Define grade term dates for a school

Define the dates for each of your school's grade terms before you enter grades.

Note: Before you can define the dates for your school's grade terms, you or your Aspen system administrator must create grade term definitions and their grade terms in the District view.
Example: If you operate with four grading quarters (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4), you might define the dates for Q1 as September 4 through November 23.
Important: Follett advises against modifying grade terms, grade scales, and transcript definition columns once your school year begins. Making changes after teachers have entered assignment data in their Gradebooks, or schools have generated grading reports (progress reports, report cards) can cause unexpected issues. If you must make any changes to grade terms, grade scales, or transcript definitions, increased testing of all reports and views that use transcript data is strongly recommended.

To define grade term dates for a school:

  1. Log on to the School view.
  2. Select Grades > Grade Terms.
  3. Select Options> Add. The New Grade Term date page appears.
  4. At the Term ID field, select the appropriate grade term definition, such as Q1.
  5. Type or select the start and end date of the grade term at your school.
  6. To lock teachers' Gradebooks for this term, select Lock gradebook. Assignments that are associated with this grade term, along with their scores, become read-only in the Staff view. Post columns associated with this grade term also become read-only.
    Example: If a school chooses to use the Lock gradebook option, school administrators might want to select this checkbox a few days after the grade term ends (so that teachers have time to record any last-minute changes).
    Note: School administrators can edit Gradebook scores and post columns in the School view (School view, Grades > Grade Input > Input Grid). If a class uses standards-based grades, school administrators can edit locked assignments by using the Standards option in the input grid in the School view.
  1. Note: When term grades are posted, the calculated averages associated with the grade term are stored. These averages include the grade term average, grade term average for each category or reporting standard, semester cumulative average (stored only when posting for the last grade term of that semester) and cumulative averages (stored only when posting for the last grade term). Once the grade term is locked, the averages are not recalculated. Instead, the stored calculated averages associated with the grade term appear in the following places:
    • Staff view, Gradebook > Scores
    • School view, Grades > Grade Input > Input Grid (Standards view)
    • District (Root Organization), School, Staff and portal views, Student > Academics > Details
  1. Click Save.
  2. Repeat steps 3-7 for each grade term.

To edit term start and end dates using Modify List:

Note: To complete this procedure, you need the necessary permissions. Contact your Aspen administrator if you have questions.
  1. Log on to the School view.
  2. Select GradesMarks > Grade Terms.
  3. Select Options > Modify List.
  4. Click the Edit icon in the Start column to make the values editable.
    Grade Terms list page made editable
  5. Change the dates in the column as desired.
  6. Click the green checkmark icon to save the changes.
  7. Repeat steps 3-6 for the End column.