Due to the ramifications of switching to distance learning in response to the coronavirus, many schools are considering alternative grading scales for the last term of 2019/20. These are used to give a student a grade other than what is automatically calculated on the grade sheet.


Assign Grades or Pass/Needs Improvement

You may want to assign grades based on student work and summative assessments then provide positive feedback in narrative comments that explains any "Needs Improvement" grades and extends support as needed for student's success as he/she transitions into the next year. 


It's a simple two-step process:

  1. The school's Gradelink administrator enters the new grade codes into the Alternative Grade Scale. 
  2. Teachers choose students' new class grades from that list.


While alternative grades are an easy way to change the grades that appear on report cards and transcripts, it's important to remember that students won't receive units or credits for classes with alternative grades and alternative grades don't affect the GPA.


Adding narrative comments is equally simple:

  1. The school's Gradelink administrator creates a term comment class for each teacher. Most likely, this step is already done. 
  2. Teachers type a narrative comment for each student. 
  3. Note, under Report Card Settings, administrators have the option to show either the narrative comments from all terms or only the most recent comment. If you choose the latter, teachers will have more room to enter comments. 




Narrative Based Report Cards

You may want to write a narrative for each student for the last academic term. 


Option 1 | Narrative-only report card showing just Q4 or T3 grades. 

Essentially, this options means running a report card as usual except teachers only conclude the Term Comment classes and Administrators only show Quarter 4 or Trimester 3 on the report card in order to hide the academic grades from prior quarters/trimesters. 


This option is very simple:

  1. The school's Gradelink administrator creates a term comment class for each teacher. Most likely, this step is already done. 
  2. The schools' Gradelink administrator can increase the size of the term comment box for teachers to fill the empty space. 
  3. Teachers type a narrative comment for each student. 
  4. Teachers only conclude the narrative comment (aka Term Comment) classes. Only concluded classes show up on the report card. 
  5. The school's Gradelink administrator runs a report card as usual. When selecting the terms you want to show on the report card, only select Q4 or T3. That way you can hide the prior academic scores. 



Online Report Cards

Online report cards allow one to send report cards home electronically. We recommend schools email parent logins to all parents in order to help parents who have misplaced their Gradelink login.