SchoolFront Support

This is an attribute of a Grade Category. This specifies the portion of the Marking Period grade that this Grade Category affects. Often Tests and Homework would make up a greater portion of the student’s grade and therefore will have a higher % of Grade. It is recommended that the sum of the % of Grades equals 100 but you can allow for extra credit by making it greater than 100%. Having the sum be less than 100 will cause inconsistencies in the grading.

See Absent

When a student does not show up to class they should be marked absent (A). A Parent/Guardian can set their preferences to send an email when their child is marked absent.

When a student brings in a legitimate excuse for an absence they should be marked Absent Excused (AE). Often, the excuse will be brought in after the student has been marked Absent so you will need to use the Attendance taking features to update the information.

See Administrator

This describes the user that has the most control over the configuration of SchoolFront^SM for a school. They have the ability to import/export students, teachers, counselors, parents/guardians and calendar events. They can post Announcements tailored to members of the school community and can run reports to see the status of the school’s operations.

See Absent Excused

Announcements are displayed on the Home page of a logged in user. The Administrator can post announcements targeted to a specific user of SchoolFront^SM and have them published for a specified amount of time.

The Known Application Problems and Application Feature Announcement Sections of the Home page are controlled by SchoolFront^SM staff and are to inform the user community of known problems with the application or to inform them of recently posted feature enhancements.

Assignments include anything that will not be graded. Reading assignments, class notes, quiz and test preparations are all assignments. On the Teacher Daily Planner you can mark an assignment as graded and it will appear on both the Teacher Daily Planner and Graded Items page. Assignments can be managed on the Teacher Daily Planner and on the Teacher Assignments section. The Teacher Assignments section is best for planning multiple assignments while the Teacher Daily Planner is meant to manage daily activities.

Parents/Guardians and Students can view the posted Assignments via their secure login.

Attendance can be taken on the Teacher Daily Planner, Teacher Student Seating Page or the Attendance page. The options for Attendance include Present (P), Absent (A), Absent Excused (AE), Late (LXXX), and Not Applicable (NA). Each method of Attendance taking has its targeted use. The Teacher Daily Planner looks at a single day of attendance, the Teacher Attendance page looks at an entire Marking Period of attendance, and the Teacher Student Seating page is useful when you are trying to learn your student’s names or you have assigned seats.

Parents/Guardians and Students can view Attendance information via their secure Login.

Calendar Events are uploaded into the system by the Administrator. They are visible to all members of the school community. Events are also where the Administrator can control whether or not school will be in session for the specified date. Events can be marked as No School, Staff Only, or School in Session.

Examples of Events include Holidays, School Dances, Assemblies, PTA Meetings, Superintendent Conference Days etc.

See Course

This describes the format of information that can be imported or exported. Each column of information is separated by a comma. These files can be viewed in spreadsheet applications and text based editors.

Comments are the items that are associated with a student’s grade on a report card. Comment Lists are specified at the School and are managed by the Administrator. Teachers can select the comments that they use most often in the Teacher Preferences section.

Sample comments include:

• Student is a pleasure to have in class.
• Student is not working to his/her potential.

A course is synonymous with Class. Each Course contains an identifier, teacher and title. The identifier should match the identifier used in the district to uniquely identify that course. Courses can be linked to ease in the management of teaching the same class multiple times a day.

See Comma Separated Values

Teachers can specify if the Lowest Grade is dropped within a Grade Category. When this is selected, the lowest grade a student receives within that Grade Category is not included in the calculation of their Grade. If a student only has one grade in that category, the grade is not dropped.

See Calendar Event

See Microsoft Excel™

There are many places where information from SchoolFront^SM can be extracted for use while not connected to the Internet.  Grades, Student Information, Parent/Guardian List, Teacher List, and Attendance are just some of the sections that provide an export capability.  Exports are also good for having more control over printing.  Web browsers have limited formatting capability and when working with large amounts of information, some content may be cut off.

We Export to CSV or Microsoft Excel™ format.

A student’s Marking Period grade is calculated in the following manner:

• The students average is calculated for each Grade Category:
  • With Drop Lowest Grade
    • (Sum of the [Student Score/Max Score])/Total Number of Graded Items, with the lowest grade excluded if there are more than one graded item
  • Without Drop Lowest Grade
    • (Sum of the [Student Score/Max Score])/Total Number of Graded Items
      
       
• The Marking Period Numeric Grade is calculated using the results of the previous calculation:
  • Sum of (Grade Category Average * Grade Category % of Grade)
    
     
• The defined Grade Ranges are then used to map the Marking Period Numeric Average to the Marking Period Letter Grade.

Grade Categories are created by Teachers for each Marking Period. They are used to further group assignments logically (homework, quizzes, tests etc.) as well as providing some grading flexibility. Grade Categories contain a Title, % of Grade, the ability to Drop Lowest Grade, and a Background Color. The Background Color is used to assist in the management of many Graded Items by shading the background color of the column on the Grade page.

Graded Items are graded and have both a Max Score and Grade Category. A Graded Item can be added via the Teacher Daily Planner and the Teacher Graded Items page. Before a Graded Item can be added to the system, Grade Categories need to be setup for the Marking Period.

Graded Items will appear on the Grading page where the Teacher will assign a grade for each student.

Grade ranges are used to specify the numeric to letter grade mapping. There are district defaults or you can specify your own for grade curving purposes. The District Grade Ranges are configured by SchoolFront^SM and custom Grade Ranges can be configured in the Teacher Preferences section. Grade Ranges are specific to a Course.

Sample Grade Range Definition:

Guardians are legally appointed to look after the affairs of the student. We grant them the same accessibility as Parents.

To speed up the entering of information into SchoolFront^SM, we provide the ability to import many different types of information. Teachers, Students, and Parents/Guardians, are just some of the items that can be imported. The file formats for imports are CSV and Microsoft Excel™.

The student is marked late the number of minutes specified in LXXX (L005, L010, L015 etc.). The late minutes are specified in 5 minute increments and the maximum number of minutes late is selected by the Administrator.

This is the item that will be placed on the student’s report card after their Grade has been calculated and it has been cross referenced with the configured Grade Ranges. A student receives a letter grade for each Marking Period and Course.

Letter grades displayed to Parents/Guardians and Students are assumed to be Projected as modifications to the grading system could change the final letter grade.

Teachers can link courses to ease in the management of the course curricula. Grade Categories, Graded Items, and Assignments are synchronized across the linked courses. Adding, editing or deleting these items from any of the linked courses will impact the others with the exception of the due date for assignments. This can be managed separately as schedules for classes are sometimes different.

Teachers who teach multiple Math III classes will want to link them together in this manner. Linking is accomplished through the Teacher Course Enrollment section. The link between courses can later be removed. When the link is removed, the original synchronized content will remain but any new modifications will not be synchronized.

Users login to SchoolFront^SM whenever they enter their username and password and gain access to secured information. SchoolFront^SM tracks all logins both failed and successful. We also log the date/time and the IP Address of the computer making the request.

The Login Report lists the users that have accessed SchoolFront^SM with their username and password.

To prevent unauthorized access to the information at your control, you should logout when you are not using SchoolFront^SM. For Teachers, the system will automatically log you out after you have been inactive for an extended period of time, specified by the Administrator.

See Letter Grade

Synonymous with Semester and Term, the Marking Period is the breakdown of the school year that ends in the creation of a report card. The Marking Periods are defined by the Administrator and can be changed at any time.

Grades are calculated for each Marking Period.

The Max Score is an attribute of a Graded Item. This specifies the score that represents a perfect score and is used in the Grade calculation. Students can be given a score higher than the Max Score for extra credit.

Microsoft Excel™ is a Spreadsheet application that can be used to work with the information that is imported and exported from SchoolFront^SM. Any other spreadsheet application can be used instead of Microsoft Excel™.

See Not Applicable

Weekdays can be marked as No School based on a Calendar Event that has been uploaded by an Administrator. This will cause NA to appear on the Teacher Attendance Section and will not allow them to take attendance for that day.

NA is an Attendance option. It is used when students are not expected to attend that day based on a calendar event that specifies the date as Staff Only or No School.

See Present

The Parent can get secure access to the information that has been posted about their children. Attendance, Grades, Assignments, and Announcements are some of the items viewable by Parents. Parents can also configure SchoolFront^SM to email them when their child skips school (is marked absent) or when a grade is posted above a certain percentage and below a certain percentage.

Parents can also access student information via SchoolFront^SM Mobile. This makes most of the information available on a standard Web Enabled Cell Phone.

When a student shows up to class they should be marked as Present (P). Students are marked as Present by default so if all students show up to class there is no need to update attendance.

Grades visible to Parents/Guardians and Students throughout SchoolFront^SM are projected grades. These Grades can be changed by Teachers with updates to Grade Ranges, Grade Categories or the posting of additional scores on Grade Items.

A score is what the student receives on a Graded Item. The score may be higher than the Max Score specified for the Graded Item but cannot be below 0. If a score for a student is not recorded it is not included in the Grade calculation.

See Marking Period

School Days can be marked as Staff Only by the Administrator when uploading Calendar Events. Days will be marked as NA on the Teachers Attendance page and they will not be able to take attendance for that day.

See Course

See Marking Period