Who requires the complete use of Gradebook? If you don't require it, what are the challenges? If you do, what are the advantages and challenges? Thanks! ~Rachel

We require our Upper and Middle School teachers to use it for all their assignment and end of term grades and attendance. It works well. Small problems occur when those who are "technologically challenged" don't set up their term grade calculations at the beginning of the year. Our Lower School is only required to enter end of term standards rating and comments. This also works fine. They have to be given enough lead time for entering and proof reading. The FAWEB grade book is BB's easiest to use and, in my experience, most reliable product.

When we first went from GradeQuick to FAWeb we had backing from the headmaster and middle and high school principals. They all backed my bringing this product to them. It was considered mandatory that each MS and HS teacher had to use it. The principal has required that FAWeb be updated every Monday and preferrably more often. We also purchased NetClassroom so now the teacthers are accountable to the parents and students for having grades posted in a timely manner. The principal has told the parents that if the grades are not posted in a timey manner, tell the teacher the first time, tell him the second time. It has worked out well. He did fire one teacher once for not following these procedures a number of times. That wasn't the only reason though. At first, all the teachers complained since it was different. That is all gone now. We still have the technically challenged but they have trouble sending emails as well. I don't take questions about FAWeb from most teachers since they tend to ask the sames things over and over again. I tell them to ask an experienced teacher before coming to me. We set up an Intranet and it contains FAQ's and procedures for other things. Over all, our parents love it, NetClassroom, the teachers like FAWeb, and it us much easier to work with than our previous products. Norm Dunkin Director of Information Services Landmark Christian School [Email Removed]

Ditto and we actually post weekly reports (using a different marking column to post to or else your dynamic grade is no longer dynamic)for middle, pre-upper and Upper schools. We used to send these weekly report cards in backpack mail but now parents and students can access these weekly report cards that have extensive comments as well as a grade. This of course is in to addition to seeing grades for all their assignments as they are entered. It is a service that the parents really appreciate and sets us apart from other schools. Our teachers were not happy with gradebook at first but have come to be able to use it with ease and actually are very happy with it. We also spend a good bit of time with new teachers training them every year. If they are not trained well you do risk inaccurate or incomplete information being displayed. Pay particular attention to the catagories and how they are set up, a thorough understanding of this will prevent angry parent phone calls.

Yes, make sure the teachers have a thorough understanding of categories. That seems to be the hardest aspect of FAWeb for our teachers. They seem to forget to set them up for each marking column and/or they set them up incorrectly. The vast majority of problems with FAWeb not showing the correct grade can be traced back to a misunderstanding of categories. // Tim Morrill