Grades/GPA FAQ

This is a lesson that will teach you how to create a new grade marking. For example, if instead of (or in addition to) A you wanted a grade mark of L, this is where you can do that based on your district preferences. This is also where you can determine the weighting of a grade for GPA purposes. Basically, here you can edit anything having to do with a grade for transcript/GPA use.

Q: How do I change the weight (+/-) of a grade marking?

Once at the listing page, click on the edit (paper/pencil button) on the far right. Here is where you will be able to edit all information pertaining to a specific grade marking.

Q: What is  ‘Valid grade for citizenship/work habits’?

If your school reports in a citizenship or work habits category in addition to academic grades, then by selecting ‘Yes’ here the grade marking is allowed to show up in that category, (e.g. A for excellent citizenship). By default Illuminate sets these to no.

Q: What does the 'Modify Grade Order' tab do?

Modify Grade Order is a management page to list the order of Academic Grades, Citizenship, and Work Habits. By choosing one of those types, it will present you with a sort order for all the grade marks that fall in that category. Perhaps, for example, you want your academic grades to be listed in order as F, D-, D, D+, C-,C, etc, instead of A+, A-, A, etc. This page will manage the order in which the drop down menus will list the grade marks.

Help Doc: 'Grade Mark List'

This is a lesson that will teach you how to create a new GPA calculation. Think of it like running different filters on transcripts to determine college readiness, meeting graduation requirements, etc. You can create multiple calculations to use whenever necessary. However, only ONE can be in use at a time.

Note: If you are using a Course Requirement to base your GPA Calculation off of, you may want to reference the Course Requirements page before creating GPA Calculations. If chosen, the calculation will be based off those courses defined within that Course Requirement.

Q: When I create a GPA Calculation, who has access to use it?

Once created, site users will be able to use/choose that calculation in report cards and transcripts. So be careful and remove unnecessary GPA Calculations that you may be testing.

Q: What is “Overall grade span” for a GPA calculation?

This basically means what grade level’s grade markings do you want to count toward this calculation? For example, if you wanted to factor in every mark from every grade the student has ever been in, you could chose K-12, and they would ALL count toward the GPA calculation.

Q: On the GPA Calculation page, there is the list of calculations a user has created, how do we know which one is in use at any given time? Or are they all in use?

There's no way to identify which is the "official" one, which is why we strongly encourage you to remove test/play ones. When a user goes to generate a report card or transcript, at that point, you will be able to choose which GPA calculation to use.

Q:  How does a progress grade GPA calculate?

A:  A progress grade will show on a progress report card for the grading period and GPA calculation selected however progress grades will not factor into transcript GPAs.  For example progress report for Q1 GPA = 3.6, Semester one report card GPA = 4.0, progress report for Q3 GPA = 3.6, and Semester 2 GPA = 4.0.... The total cumulative GPA will equal 4.0 as the progress GPAs will not be factored in.

Help Doc: 'GPA Calculation'

Q: What is the logic behind which GPA calculations get refreshed as well as when?

A: GPA data is calculated for a student within many different categories (AKA GPA Time Period/Context). Keep in mind, a refresh, whether it's done through a GPA Ranking, student GPA page, generating a transcript, etc. is all based on time context (i.e. what options you choose, what your control panel YYYY is).

• Cumulative: For all transcript/final grades in the student's history.
• Academic Year: For transcript/final grades in each year, we will store/calculate the GPA for that academic year. So, a student will potentially have a GPA for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014...etc.
• Term: For transcript/final grades in each term, we store/calculate the GPA for that academic year and term. So, a student will potentially have a GPA for 2017 > Semester 1, 2016 > Semester 2, 2016 > Semester 1, 2015 > Semester 2, 2015 > Semester 1...etc.
• Grading Period: We store/calculate the GPA for that grading period. Keep in mind, grading periods can go across multiple years. So a student potentially will/can have a GPA for 2017 > Progress GP1, 2017 Semester 1 Final GP, 2016 Semester 2 Final GP, 2016 Semester 2 Progress GP....etc.



• If the student receives a grade (or a grade edited/saved) for a Final Grading period, it will trigger refresh on the following GPA time periods:
  1. Cumulative
  2. Academic Year (only if that grade was edited/given in that academic year)
  3. Term (only if that grade was edited/given in that term)
  4. Grading Period (for that GP the grade was edited/saved)



1. Example 1: Mary Jane received an A grade in 2016-2017 Semester 1 Final GP.  It will trigger the system to refresh: Cumulative, Academic Year (2017), Term (Semester 1 of 2017 year).  Keep in mind, because the grade was edited in 2017 Semester 1 Final GP, this does not refresh the grading period GPA that was earned in, for example, 2016 Semester 1 Final GP. Nothing was altered there, so there's obviously nothing new to refresh in that Grading Period time context (2016 Semester 1 Final GP).


2. Example 2: Bobby mistakenly got a grade in 2015-2016 Semester 1 Final GP. The grade was edited/deleted. It will trigger the system to refresh: Cumulative, Academic Year (2016), Term (Semester 1 of 2016 year).

If the student receives a grade (or a grade edited/saved) for a Progress Grading period, it will trigger refresh on the following GPA time periods:

1. Grading Period (for the GP the grade was edited/saved)


2. This one is obvious, only that unique Progress grading period will be refreshed. We do not refresh any other time context (Cumulative, Academic Year, Term) because those time contexts only focus on final grades.



If the student receives a grade (or a grade edited/saved) within Transfer Grades (i.e. Transcripts), it will trigger refresh on the following GPA time periods:

1. Cumulative
2. Academic Year (only if that Transfer Grade was edited/given in that academic year)
3. Term (only if that Transfer Grade was edited/given in that term)

• Example 1: Mark mistakenly got a Transfer Grade in 2015-2016 Semester 1. The grade was edited/deleted. It will trigger the system to refresh: Cumulative, Academic Year (2016), Term (Semester 1 of 2016 year).  No other term time periods will be refreshed.

These lessons will teach you how to create Course Requirements to assist you in tracking student's graduation and college entry requirements. In the case of colleges and transcripts, you may be thinking A-G Requirements.  In addition to college requirements, your district may have a set of parameters and categories that students MUST meet in order to graduate (i.e. Student must have completed 30 credits of Math before graduating).

Note: Once created, site users will be able to use/choose the Course Requirement to print on transcripts and Grade reports. So be careful and remove unnecessary Course Requirement(s) that you may be testing.

Q: Where do I find out where a student stands on meeting a particular course requirement?

A: There is one report, "Requirement Check" that will display the detailed view on where a student stands for a requirement and it's categories.  You can access the report by navigating to: Grades > Requirement Check.

Help Doc: 'Course Requirements'

*Most middle schools do not have course requirements and therefore do not use the course request feature.