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

We "require" gradebook, but there's no enforcement of this rule. So, though most teachers put in all graded assignments, we still have some hold outs that only put in the marking period grades. We are a 9-12 private high school. I think there are several advantages of requiring the software use. If a teacher hits the lottery and doesn't return to school in the middle of a quarter, at least we have some idea of what their student averages are (though this hasn't happened yet). Another advantage, of course, mentioned by the others is that parents can view student grades. We are hoping to implement NetClassroom next year. We recently surveyed our faculty on the program since we've been using it for two years now. The majority of the teachers do want to remain using FAWeb. Other than the challenges already mentioned, I still have the problem that teachers forget to post their grades for some sections. They'll change the status to "Ready" once (for one class), but they have 5 classes. Or, they'll only mark the final grades "Ready" and not the exam grades. The main complaint from the teachers about the program is that they can't calculate assignment averages. For example, if they wanted to see the average for a class on the first test, these types of statistics aren't available. Tara Tatasciore Registrar/Math Teacher Archmere Academy Claymont DE 19801

Statistics on each assignment ARE available! Have the teachers click on any student's test or assignment grade, then click on the Statistics button to the right. This will list the class average, median, highest score and lowest score for that test or assignment. Yippee.

Linda, thanks for the tip. That's great news, my teachers will be excited! Is this capability only possible on version 7? We are still using version 6, but are planning on upgrading to version 7 in the fall. Tara Tatasciore Registrar/Math Teacher Archmere Academy Claymont DE 19801 [Email Removed]

All our teachers are required to use FA Web grades K - 12. It is alittle more challenging to set up for the lower grades the product is much more MS/HS Friendly. We set up the major calculations administratively so teachers do not need to deal with that. They only have to weight their categories. We also have NETCLASSROOM. Most of our parents are using it diligently and keeping our teachers on task. We ask teachers to have things posted within two weeks. Now that our teachers have gotten past the learning curve they are really enjoying FA WEB. There are issues that FA Web does not do that over the counter type gradebooks do. The biggest one is to give a running average of a students cumulative grade. A teacher must literally take out a calculator, add and divide the quarters to get a yearly running average. This is an issue I would like to see corrected.

Pam, I am not sure how you do your Marking Columns for averages. We use QT1, QT2, MID, SEM1, QT3, QT4, FEX, and SEM2. I have set up calculations in FAWeb for SEM1 to be QT1=40%, QT2=40%, and MID=20%. As grades are entered during the semester, they see a running cumulative average for each quarter and also SEM1. Norm Dunkin Director of Information Services Landmark Christian School [Email Removed]

Pam, Also a side note on Norm's post. We only allow teachers to enter assignments grades in Sem1, then Post to the quarter. once they are posted, then we open up Q1.. to Net Classroom. That way the grades which show in SEM 1 are dynamic. Once you post to a marking column, they are set. It does take a little maneuvering as you want to make sure no grades/assignments are added during the length of time it takes to post. A notice to teachers informs them of when you are posting and that they have to have grades in by a specific time. Once you have posted, you let them know they can continue to enter in grades. The key is where you posting and where.

We run a cumulative calculating percentage in Sem 1 Average and then in Sem 2 Average, which is dynamic and always viewable on Netclassroom. During marking periods the teachers bring up Multiple and the marking column I choose is side by side with Sem Averages, making it easy for teacher to give a letter grade looking at the cumulative average.Just a side note, some our our teacher cried at first with learning Faweb, but all use it and think it is wonderful. We are a JK -12 school and our JK, and K use skill not grades. Netclassroom works well, and seems to keep everyone motivated, teachers and students alike.

We have that problem too and haven't resolved it. Can you explain to me again how you have the grades set up? We use Qtr 1, Qtr 2 Sem 1, Qtr 3, Qtr 4, Sem 2. Right now teachers enter grades in the appropriate Quarter and then we post at least once a week but the parents have to go in to the details to find the "real time" grade versus the posted grade and we can't solve this problem. It looks like some of you have, so how do you do that? My direct email is: [Email Removed] Thanks!

 How do you get the running calculation for cumulative average?  I thought you had to set up a calculation and "run" it every time you wanted info posted?

Do not post your grades until the marking collumn is up!  Doing so will hurt the functionality of Netclassroom.  Not to mention is a complete pain to continually do on a regular basis.  File Semester calculations as a suggestion with support, but do not go around the functionality of the system to gain it.  This will only cause frustration with your users, because grades are no longer LIVE.

IMO - because they can see their live grades the students and parents have a good idea on where they are.