are used, with each weighting 1, the result would be 3. This 3 is looked up in the course's grade scale. An exact match of 3.000 is found, and a new stored grade is created using the letter grade B. However, if the C weighted 2, the result would be 2.75. In this case, there might not be an exact match, so the result would be rounded to the nearest value. In this case, 2.75 would be closer to 2.667 for a letter grade of B-.
Since multiple letter grades may have identical GPA point values (for example, F, I, NC, and WF all have zero GPA points), the user can exclude certain letter grades from being used. This prevents a zero average from matching to NC on the grade scale. This is necessary because only the GPA point values, not the letter grades themselves, are looked at. The list of excluded letter grades must be recorded for each unique grade scale used.
Once the appropriate letter grade has been identified, absences, tardies, potential credit, earned credit (if the letter grade earns graduation credit), and teacher comments are calculated based on user-defined options. The resulting new grades are stored alongside the student's existing grades and can be printed on report cards and transcripts.
Modify Average Final Grades Settings
- On the start page, choose System under Setup in the main menu.
- Under Grades, click Average Final Grades.
Enter information in the fields.
- Click Submit. PowerSchool calculates the average final grades for the requested group of students.
New historical grades for the selected students are created and stored using the specified store code.
Field Details
Field | Description |
|---|---|
Which Students | If no students have been selected, only the All currently enrolled students option is available. |
New store code | Indicates the new store code to use when storing the resulting final grade. Enter a valid store code (a letter followed by a single number). The store code does not need to be defined in the Final Grade Setup section of School Setup. |
Limit to this term | To filter by a term in the current school year, choose the term from the menu, or leave blank to select all terms. If a specific term is selected, only stored grades from sections associated with the term will be averaged. This setting provides the ability to create administrative-level final grade weighting for a section that met during a specific term. If left blank the records created during this process will be for the full year term. |
Use these final grades | Enter the store codes for up to six existing stored grades. You may optionally enter a weight value for each grade in the Weight field. This value is used in the calculation of the final letter grade, but will not affect attendance or credit calculations. If no value is entered, 1 is used. |
Absences and tardies are | Select how you want absences and tardies calculated.
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Potential credit is | Select how you want potential credit hours determined.
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Teacher comments are | Select how you want teacher comments to be included.
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For these grade scales, do not assign these grades | For each grade scale, enter a comma-separated list of letter grades that you want to exclude from the calculation, such as WF (withdraw fail) or I (incomplete). To include all grades from the grade scale in the calculation, leave the field blank. |
| Calculate average using | Choose whether the final average should be calculated using Percentages or Grade Points. If you choose Percentages, the final average will calculate the mean from all included grades. If you choose Grade Points, the final average will calculate the total points earned out of the total points possible. |
| Store which Section ID (where possible) | When a final grade is determined for a course with multiple sections, you can choose whether to store the grade for the First Enrolled Section or the Last Enrolled Section. Alternatively, you can also choose Do not store Section ID. |