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Teacher Guide to ASCENDER TeacherPortal
End-of-Semester/End-of-Year Steps
This page allows you to manage end-of-cycle and end-of-semester grade data, including cycle and semester averages, working final grade, override grades, exams, citizenship grades, and comments. When all data has been entered correctly and is ready to post, you must submit the cycle and/or semester grades to the campus administrator.
No data is displayed for future cycles.
For self-paced courses, see the Self-paced Courses section below.
❏ Select the course-section you want to enter assignment grades for:
| Semester | The semester of the selected date is displayed by default. |
|---|---|
| Course-Section | Select the course-section you want to enter semester grades for. The drop down lists the two-digit period and course name. The course number and section number are in parentheses. |
| Show Withdrawn Students |
Withdrawn students are not automatically displayed. Select the field to include withdrawn students in the list. |
❏ Click Retrieve.
The grid displays all students currently enrolled in the course-section. Students are sorted by last name, unless you have specified a custom sort order on Settings > Arrange Student Order.
- The columns can be re-sorted
The columns can be sorted according to your preferences.
- An up arrow
indicates the column and order by which the table is currently sorted. - If a column can be sorted, a sort box
is displayed in the column heading. - To resort the list by another column heading, click in the column heading. The column is sorted in ascending order, as indicated by in the column heading.
- To sort the column in descending order, click again. The sort arrow changes direction
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If you sort by the last name column, the table sorts by last name, then first name. If you sort by the first name column, the table sorts by first name, then last name.
NOTE: Sorting the columns overrides the custom sort order established on the Arrange Student Order page. However, if you leave this page and return, the students are displayed in your custom sort order. (This does not apply on the Post/View Attendance page.)
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- If the course is set up to post alphabetical grades, and Show averages as alpha is selected on Grades > Assignment Grades, alphabetical cycle grades are displayed. Otherwise, numeric cycle grades are displayed.
- You can navigate through the grade fields using the keyboard
Press ENTER after you type each grade to move down the list to the next student. You can press SHIFT+ENTER to move up the list. You can also press the up and down arrow keys to move up and down the list.
Press TAB to move across the list to the next assignment. You can press SHIFT+TAB to move back to the left.
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| ID | The student's ID is displayed. Click the student ID to view the student's profile. |
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| LAST CYCLE/END OF SEMESTER | |||
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| Under Semester Grades: End-of-semester information includes the following: |
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| Exam |
Enter the student's semester exam grade. If the student has a pre-posted exam grade, it is displayed and cannot be changed.
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| Working Average |
The student's working semester average is displayed, based on the data entered up to this point. The value is recalculated every time you access the page, click Calculate Semester Averages, or save grades.
NOTE: If a cycle grade is blank, the semester grade is not calculated. |
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| Override |
This field allows you to override a student's working semester average with a different grade (e.g., if the student's working cycle average is 69, you may give the student a cycle grade of 70, depending on district policy). You can also type N/G to assign an override grade of no grade. |
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| Posted Average | The field is blank until a semester grade is posted. Then, the posted semester grade is displayed. |
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For campuses that do not have semester exams every semester (e.g., a four-semester campus that has semester exams at the end of the second and fourth semesters), the semester averages are only calculated if there is a semester exam for the current semester.
• The Exam field is displayed.
• The Exam field is not displayed. |
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| Working Final Grade |
The working final grade includes the posted semester average for any previous semesters and the working semester average for the current semester. NOTE: For alpha grades, it is possible that the student's working cycle average from the Assignment Grades page will differ from the Working Average and Working Final Grade on the Cycle Grades page. The Cycle Grades page uses the highest grade in the range from the corresponding grade conversion table to determine the working average. For example, if the teacher posted a cycle average of 83, it will be converted to a B in the campus records. The Cycle Grades page reads the posted grade B and uses the grade conversion table to determine the Working Average and Working Final Grade. If the highest grade in the range in the grade conversion table is 89, the grade 89 is displayed on the Cycle Grades page.
• If a semester average exists for only one of the first semester course sections, the semester one average is used to calculate the working final grade.
Example 1: (Cycle 1 + Cycle 2) / 2 = working final grade for cycle 2. For students who were enrolled in a different section of the same course during a previous semester, the working final grade includes the posted semester average for the other section. |
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| CLOSED CYCLES & SEMESTERS | |||||
| Posted Sem: # |
For closed semesters, the posted semester grades are displayed under the Posted Sem: # heading, where # is the closed semester. If you are currently in the first semester, the Posted Sem # heading is not displayed.
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| Posted Cycles |
Posted cycle grades for the current semester are displayed by cycle. If you are currently in the first cycle of a semester, the Posted Cycles heading and cycle numbers are not displayed. NOTE: For transfer students, the prior cycle grades are entered at the campus level. |
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| SELF-PACED COURSES | |||||
For self-paced courses, a modified version of the Cycle Grades page is displayed to accommodate cycle grade data for self-paced courses.
The semester grades for self-paced courses are automatically posted when they are saved. |
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Once saved, failing grades are highlighted in pink.
Save and print:
You must save your grades before you exit this page. Otherwise, your changes will be lost.
IMPORTANT: Saving grades is different from posting grades. You can only post your grades once at the end of the cycle, as described below; however, you must save any changes every time you visit this page. This allows you to leave this page and return as you enter cycle grade data.
| PIN | Type your four-digit personal identification number (PIN). |
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❏ Click Save.
- If your changes were saved successfully, the page reloads, and a message is displayed indicating that the grades were saved successfully.
- If you enter an invalid grade, the grade is highlighted in red, and an error message is displayed at the top of the page. You must correct the error before you can save any changes.
| Click to print the cycle grades displayed on the page. |
Post semester grades:
❏ After you enter semester grades data for the course, review your input carefully, and save all changes.
Once the data is posted by the campus administrator, you cannot change any data. If you discover an error after grades are posted, you must contact the campus administrator to correct any errors.
❏ When you are satisfied with your input for one or more of the cycle grades, notify the system that you are ready to post:
| Select courses to mark grades as Ready to Post |
Click the link. The window closes, and the selected course(s) are listed below the PIN field.
The window opens allowing you to re-select the course(s). |
|---|---|
| PIN | Type your four-digit personal identification number (PIN). |
❏ Click Continue.
The page reloads, and a message is displayed indicating that the cycle grades were successfully sent to be posted. The message “[READY]” is displayed in the Course-Section drop-down list next to the course.
You can submit your grades more than one time if you make a change shortly after mark the grades as ready to post; however, once the data is posted by the campus administrator, you cannot change any data.
After grades are posted and the cycle is closed, you can make changes to the grades and view the working cycle average (e.g., for a student who missed the last few days of a cycle due to illness); however, you cannot post any changes. Instead, print your changes and submit your printout to the campus administrator.
NOTE: The campus administrator can run a report to determine which teachers have posted their grades and which teachers have not yet posted their grades.
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