Grading Best Practices

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

We only submit grade PERCENTAGES; NO letter grades (Do not use A, B, C, D, E, P, F, N, I, or W).

If you have a student who has earned a zero in your class, you MUST enter "0" (Do not submit an empty grade).

If you have any students who have just been added into your class roster, please ask the original teacher to generate a report of grades given to them so far this quarter. If you don’t have information about the original teacher, please contact their respective Guidance Counselors. They can tell you the teacher whom you need to communicate with in order to get your new students' incoming grades. If the original teacher is not able to provide you with the needed grade reports even after you communicate with him/her, you may email me or one of our Counselors (prior to the opening of the grading window) the names and corresponding courses of those students, and we will try to generate for you an electronic/PDF copy of their grade report.

If you have any students who have just been dropped from your class, please generate a grade report for these students and be ready to share the report with their respective new teacher(s). Click here for instructions on how to generate a grade 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.

Every student on your roster MUST have a grade submitted for your class. The Student Applications Office will NOT print any of our grades if we have not submitted grades for every student.

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.

Please contact the appropriate Guidance Counselor if you have students on your roster whom you have never seen. We need to ensure that this is not a "missed" No-Show student who needs to be withdrawn from our system.

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. SchoolMax tends to to hang on to the override grades published during the previous grading cycle. Please review this document if you need assistance.

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.

Any grades NOT submitted prior to the closing of the grading window will be entered as a zero ("0"). You may then have to submit to the Principal a request for grade change for EACH of these grades. Each request MUST be accompanied by proper documentation. (Please see Grade Change Procedure.)

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.

Note: CRI students in ALT classes (including classes with TAP (Pass/Fail) grading strategy) do not receive a progress report from SchoolMax. They will only receive report cards as grade entries.

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Grading Best Practices