GradeQuick Brain Dump

This is not a GradeQuick tutorial or anything close. It's just a few things to keep in mind as you're using GradeQuick as it applies to our school.  Hope you find it helpful.

Things to Remember
	Students are added by the administrator and then must be uploaded (many steps). Please be patient J It is better to “hide” a dropped student than delete him/her (RC hide dropped).
Using Categories
	Category weights do not have to equal 100%.  GQ will figure the proper percentage based on what you have entered. It is not possible to assign a weight to a category when you have no grades input for that category.  When you add a new category, you’ll be prompted for the weight. Once you set the weights for the year, DO NOT CHANGE THEM!  If you change the weights in a subsequent quarter, GQ recomputes the grade for earlier quarters which may cause your FINAL grade to be distorted.  If you find you must change weights, then change category names (“test” becomes “tests” or “test2,” etc.)
Calculations
	GQ calculates the average within a category, then applies the weights to that category. So if you have “tests” worth 50% and “quizzes” worth 25%, give four tests and only one quiz, the tests will each count 12.5% (50%÷4) and the quiz will be worth 25% since there’s only one. Be careful that the end result is what you mean.
Point Value
	GQ uses total points (within a category) to determine worth by adding the total points earned and dividing by the total points available.  Therefore, a test worth 100 points counts 10 times more than a test worth 10 points.  So if you are entering the number of questions as the total points (say 35 for one, 30 for another) and then entering the total number correct for the students’ grades, letting GQ figure the average, you are also telling the computer that the 35 question test should count more than the 30 question test.  It’s best to figure the percentage yourself and enter that instead.
Class Pictures
	Remember you can use the seating chart option with pictures to get a printout of your class.  It’s especially helpful if you have many new students at the beginning of the year.
Sending Grades
	For elementary subjects, grades and skills must be sent separately. For elementary resource subjects, grades must be entered manually in the “subtotal” column.  They can also be entered in the “quarter” column if only that quarter is visible. Year-end grades (as well as every quarter) must be entered manually for resource subjects. For kindergarten, you must have a “test column” in your gradebook for a quarter for that quarter to accept skills grades.  It won’t give you the option otherwise. For middle school, the PC1 and PC2 columns are used for comment codes.  These are not quarter-based in GQ though they are quarter-based once they reach SchoolMinder. They can be changed by re-importing the grades, but can only be deleted manually once they’re in SchoolMinder.
Attendance
	Absences must be entered for the morning and afternoon, but tardies need only be entered in the morning. This causes the GQ report to report ½ the number of tardies but the number is correct on the report card because SchoolMinder interprets it as 1. Once an absence or tardy is in SchoolMinder, it can only be changed by re-importing the correction.  It cannot be deleted by re-importing but must be deleted manually.