Create your own grade scales for assignments, categories, or sections

Your Aspen administrator creates grade scales for your district in the District view.

Those grades are available for all teachers to use for their students’ assignment grades. Because the grades in the district grade scales might not fit a teacher’s personal grading system, teachers can create their own grade scales and link them to specific class sections, specific assignment categories, or individual assignments.

Teachers can enter the grades within the scales they create only when entering assignment grades. When Aspen calculates term grades for district post columns, it matches any grades from a teacher's grade scale to the appropriate grade in the district grade scale.

Example 1: Teacher grade scales (and grades within that grade scale):

Grade Scale:My Homework Scale

Grades (within the My Homework Scale grade scale)

Code

Value

Cutoff Value
GJ 10.0 7.5
AE 7.0 4.5
MA 4.0 0.5
DT 0.0 0.0

In this example, the teacher wants to create a scale for homework which uses four values for homework:

  • GJ = great job = 10
  • AE = average effort = 7
  • MA = minimum attempt = 4
  • DT = did not try = 0

The teacher maps these codes to numerical values so that all assignments can be averaged together for a homework average.

For example, a student receives the following five homework scores: MA, MA, MA, AE, and AE. Aspen averages the corresponding values to arrive at a homework average.

Since 5.2 is above the cutoff of 4.5, the student receives a score of AE.

Assignment scores can be entered in different ways: as letters, numbers, or both. So a teacher could enter an AE or enter any number greater than 4.5 and less than 7.5, which also corresponds to an AE.

The difference is subtle. If the teacher enters numbers for the assignment, then the actual numbers are used for the calculations. If the teacher enters letters for the assignment, then the grade scale values are used for calculations.

Three scores: AE, AE, GJ average to: 8.0 GJ; (7 + 7 + 10)/3 = 24/3 = 8.0

Three scores of 5, 5, 8 average to: 6.0 AE; (5 + 5 + 8)/3 = 18/3 = 6.0

Example 2: Teacher grade scales (and grades within that grade scale):

Grade Scale:My Homework Check

Grades (within the My Homework Check grade scale)

Code

Value

Cutoff Value
+ 5.0 3.5
= 3.0 1.5
- 1.0 0.0

In this example, the teacher wants to create a scale for homework which uses three values:

  • + represents a check plus = 5
  • = represents a check = 3
  • - represents a check minus = 1

In Aspen, this looks like the following:

Note: Follett does not recommend using numerical codes for teacher grade scales.

Assignment scores can be entered as numbers or letters (codes). If a number is entered, Aspen assumes the numerical score is not mapped to a code.
For example, a teacher cannot make a grade scale in Aspen where a 1 = 50, 2 = 85, 3 = 100.
Follett recommends making a grade scale containing a character, such as: s1 = 50, s2 = 85, s3 = 100.

To create a teacher grade scale, first create the grade scale, then define the grades within that grade scale.

To create a grade scale:

  1. Log on to the Staff view.
  2. Click the Tools tab.
  3. Click the Grade Scales side-tab. A list of grade scales appears.
  4. On the Options menu, click Add. The New Grade Scale page appears.
  5. Use the table to complete the fields:
    FieldDescription

    Name

    Type a name for the grade scale.

    Maximum Points

    Type the maximum number of points a student can earn for an assignment that uses this grade scale.

    Minimum Points

    Type the minimum number of points a student can earn for an assignment that uses this grade scale.

    Maximum input

    Type the maximum input value.

    Note: The maximum and minimum input values let you enter more or fewer points than the maximum or minimum points you defined, without affecting any other students' grades for the assignment.

    Example: You want to enter the value 110 for an assignment with a 100-point maximum. If you define the maximum input as 110 or higher, you can enter 110 without affecting all other grades for that assignment.

    Minimum input

    Type the minimum input value.

    Apply Color to Grade Ranges

    You can associate colors with grade ranges that appear on your Scores page. This applies to grade scales created by you or your district.

    Note: You cannot associate colors with grade scales that have overlapping values.

    Color square

    Click to see the Color Chooser pop-up. Then click a color to select it. That color appears in the Preview box. You can make it lighter or darker by clicking the rectangle with the color gradations on the right. Click to select a different color. When you are done, click OK.

    Max grade

    Click Search icon. to see the Grade Definition pick list. Select the maximum grade scale value for this color. Click OK.

    Min grade

    Click Search icon. to see the Grade Definition pick list. Select the minimum grade scale value for this color. Click OK.

  1. Click Save.

To define the grades within the grade scale:

  1. On the Grade Scales page, select the checkbox next to the grade scale you created, and then click Grades on the Grade Scales side-tab.
  2. On the Options menu, click Add. The New Grade Definition page appears.
  3. Type a code.

    Note: Follett recommends that codes are not numbers. Codes should contain characters.

  1. Type a value for the grade. This value is often the maximum percentage a student earns to receive this grade.
  2. Type a cutoff value for the grade. This value is often the lowest percentage a student earns to receive this grade.

    Note: The Earns credit and Consider for honor roll checkboxes do not apply to teacher grade scales.

  1. Click Save.
  2. Repeat steps 1-6 to define every grade within a grade scale. Now, link this grade scale to any section, category or individual assignment you want to enter these grades for.

Example 3

This data comes from Example 1. Following is a sample score grid containing homework assignments HW1 and HW2, which both use My Homework Scale as the grade scale (GJ = 10, AE = 7, MA = 4, DT = 0).

Below is the same sample score grid containing homework assignments HW1 and HW2 which both use the example My Homework Scale as the grade scale (GJ = 10, AE = 7, MA = 4, DT = 0).

In this example, the teacher is also entering numerical values.

Comparing the two examples, notice that numeric values are used in calculations when available:

Student

Example 1:
Homework Average

Example 2:
Homework Average
Blake Coffey 70% C– = (AE + AE)/2 = (7 + 7)/2 70% C– = (AE + 7)/2 = (7 + 7)/2
Peter Constantinou 85% B = (AE + GJ)/2 = (7 + 10)/2 80 B– = (AE + 9)/2 = (7 + 9)/2