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Using Averages In PowerGrade
If you are experiencing incorrect final grades, it may be due to the “use averages” checkbox being marked in PowerGrade. There have been several cases this year where a school calls the help desk and states that the final grades for all students is wrong. One of the first things I check is that setting. The “use averages” checkbox is located on the general preferences tab within PowerGrade. Here is what an article on the PowerSchool support site states about using averages.
When using the “Use Averages” option, the Final Grade setup weighting is ignored.
It is mandatory that EVERY SINGLE ASSIGNMENT BE WORTH 100 POINTS.
It is also important to note that standards will not work correctly when the “Use Averages” is enabled.
PowerGrade averages the points earned on every assignment. When deriving the percent for a final grade it doesn’t look at the points possible of the assignments. It automatically assumes 100 points as what every assignment is worth. The Final Grade that is determined does factor in the total points of an assignment. This is why in order to ensure that both the final grade and the percent are correct, all assignments must be worth 100 points.
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Correctly Used Example
In this example each assignment is worth 100 points as they should be:
Assignment1: 80 points earned on assignment
Assignment2: 70 points earned on assignment
Assignment3: 70 points earned on assignment
Assignment4: 70 points earned on assignment
Assignment5: 70 points earned on assignment
(80+70+70+70+70)/5=72
So this will produce a 72% with the corresponding letter grade based on the grade scale cutoffs
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Incorrectly Used Example
If the assignments are set up incorrectly and lets say the assignments are worth 10 points instead of 100 then you get the following results:
Assignment1: 8 points earned on assignment
Assignment2: 7 points earned on assignment
Assignment3: 7 points earned on assignment
Assignment4: 7 points earned on assignment
Assignment5: 7 points earned on assignment
(8+7+7+7+7)/5=7.2
This will produce 7.2% but will still give the correct grade.
Posted by Melissa Bitz on November 15, 2006 03:52 PM | Permalink