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IntegradePro: Calculating Semester Grades at the End of First Semester

This document is written for teachers who have separate spreadsheets for first and second quarters and need to average the quarter grades (usually factoring in a semester exam grade) to calculate a semester grade.

To overview the process, these are the general steps you will follow for each class in order to calculate semester grades. More detailed instructions will follow.

· Copy your first and second quarter grades to a semester cumulative spreadsheet and enter semester exam or project grades in the semester cumulative spreadsheet.

· Weight the grades in the semester cumulative worksheet so it will correctly calculate the semester grade.

· Copy the second quarter grade and the final grade into the semester end of term spreadsheet.

There are two things to keep in mind when you do this.

• First, your grades in the cumulative spreadsheet will NOT be hotlinked to your first and second quarter spreadsheets. This means, that if you find a mistake in the second quarter spreadsheet after you calculate the semester grades, you will have to fix the semester spreadsheet; it won’t automatically be updated.
• Second, soon after you enter new tasks and/or scores in the new spreadsheet you create, parents will be able to see it in InTouch.

Here are step-by-step instructions which you will follow for each class.

To Calculate Semester Grades

1. In your IGPro gradebook for your first class, check to make sure that there are no unintended empty boxes or n/a’s for the first or the second quarter. You may want to enter “excused” if you have excused a student from an assignment, so it doesn’t look as if you just forgot to enter a grade or zero.

2. From the “Setup” menu, choose “Spreadsheets.” Click “New” and make sure “Create a Numeric Spreadsheet” is marked. Hit Next and give your spreadsheet a name (maybe “First Semester Cumulative”). Hit Next again.

3. Click to mark Total Points. Even if you use Weighted Type to calculate your quarter grades, you will want to choose Total Points. Hit “Create” and then “Close.”

4. From the Spreadsheet dropdown menu, choose your newly created First Semester Cumulative spreadsheet.

5. Create three new Tasks in your new First Semester Cumulative spreadsheet:

a. “First Quarter Grade.” Make it worth 100 points and give it a scale factor that matches the weight you want to give each quarter. For example, if you count each quarter as 45% of the grade and the semester exam as 10%, you will give this quarter grade a scale factor of 0.45. (The “Type” you enter will not affect calculation of grades. However, for clarity, you may want to create a type called “Administrative.”)

b. “Second Quarter Grade.” Make it worth 100 points and scale it as above.

c. “Exam (or project) Grade. Make it worth 100 points and scale it appropriately. In this example, you would give it a scale factor of 0.10. (We are assuming that the semester exam or project grade will be averaged with grades for first and second quarter, i.e., that it is NOT part of the second quarter grade. If your end-of-semester exam is factored as part of the second quarter grade, you do not need this Task in your Cumulative Spreadsheet.)

6. Now, you will replace your first quarter grade task column with the percentage from the appropriate spreadsheet.

a. Click on the gray title of the first quarter grade column. Choose “Replace Task.”

b. Highlight your first quarter numeric spreadsheet (it may still be called “Numeric Spreadsheet” or “Numeric Weighted Type” unless you changed its name). Hit Next.

c. Choose the “Weighted Type Spreadsheet Grade” or “Numeric Spreadsheet Grade” (the top choice) and hit Next.

d. Choose “Percentage” and hit Next. IGPro will tell you it has all the information it needs. Hit “OK.”

e. If a student has a grade of n/a (perhaps she transferred in mid-semester), click in the “n/a” box and enter the word “excused” or enter the transfer grade as a percentage.

7. Repeat step 6 for the second quarter grade. NOTE: You won’t want to do this until the grade for second quarter is final. Parents will see it in InTouch soon after you import it. Also, this grade will not automatically update itself when you add grades to the second quarter spreadsheet. If you make changes to the second quarter spreadsheet after you replace this task, you will need to fix the Cumulative Spreadsheet.

8. Enter the semester exam or project grade if applicable.

9. Your spreadsheet should now look something like this:

10. Notice that (unfortunately) the Task Names will have changed when you replaced the column with grades. You will probably want to edit them back to “First Quarter Grade” and “Second Quarter Grade” so parents will understand when they see it in InTouch. Check the calculations and make sure IGPro is doing what you wanted it to do.

11. Over the holiday, I assume you will want parents to see a child’s SEMESTER grade when they click on InTouch’s Gradebook button. To show that, you will need to select the semester cumulative spreadsheet as the “current” spreadsheet. Go to the Setup menu and choose “Classes.” Use the dropdown “Current Spreadsheet” menu and select your semester cumulative spreadsheet.

That’s it for this class!

12. Go back and repeat all these steps for each class.

13. Now you are ready to fill in your End Term Spreadsheet and Export Grades.