Recently, we have made considerable changes to the grade-book. The new changes include better support for standards-based grading, added support for commenting, and a redesigned Traditional Editing Mode.
Why Were the Changes Made?
Many of you are probably wondering why we made the changes. They were made to better accommodate teachers, and make our grade-book more user-friendly. The current trend in many public schools is a switch towards standards-based grading, and we wanted to make sure our teachers could easily use and adapt standards as their primary grading mode. Furthermore, we wanted to improve the usability on the Traditional Editing Mode, especially for teachers with many assignments and students. Read-on to learn more about these new features.
Standards-Based Grading
Standards-based grading was originally introduced into GPA Teacher in April 2009. But, as requested by many teachers, we have updated our grade-book to support standards-based grading in every situation.
Super-standards- Super-standards are a way to organize the main standards for each subject, and are entirely optional (the default super standard is: Default). For example, let’s take a look at the Sixth Grade Math Standards for California. In this case, the Super Standards would be, Number Sense 1.0, Number Sense 2.0, Algebra and Functions 1.0, etc…, or any other organization method you choose.
Standards- For each super standard, you can add as many sub-standards as you need. For the above example, you would add Standard 1.1 – Standard 1.4 under Number Sense 1.0.
Align assignments with standards- From the Assignments Manager, when you can update or add an assignment, you will be presented with a new option: Standard. From the drop-down menu, just choose the standard the assignment needs to be aligned with, and the effort grades for the whole class will be updated accordingly.
Viewing effort grades- You have a myriad of options to view effort grades for particular standards and super-standards. In the grades Editing Mode, you can choose from the Standards List, and the Super-Standards List. Each view will allow you to choose a standard, and view the effort grades for each student, and the class averages at the bottom. Additionally, the Statistics module has been updated with appropriate options for standards and super-standards.
Commenting
Now you can add comments for individual assignment scores, and the final grade. Try double-clicking on a student’s Final Grade or an assignment’s points. A window will pop-up, with a text field to insert a comment. All comments added to a student’s final grade show up on the Assignments Based and Standards Based Report Cards. As an added benefit, students and parents can view all added comments.
Traditional Editing Mode Redesign
Did you notice the new changes on the Traditional Editing Mode? Now, it’s even easier to manage grades for a class with many students and assignments. The assignment names across the top, and the student names at the beginning of each row now stay fixed. Additionally, if you use Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer 8.0, you will experience an extra bonus: the highlighting of the currently selected row and column.
Additional Information
All teacher’s accounts have been updated with the latest changes, and are available for use immediately. Try them out today. If you do not have a GPA Teacher account, sign up for a 90-day trial! And, make sure you let us know your feedback.
Should you have any questions, need help, or need additional information, feel free to comment below, or open a support ticket. Also, check-out the Grades Help Manual, which will be updated with the new features soon.
Tags: grade-book, grades, new feature, standards, standards based grading
When do you guys update your blog? Does this company not exist anymore??
We update the Blog with updates and announcements. At the moment we are working on version 2, which will bring many new exciting features into GPA Teacher. Stay tuned for updates.