A grading scale allows you to set which letter grade will be awarded based on the percentage grade earned for Term and Yearly grades. You may use traditional letter grades with or without plusses and minuses (A, B, C, D, F), improvement indicators (O, S, I, N), Pass/Fail or any other designation that meets your needs, up to 4 characters per letter grade.

A Default Grading Scale is loaded into your database upon startup. You may edit any facet of this scale that you wish. Many users will have just that one grading scale. You might choose to create multiple scales if:

The number of scales you create and how you use them is up to you. You may add new scales at any time as your needs change. If you elect to have multiple grading scales, you must use the Course feature of HSTOnline. When an Assignment has a Subject and no Course, the Default Grading Scale will be used to determine letter grades for those items. Again, the Default Scale can be edited to meet your needs.

The Grading Scales list is sorted alphabetically by the Name field. You can group or sort by any columns. The Active column shows a 'Y' if the Grading Scale is active and an 'N' if the Grading Scale is archived.

Grading is an optional feature and can be enabled and disabled using via Program Options in the HSTOnline menu.

Disabling this feature will:

• Hide the Grading Scales list in the 'Manage Lists' section of the HSTOnline menu
• Hide the Grading Overview option in the 'Students' section of the HSTOnline menu
• Remove the Poss (points possible) field and column from the Lesson Plan add/edit window and Lesson Plan grid
• Remove the Earn (points earned) and Grade fields and columns from the Assignment add/edit window and the Agenda - List View grid
• Disable Weighted Grading in Courses
• Disable the Report Card and Transcript

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Program Options.
2. On the Program Options page, click or touch the Grading tab.
3. In the Enable Grading area, click or touch True to enable grading; click or touch False to disable grading.
4. Click or touch Save to keep your changes.
5. Click or touch 'Ok' on the 'Changes Saved' window.

Your HSTOnline database contains a Default Grading Scale.

Let's use this example to explain how the grading scale works. If we look at the Letter Grade list in the image of the Default Grading Scale to the right, we see that any percentage grade that is:

• greater than or equal to 90% will receive an A
• greater than or equal to 80% but less than 90% will receive a B
• greater than or equal to 70% but less than 80% will receive a C
• greater than or equal to 60% but less than 70% will receive a D
• less than 60% will receive an F (the failing grade entry)

You may edit the Default Grading Scale to change the name and/or the details of this scale. The Failing grade you assign will be applied when the percentage grade falls below whatever you have entered for the lowest minimum percentage for you other letter grades.

The default grading scale will be used automatically when:

• no other Grading Scale is created
• an Assignment has a Subject but no Course attributed to it

You may create as many grading scales as you like. Grading Scales other than the Default Grading Scale must be attached to one or more Courses in order for them to be used by HSTOnline.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, click or touch the Action button and choose Add to open the Add Grading Scale Window (Fig 1).
3. Name: Enter a name for your Grading Scale, up to 150 characters.
4. Click or touch 'Add New Record' to add a letter grade to the Grading Scale. (Fig. 2)
   • Letter Grade: Enter a letter grade for your scale, up to 4 characters. You can use the traditional A-F scale, you can add a plus or minus sign, or enter whatever symbol you would like.
   • Min Pct: Enter the minimum percentage required to attain that letter grade. This will always be a whole number. In the Grading section of Program Options you can choose to have your grades displayed as whole numbers, or rounded to the nearest tenth or hundredths place.
   • Grade Point: Enter the grade point to be awarded for this letter grade. The Grade Point is an optional field. You will want to use it when creating grading scales to be used by high school students for Transcripts. If you are schooling only elementary or middle school students, you might choose to ignore this field for now.
   • To remove an entry, click or touch the Delete button for that row.
5. Repeat step 4 as needed until you have entered all your letter grades for this scale.
6. Failing Grade: Enter the letter or symbol you want to use to indicate a failing grade, up to 4 characters. Traditionally, this is the letter F but you may enter whatever you like. This grade will be awarded if the minimum percentage falls below the lowest percentage assigned to your other letter grades. HSTOnline fills in this value automatically and will update the value as you make changes to your Grading Scale. (Fig. 3)

   

7. Include in GPA: Check this box if you want the grade points in the grading scale to be included in Transcripts. It is customary that Pass/Fail grades not be included in the GPA calculation. However, that choice is left to you.
8. Active: All new Grading Scales start as Active. Click or touch the No radio button if you want to archive this Grading Scale. You may change the status at any time in the future by editing the Grading Scale.
9. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the new Grading Scale without adding to your list.
   • Save to add this scale to your list of Grading Scales.
   • The 'Add Another' hyperlink in the top right corner to save this item and add another. You can click 'Add Another' each time until you have entered the last new Grading Scale and then click the Save button to end the Add process.
10. Click or touch the green Added Items notification or refresh the page to see your updated Grading Scales list (Fig 4).

If you wish to award just Pass/Fail grades to your student's work you will want to set up a separate Grading Scale, or edit the Default Grading Scale, to award those values. You will still need to enter points possible and points earned into your Assignments, but you can enter simply 1 point possible for these items, and then enter 1 point earned for passed items and 0 points earned for failed items.

To create a Pass/Fail scale, follow the directions above to add a new scale, or the edit directions below if you want to adapt the Default Grading Scale to this use. We recommend that you name the scale Pass/Fail or something as easily identifiable. For the Failing Grade, you might want to enter 'Fail' instead of just the letter F. A Pass/Fail scale requires only one entry in the letter grade section. Create an entry for Pass (or P if you prefer) and the minimum percentage required to attain a passing grade.

It is customary that Pass/Fail grades not be included in the GPA calculation. To that end when creating a Pass/Fail grading scale, we recommend that you uncheck the box to 'Include in GPA Calculation in Transcripts, but the choice is up to you.

A Grading Scale must be attached to each Course you create. The Default Grading scale is the default selection, but you can change that to any other Grading Scale you have created by selecting a different scale from the drop down list. You can change the designated Grading Scale for a Course at any time, using the Edit Course feature.

You may wish to create a new Grading Scale using some information from an existing scale. The Copy feature allows you create a new scale with all the settings of an existing scale. You can then edit the parts of the scale as needed for the new scale.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, click or touch the Grading Scale you want to duplicate and then click or touch the Action button and choose Copy.
   • HSTOnline will create a duplicate entry in the database for the selected grading scale.
   • The name of the displayed scale will show the original name followed by '-Copy'.
3. Make whatever changes are needed to the name or other details of the scale.
4. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the new Grading Scale without adding to your list.
   • Save to add this scale to your list of Grading Scales.
5. Click or touch the green Added Items notification or refresh the page to see your updated Grading Scales list.

You can edit a single Grading Scale to change any part of that scale: name, failing grade, minimum passing percentage, or any of the letter grade entries belonging to that scale. Any change you make to an existing Grading Scale will change all records attached to that scale past, present and future. If you need to tweak a Grading Scale you might want to consider using the copy function to duplicate the existing scale and then make whatever changes you need going forward. This will preserve your previous records and give you a new scale to use going forward.

When editing multiple Grading Scales at the same time, the only fields that can be changed are the 'Include GPA in Transcript' checkbox and Active status.

Editing a Single Grading Scale

Any change you make to an existing Grading Scale will change all records attached to that scale past, present and future. If you need to tweak a Grading Scale you might want to consider using the copy function to duplicate the existing scale and then make whatever changes you need going forward. This will preserve your previous records and give you a new scale to use going forward.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, double-click on the item you want to change to open the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • Alternatively, you can click once on the item you want to change and then click the Action button and choose Edit to open the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • On a touch device, touch the item you wish to edit and then touch the Action button and touch Edit to open the Edit Grading Scale window.
3. At the bottom of the edit view, you will see when and by whom the item was created as well as when and by whom it was last updated.
4. You may edit any element of the Grading Scale. Changes made will affect all records attached to that Grading Scale.
   • To add a letter grade to the scale, follow the directions above.
   • To edit the parameters of an existing Letter Grade, click or touch in the Letter Grade, Min Pct or Grade Point field and make the changes needed.
   • To remove an existing Letter Grade, click or touch the Delete button for that line.

     

     
     
5. To change the Active status this Grading Scale, click or touch the Yes radio button to make the Grading Scale Active; click or touch the No radio button to Archive the Grading Scale.
6. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the changes and close the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • Save to commit the changes to your Grading Scale and close the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • Click or touch the Previous or Next hyperlink in the top right corner to save your changes to this Grading Scale and move to the previous or next Grading Scale in the list. You can click or touch Previous or Next until you have made all the changes you want to your Grading Scales and then click the Save button to end the Edit process. If you reach the beginning or end of the list when clicking or touching Previous or Next, the Edit window will close and you will be returned to the list view.

Editing Multiple Grading Scales

The multi-edit feature allows you to make the same change to two or more Grading Scales at the same time. Use this to change the 'Include GPA' and/or Active status for all of your selected items at once.

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, select the items you want to change. You can use the Grouping and Sorting, Filter and Search features to isolate the items you want to change.
   • Click the checkbox for each item you want to change.
   • You can use your mouse to click and drag over contiguous Subjects in the list to select those items.
   • On a touch device, you can touch and drag your finger over contiguous Subjects in the list to select those items.
   • Click or touch the 'Select All' badge to select all the Subjects in the list.
3. Click or touch the Action button and click or touch Multi-Edit to open the Multi-Edit Grading Scales window.
   • HSTOnline will show you how many items have been selected for editing.
4. To enable the form, click or touch the box to each field you want to change for all selected Grading Scales. Make your selection for each of those fields.
5. To change the Active status of the selected items, click or touch the box to the left of Active.
   • To make all the selected items Active, click or touch the ‘Yes’ radio button.
   • To Archive all the selected items, click or touch the ‘No’ radio button.
6. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the changes and close the Multi-Edit Grading Scales window.
   • Save to commit the changes and close the Multi-Edit Grading Scales window.

You can delete a Letter Grade from any Grading Scale or any entire Grading Scale other than the Default Grading Scale. Deleted items cannot be retrieved.

Deleting a Letter Grade in a Grading Scale

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, double-click on the item you want to change to open the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • Alternatively, you can click once on the item you want to change and then click the Action button and choose Edit to open the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • On a touch device, touch the item you wish to edit and then touch the Action button and touch Edit to open the Edit Grading Scale window.
3. To remove an existing Letter Grade, click or touch the Delete button for that line.
4. Click or touch:
   • Cancel to abandon the changes and close the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • Save to commit the changes to your Grading Scale and close the Edit Grading Scale window.
   • Click or touch the Previous or Next hyperlink in the top right corner to save your changes to this Grading Scale and move to the previous or next Grading Scale in the list. You can click or touch Previous or Next until you have made all the changes you want to your Grading Scales and then click the Save button to end the Edit process. If you reach the beginning or end of the list when clicking or touching Previous or Next, the Edit window will close and you will be returned to the list view.

Deleting a Single Grading Scale

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, click or touch the item you want to remove and then click the Action button and choose Delete to open the Confirm Delete window.
3. Click or touch:
   • Never Mind to cancel the delete process.
   • Yes, I'm Sure to complete the deletion process.
     • If the Grading Scale is attached to any Course, you will see a message that the selected item cannot be deleted. Click or touch the 'Never Mind' button to return to the Grading Scale List. From there you can choose to archive the Grading Scale to hide it from your list.

     

Deleting Multiple Grading Scales

1. On the HSTOnline menu, click or touch Grading Scales under the 'Manage Lists' section.
2. On the Grading Scales page, select the items you want to remove. You can use the Grouping and Sorting, Filter and Search features to isolate the items you want to remove.
   • Click the checkbox for each Grading Scale you want to remove.
   • You can use your mouse to click and drag over contiguous Grading Scales in the list to select those items.
   • On a touch device, you can touch and drag your finger over contiguous Grading Scales in the list to select those items.
   • Click or touch the 'Select All' badge to select all the Grading Scales in the list.
3. Click or touch the Action button and click or touch Delete to open the Confirm Delete window.
   • HSTOnline will show you how many items have been selected for deletion.
4. Click or touch:
   • Never Mind to cancel the delete process.
   • Yes, I'm Sure to complete the deletion process. HSTOnline will delete any of the selected Grading Scales which are not attached to any Course. Items that are in use will not be deleted. The exception is the Default Grading Scale - which can never be deleted.

When you archive a Grading Scale it will still be attached to any Courses for which it was designated. Archiving the Grading Scale only makes it unavailable to select for other Courses in the future unless and until you choose to reactivate the scale. Use the Edit or Multi-Edit directions above to change the Active status of your Grading Scales.