Standards-Based Grading for Teachers

The OnCourse Grade Book supports both calculated grades (the traditional usage of the Grade Book) and qualitative indicators of student mastery in areas like:

   • National, state, or locally-defined standards
   • Personal and social development
   • Conduct and effort

or any other type of indicator that a district would like to be assessed and recorded on report cards.

Important Note: These indicator sets may replace, or exist side-by-side with regular numerical grades. As a teacher, this has already been determined when your  school’s System Manager set up your classes in OnCourse. Only the items appropriate to your class and grade level (final grade + indicators, indicators only, final grade only) will appear on the report card.

This article will demonstrate the process of finding the indicators assigned to each class, and assessing them for each student.

Preparation for Standards-Based Grading

A representative from each school or district is responsible for entering indicator sets into OnCourse. Teachers do not have to enter indicators themselves, they only have to perform the assessment from within the Grade Book.

These indicators will be determined at the school or district’s discretion and may encompass things like grade level expectations, behavior, or other qualitative assessments.

Some examples of indicator sets:

When Can I Begin Assessing the Indicators for My Students?

OnCourse strongly encourages schools to load indicators into OnCourse at the start of the school year, however it can be done at any time prior to report card time.

To find out if indicators are ready to be assessed, open any Grade Book class and look for the Score Indicators button. This button will only appear if an indicator set has been linked to this class.

Note: if you believe that you should have indicators for a class, 
but do not, contact your school’s OnCourse System Manager to 
request a status.

Assessing Student Indicators

To begin marking a student’s achievement on indicators:
   1. Open the OnCourse Grade Book and navigate to the correct class and marking period.

   2. Click the Score Indicators button on the tool menu (Figure 1).

Reminder: If this button is not there, your school/district has not yet loaded the indicators for this course.

   3. The “indicator grid” appears, which displays your students and the district’s chosen indicators (Figure 2).

   4. To enter an assessment score, click in any block and select the student’s score from the drop-down (see highlighted box, Figure 2)

Tip: To select the same score for every indicator or student, use the Quick Fill drop-down menus.  

 5. Simply close this window when scoring has been completed. All entries have been saving automatically.

(Figure 1)

(Figure 2)

Comparing Terms

You have the option of comparing two different grading terms. The Comparison Terms option lets you choose the marking period to which you would like to compare as you input the rating for the current marking period.

From your grade book, choose the marking period that needs to be graded, then click the Score Indicator button.

In the new window, select the marking period containing the scores you would like to view from the Comparison Terms drop down menu.

You will see these score directly next to the current standards. Now it's easy to add ratings for the current marking period while viewing previous grades simultaneously.

*You can only change grade period indicators in the marking period in which you are currently.

Checking the Indicators before Printing

To check the indicators before report card time, run a report card from the Reporting tab.

When choosing report card parameters, make sure that the “Print Performance Indicators” parameter is set to YES.

The regular final grade will appear, as well as any indicators.