This (2015-16) school year, PPS has made a few adjustments to our elementary gradebook.
- We are using year long trending. This means that the final Q4 grade will take into account all events from the first day of school until the end of the academic year. Don't be surprised when you see suggested grades showing up in Q2, Q3, and Q4 as soon as the Q1 suggestion appears.
- Skyward will not begin to suggest a trend grade until three or more event scores are entered for a particular skill.
These changes will help improve the overall suggested grade because it will take into account growth from the entire school year and it will provide more data points in order to make the suggestion. That being said, it is still the professional responsibility of the teacher to double check the scores each quarter to make sure what the gradebook is suggesting aligns with how the child is performing on that particular skill.
Skyward makes this a fairly painless process.
First, click on the Standard Code in the Skill header (the striped heading box).
Second, double check the grades by looking at the Mean and Median scores, as well as the overall progression of the grades. If you see something, like in the example below, that does not "look right", you can usually figure out why from the event scores.
Third, if you decide the grade needs to be adjusted, you can do so by typing the correct grade in the white box. Once you are finished adjusting any scores, make sure you click Save.
NOTE: Even if you do not have three event scores, you can always manually enter in a score for that skill by following the manual entry directions.