Wisconsin Grading Background
Grading data is collected for ISES – Coursework Completion System submission.
http://lbstat.dpi.wi.gov/cwcsapplication
The CWCS extract program looks at Course length set dates, Grade bucket cross-walks, GPA Sets, GPA Methods, and Grade Marks when pulling student grades and coursework.
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Grading Configuration
Student Management, Office, Grading, Setup, Configuration
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Grading Setup
Course Lengths
Student Management, Office, Grading, Setup, Configuration, Grading Setup, Course Length Sets. This can also be set up within the Current Scheduling module. This tells the program when the course is in session.
Expand the Course Length Sets and Edit the Class Control Sets used.
Enter a date in the “Drops after this date should be sent to CWCS” field.
o If filled in, this field will prevent CWCS from exporting classes that are dropped on or before the entered date. This should be filled in per the district’s internal policy, and represents a “grace period” where students can drop classes without them counting for/against them. If the district does not have any policy, you can leave this field blank, and any dropped class would still possibly export.
If Subsets of a course are allowed to be taken, users will have to set the “Drops after this date should be sent to CWCS” field for those Subsets as well.
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If the field is blank, every student that dropped a course on or after the first day of the class meet will be sent with a Completion Status of WD, if there wasn’t a grade mark found.
Class Start and End Dates: The Start and End Dates on the Class Control Sets are used to determine if the course is valid during the reporting period.
**Note: If students are allowed to drop courses within the school year, the Class Control Set must be found for the term describing the amount of time the student did complete. The Class Control Set is necessary in order for the CWCS process to check the Drops after this date value.
o Using the screen shot above as the example we see that the Course Length is Year. If a student was allowed to drop the yearlong course at semester, the Class Control Sets must include Subset records for Semester 1 and Semester 2.
In addition, if the student was allowed to drop the year-long course at the end of a Term, the Class Control Sets must include Subset records for Terms 1-4.
*Return to the Table of Contents Grade Buckets
Student Management, Office, Grading, Setup, Configuration, Grading Setup, Grade Buckets
Edit the reporting period that should be sent to CWCS.
Select the Grade Buckets in which the district wants the student to receive grades.
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Select the CWCS Grade value that corresponds with the selected Grade Bucket available to students and the Grade Bucket that will contain the value that should be sent to CWCS.
Select the State Term value that the Grade Bucket value should report as. Give the value a Term title. DPI’s CWCS field = Term. If sending a Term/Quarter grade, select a State Term “Quarter.” If sending a Semester Grade, match an S1 for the CWCS Grade to a “1S” State Term. Never link a Semester to a Quarter or vice versa.
Keep the Terms consistent throughout the Course Length you are working on.
Trimester and Block course length sets can also be submitted to CWCS. Use the Block to track unusual course length sets like 6 week exploratory classes or true block courses, where a student can take a course in a semester but earn credits for an entire year.
The CWCS template found at Student Management, Federal/State Reporting, WI State Reporting, ISES, Extract ISES Data has to have the Terms field filled in with the
appropriate terms to pull according to what should be extracted.
The system will go through the student’s classes and only those classes that fall within the selected terms for the collection will be processed based on the terms for the class.
Grade Marks
Student Management, Office, Grading, Setup, Configuration, Grading Setup, Grade Marks
Edit the Grade Mark that could be sent to CWCS for students.
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For Completion Status field:
P – Passing status = All Passing Grade Marks must be flagged with Use in Earned.
F – Failing status = All Failing Grade Marks must be flagged with Use in Failed.
I – Incomplete status = All Incomplete Grade Marks must be flagged with Use as Incomplete.
NA – Not Applicable. Calculated. This is sent if a grade is present and it does not represent Passed, Failed or Incomplete and the class is not withdrawn.
WD – Withdrawal or dropped status = “Drops after this date should be sent to CWCS”
field. *Note – any student schedule transactions showing the student dropped prior to this date field will NOT pull on the CWCS report.
For Grade Earned: Grades will pull into the extract if:
The grade mark (alpha or numeric) is linked to a 4.00 scale: By using the setup of the GPA Set and GPA Method, the Grade Mark Point Setting value of the local Grade Mark that is applied to the student’s Grade Bucket as defined in the Grade Buckets will report.
For Standards Gradebooks where the option to “Turn off Auto Calculation on Subject and Skill Grades” is checked, it is suggested to create a new local Grade Mark code that
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is flagged with Use in Earned and linked to CBC in the CWCS Grade Earned. Completion Status will send as P = Passed and the Grade Earned will send as CBC.
Also, another local Grade Mark code that is flagged with Use in Failed and CBC in the CWCS Grade Earned field could be created when districts want to keep the history of the value that was sent to CWCS when students received a failing grade. Completion Status will send as F = Failed and the Grade Earned will send as CBC.
If the Completion Status of I = Incomplete needs to send, another value may have to be created and flagged with Use as Incomplete and the CWCS Grade Earned as CBC.
These Grade Marks will be used when assigning a value to the Grade Changes area under any Grade Entry option.
DPI’s CWCS field = Completion Status and Grade Earned.
GPA Setup GPA Sets
Student Management, Office, Grading, Setup, Configuration, GPA Setup, GPA Sets
Select GPA Sets and edit the one to use.
Verify that Use to determine Grade Scale for CWCS/CTEERS is selected. This is used in calculating the numeric value for Grade Earned.
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GPA Methods
Student Management, Office, Grading, Setup, Configuration, GPA Setup, GPA Methods
Select GPA Methods and Edit.
Verify that GPA Method For CWCS/CTEERS is selected.
**These must be set on every entity that should be sent, even for elementary schools that may not calculate GPAs.
The setup here determines the numeric 4.000 value that will pull for Grade Earned.
Grading Entry by Student
Users may use Entry by Student or Entry by Class through the Grading module to enter grading information. The Grading tab in Student Profile can also be used to enter information. Most grades will be posted from the Gradebook. “Grade Earned” is now a required field for all student grade levels, K-4 – 12 (CWCS).
Grading Tab
Student Management, Students, Student Profile, Grading tab
Note: This information can also be added through the Grading module and will be covered again in that portion of this training manual.
Grades are pulled from the Grade Buckets determined by the setup done in Grading Configuration.
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When Standards Gradebooks are used, users could see the following message:
The statement says that the Grade Buckets will be used for State Reporting (CWCS). A value must be found in the buckets determined by the setup done in the Grading Configuration to pull when Standards Gradebooks are used.
The number of credits earned will pull for high school students.
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