Before report card day arrives, we want to help make sure you have a solid plan for the smoothest experience! Keep in mind, report cards can only be generated from the Main Admin or an administrator account.
Prior to Report Card Day
Confirm the Details
Use the list of questions below to guide your planning for the criteria and settings for your report cards.
Are teachers adding grades to the correct classes?
What grading scale will you use? Are teachers using that grading scale to enter grades? *standards gradebook only
What date ranges will you be using to run the report cards? Are teachers using due dates that fall within those ranges?
Are you going to use Standards Tags? *standards gradebook only
Are you going to include teacher report card comments?
Are you going to use student groups to generate the report cards? Have those student groups been created?
Is Total Grade Conversion going to be used?
Communicate
Make sure all administrators running report cards have a clear understanding of the criteria they should use, as well as an understanding of the general process of running report cards (see item 3 below).
Practice Runs
Go through the process of running report cards as practice prior to report card day. It doesn't necessarily have to be for the entire student population, but we recommend doing a small practice run to avoid running into roadblocks on report card day. This way, you will have time to make any adjustments necessary.
Adding Grades to Correct Classes
It is imperative that teachers are adding grades to the correct classes. For example, if a teacher accidentally adds math grades to their Reading class's gradebook, they will appear under the Reading class on the report card. This is especially important when:
Teachers have multiple classes with the same students (for example, elementary teachers that teach multiple subjects).
Using + (Plus) Assessments.
Suggested Administrative Action:
Send communication to teachers reminding them to carefully check which classes they are adding grades to, especially as report card season approaches.
Suggested Teacher Action:
Ensure that you are assigning assessments to the correct class by checking which class is in dropdown menu (either when assigning regular assessments or assigning a + (Plus) assessment in the gradebook)
Date Ranges and Assessment Dates
One of the most important components of report card generation is the date range that is selected. Every assessment assigned in Otus has a date stamp. If the date stamp of the assessment does not fall within the date range specified on the report card, the assessment data will not be included (this is true for both standards and points report cards).
Suggested Administrative Actions:
Determine date range(s) ahead of time: whether that's through setting up Grading Periods in the Control Center, or just establishing a stand-alone range.
Communicate the date range(s) with the teachers; it's crucial that their assessments have dates that fall within the desired grading period/date range.
Suggested Teacher Action:
Ensure that the duedates of the assessments fall within the grading period/date range established. For + (Plus) Assessments (grades that teachers can add directly to their gradebook), it is referred to as a submissiondate rather than a due date.
Standards / Standards Tags
(Standards Gradebook Only)
Standards tags provide the ability to group standards together, specifically for making the task of running report cards easier. When running report cards, you have the option of selecting a standards tag. Assessed standards that are not included in the tag, will not be displayed on the report card.
Suggested Administrative Actions:
Build these standards tags as far in advance as possible. Teachers do not have access to or see standards (they are only for administrative use on report cards), but knowing the standards you'll be using ahead of time is always helpful.
Communicate with teachers on the expectations for the group(s) of standards they should be accessing; custom, state, and CCSS standards can sometimes be identical.
Suggested Teacher Action:
Ensure that the standards linked to the assessments are selected from the correct group.
If standards need to be changed or added, this can be done on the draft versions of the assessments. Keep in mind; if standards are changed or added to Simple or Rubric assessments, they will update on the assigned version (you do not have to reassign). If it is an Advanced assessment, the assessment would have to be unassigned and reassigned for the standards to update.
More information regarding standards groups:
Consider this standard: "Understand and apply properties of operations and the relationship between addition and subtraction". This standard can be found in two places (one is Common Core, one is a State Standard), and they have almost identical names. If the teacher uses the Common Core standard, but the State Standard is the one in the standards tag used for the report card, that data will not appear on the report card.
Grading Scales
(Standards Gradebook Only)
Each assessment is created with a grading scale. If the grading scale of the assessment is not the same as the grading scale chosen for the report cards, the assessment data will not be included.
Suggested Administrative Actions:
Determine the grading scale that will be used on report cards. You can only choose one per report card, so it is important that this decision be made well ahead of time.
If administrators are creating the assessments and sending them to teachers, it is important that the administrators create the assessments with the specific grading scale.
If teachers are creating assessments, communicate the decision with teachers; it's crucial that their assessments are created using the grading scale that has been chosen for the report cards.
Suggested Teacher Action:
Ensure the assessments are created with the specified grading scale. Once an assessment has been assigned/graded, the grading scale can't be changed.
Teacher Report Card Notes
Teachers can leave notes to be included on a student's report card. These notes are left in the student profile. If you check the Notes option when generating report cards, the teacher notes will be included as long as the "Include in Report Card" setting is enabled, and the date of the note falls within the date range of the report card.
Suggested Administrative Action:
Make sure teachers know of the date ranges you will be using to run the report cards. This insures the notes they write will end up on the correct report card.
Suggested Teacher Actions:
Student Groups
Specifying student groups is not required and is an optional filter. If you do require the filtering of specific groups, we highly recommend leaving this setting at All when running report cards.
❗ Only district-created groups can be used when running report cards (teacher-created groups will not appear as options).
Suggested Administrative Action:
Determine whether or not you will need to specify student groups when generating report cards.
If the answer to the above is NO, and you plan on leaving this setting to All, then consider this step complete.
If the answer to the above is YES, confirm that the student groups have the correct students.
Suggested Teacher Action:
None - teachers do not have access to view or edit district-created student groups.
Total Grade Conversion
Total Grade Conversion will show a "total grade" for each student in the class. This is a setting that can be added to any grading scale from within the Control Center of the Main Admin account. This can also be used in the points gradebook.
Suggested Administrative Action:
Decide if you will use Total Grade Conversion (points gradebook or standards gradebook) on your report cards. If the decision has been made to use it, go to the Control Center from the Main Admin account and add it to the desired grading scale.
Communicate with teachers regarding the use of this setting; as some may wonder why they can see a total grade in some places, but not others, based on the grading scale.
Suggested Teacher Action:
None - this setting can only be controlled by the Main Admin account.
FAQ and Troubleshooting
Click for FAQ and troubleshooting details.
Click for FAQ and troubleshooting details.
What happens if the date stamp of an assessment does not fall within the specified date range on the report card?
the assessment data will not be included. Ensure that the due dates of assessments are within the grading period/date range to ensure their inclusion in the report card.
What happens if the grading scale of an assessment differs from the grading scale chosen from report cards?
the assessment data will not be included. Ensure consistency by selecting the appropriate grading scale for both the assessment and the report cards.
Can I change the grading scale of an assessment after it has been assigned/graded?
Once an assessment has been assigned/graded, the grading scale cannot be changed. It's important to ensure the assessments are created with the correct grading scale from the beginning.
For specific troubleshooting for report cards, check out this article: