Exclude an MP grade for a transfer student

[Tzappulla3]

Hi everyone,

What is your best practice for kids who transfer in at the end of MP1? We have a kid who did this and the principal requested to put him on a P/F grade scale which affects all 4 quarters. Now they are telling me they want him to get a regular calculated grade for the next 3 MPs and to make the P grade in Q1 "not count" in the final grade. Currently he has a 75 for Q2 and the locked P with a value of 0 for Q1 which is showing a 38 projected final grade. The teacher now wants Q1 to just be excluded from the final grade calc since he wasn't here and couldn't get an actual grade.

I've checked the grade schedule setup and the P and F on that grade scale have the "exclude from AFG" box checked - which seems to imply that these grade are excluded from a final grade calc, but they clearly are not? In my last district we had a grade like a special code set up that could be entered as the MP grade like "EX (Exempt") and so that MP grade just would not count towards the final grade calc.

At this point I am thinking that the kid should have never been set up on the P/F grade scale since that applies to the whole year (and is usually meant for SpecialEd or Home Instruction) kids, but I am sure there are other scenarios where admins will want a kid to be P/F for part of the year and not the whole year. What is the best way to handle this in Powerschool?

Also: the P/F grade scale we have set up (this was set up when I got here) has a Special Codes scale but none of the special codes have the "exclude AFG" box checked. And I do not believe Special Codes can be used as MP grades, from what I can see.

[JeffG9 · Accepted solution]

You can absolutely use Special Codes as a term grade if the "Use As a Final Grade" box is checked on the Grade Scale. Special codes can also be marked as exempt on the Grade Scale. 

"Exclude from AFG" means the grade is excluded from the Average Final Grades function on the Admin side. It does not exclude the grade from PT Pro calculations or GPA calculations.  

The absolute easiest way to exclude a term grade from the final grade calculation in PT Pro is to have the teacher simply mark it as Exempt in the Score Inspector. Exempt grades are purple and italicized. 

I have attached screenshots (data are test students).

[Tzappulla3]

At that Exempt button looks like it might be the best option! I see we have three special codes set up with "final grade/score is exempt checked, two of them can't be used as a final grade but I am not sure of the impact of using the one with "final grade/score incomplete" checked. It seems like it could be helpful to set up a new code like EX which is final grade exempt but NOT incomplete - but if the exempt button effectively does the same thing, I will just use that. Now I need to figure out if they want the kid's grade scale changed, since they no longer want him to be P/F the rest of the year, and what the impact of changing that now is going to be. 

[JeffG9]

The "Incomplete" option on the Grade Scale simply flags the grade as Incomplete in the Score Inspector. That has no bearing on grade calculations or the like. I have attached some screenshots.  

[Tzappulla3]

Excellent! Thank you SO MUCH!

[Tzappulla3]

Sorry to bug you again. The teacher wants this changed to be exempt for MP1, but MP1 grades have already been stored. I know I can unlock the section and go in and mark it exempt, but what about the historical stored grade? I don't see anything on the page to edit the historical grade that will mark it "exempt" from the FG calc. Or perhaps it does not matter for the historical grade as long as I exempt it in gradebook?

[JeffG9]

No worries. Historical Grades have no impact whatsoever on PT Pro grade calcs. They live in entirely different tables. Admin users have Read-Only access to PT Pro, so the teacher themselves will need to mark the MP1 grade exempt. Once they do that it will not be included in the Term Weighting for the final grade calc. 

[Tzappulla3]

Thank you! That tracks with what I am seeing. I asked the teacher to update it to Exempt, since she is not requesting to change the letter or numeric % grade. I'm glad there is nothing else I have to do with the stored grade but wanted to make sure. I sincerely appreciate your help!

[JeffG9]

If the Stored Grade somehow is mucking with your GPA calcs, you can set it to exclude from GPAs on the Historical Grade record. There is a little radio button in there. 

[Tzappulla3]

Yeah, I did go into the historical grade and exclude it from GPA and Honor Rolls calcs - seemed to make sense to do so since it's being exempted. In the last SIS I used the posted (stored) grade would take precedence over whatever was in the gradebook for that MP, so that's why I was worried the stored grade would affect the current final grade calc. It's good to know they are in separate tables!

[JeffG9]

StoredGrades and PGFinalGrades, in case you are curious.