Jane,

1. I dont think this is possible... I don't think it was possible in the old gradebook either but I could be wrong. :-).

2. I know that for sure this is NOT possible at the time. I know it is one of the most requested enhancements for PTPro.
(https://support.powerschool.com/ers/view.action?enhancement.id=8272&fromSearchResults=true)

PowerSchool is trying to force all teachers to try/use the Assignment list (default screen) They see this screen as a "to-do" list for the teacher. I am not sure I agree with their logic.  I have many teachers asking for the old score sheet to be their default screen. Right now there is no way to switch the default login screen.

Jane,

1. It depends what the teacher wants docked 50%. If she wants the student's score to be docked 50%, I don't think it can be done. If she wants the score to automatically be 50% of the points possible, this is possible by creating a special code that uses the 'Assignment % Value' in a Special Codes grade scale that is tied to the grade scale for the section.

2. Adrian is correct.  I agree I don't know if I go along with PS's  logic wanting it to be a "to-do" list for teachers. But if teachers get in a habit of sorting the assignment screen by the 'Scored' column, they might find the screen more handy and helpful seeing which assignments have missing scores.

Figured it out. :-) Teachers go to Gradebook > Select Course > Scoresheet tab > Click "S1 in Progress" > Check the "Final Grades Complete" box. Using Gradebook Verification Report for the Custom Reports Bundle.

OK ... so here's what I found in my notes. Is this true? Is there a way to store a Q1 and Q3 term grade but not have those terms need to be set up?

"Q1 and Q3 terms need to be set up the same as S1 and S2. Technically, Marian doesn’t do the traditional quarterly grades (such as Q1+Q2=S1), but we store quarter grades so we have to set up a term for Q1 and Q3. If your S1 grades are set up to calculate using category weights but Q1 is set to default with total points, the Q1 and S1 grades will be different."

I guess the answer is yes and no or maybe "it's complicated" or maybe "it depends".

There are two parts to this and it comes from the start of the Permanently Store Grades screen: 

1) Use this Final Grade/Reporting Term:
2) Save with this Historical Store Code:

When you store grades, the store code that gets recorded can be anything you want. You enter characters into the field labeled "Save with this Historical Store Code:".  You could have the records showing XX or Q8 if you wish. But most of us enter the same value as was chosen in the line above which is "Use this Final Grade/Reporting Term".

The "Use this Final Grade/Reporting Term" tells the stored grade process what final grade to use in the Teacher's Gradebook.

So YES, you can store a Q1 grade for a semester long section, without setting up a Q1 grading term. 

Example:
Use this Final Grade/Reporting Term:  S1
Save with this Historical Store Code:  Q1

Just realize, this grade that gets stored with a Q1 store code is not necessarily the average of all the grades for a specific range of time (ie: start of Q1 to the end of Q1). This grade would be the calculation as of the point in time when the grades were stored. If you stored the grades 3 days after the end of the quarter, it might contain grades from Q2 if a teacher has entered grades from assignments given in Q2.

Some schools have gotten completely away from quarters, so when they store grades in the middle of the term, they store an M1 the first semester and an M2 the second. Again, this indicates the average at the point in time grades were stored.

If you don't have quarter terms defined and you store a grade at the mid-term, no matter if you call it M1 or Q1, the issue I see with this is if a parent questions the stored grade, you have no way of determining which assignment grades were used in the calculation. It was whatever grades that were entered when grades were stored. There is no way of going back and trying to see if your calculation is right b/c there is no date range to pull the assignments.

Just because you create a Q1 & Q2 grading term doesn't mean teachers have to calculate their S1 grade using the quarter terms. They can calculate S1 any way they would like.

Maybe a compromise if you are truly against even saying or showing the word quarter, is to create an M1 grading term that runs from the first day of school to the middle of the term, and then you can store this term grade and I would use M1 as my store code too. This way you would know what assignments make up that stored grade and you are not mentioning quarters.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks, Wayne. When we store the quarter grade ("snapshot" is what the administrators call it), we use the S1 grade, as in your example. Technically, we know which grades were entered by the specific date and time so we should be able to go back to verify a quarter grade, if needed. But for all purposes, the Q1 grade is not an official grade. 

If we turn off the term Q1 from ever showing for parents and students, it shouldn't matter if Q1 is set up like S1, right? The problem we've had in the past is when parents and students see the Q1 grade and it's showing a different grade from S1 during the first quarter.

I like the idea of calling it an M1 grade -- really gets away from the quarter. Maybe I'll pass that along.

Thanks for your help! :-)

My issue with setting up Q1 and Q3 is that teachers always forget or don't get them set up correctly with the S1 and S2 grade setup. Plus it's twice the work, which further encourages teachers to not complete setting it up consistently for each class. I end up running reports and tracking teachers down, which I don't have time to do.

Will we have a choice? I have not read alot and not really got into it BUT sounds like we will not have a choice if we update our systems. 
 Get out the aspirin.. 

From what I'm seeing, you will not be required to go to PowerTeacher Pro with an update. Some teachers can use the old Gradebook app while some use the new option. So you don't need that aspirin ... yet. ;-D

From what I'm seeing, you will not be required to go to PowerTeacher Pro with an update. Some teachers can use the old Gradebook app while some use the new option. So you don't need that aspirin ... yet. ;-D

What a nightmare! We are on hosted, 9.1.1 also and our teachers are using Macs. I've installed Java 8 update 66 on 2 teacher Macs in the past couple of days. No problems at our school. What does support say?

It's strange that all your teachers can't access Gradebook. Try this PowerSource document: ID 73638 "PowerTeacher Gradebook Standalone App fails to launch"  This has instructions for both Macs and Windows users. This fixes a lot of Gradebook problems for me.

We haven't jumped to 9.1.x yet but earlier this fall I ok'd our hosting vendor upgrading us from 8.0.x to 8.3.x.  That killed our gradebookson all Macs running OS 10.6.8 (yeah, I still have a few of those).

If your hosted server was recently upgraded, something similar might be happening in this case.  The Release Notes for each PowerSchool update usually have notes on compatibility (which I hadn't bothered to read carefully prior to our issue).

Guess this issue mainly affects servers hosted by PowerSchool. Unfortunately, the recommended fix to take Java back to Update 45 isn't working for us.  :-(

If you're hosted and have been upgraded to PowerSchool 9 AND you have Macs that CAN launch, please let me know what version Java you're using.

Just LOVE this time of year. :-P

We are on Java 8 version 51 and can launch the gradebook.  We used the installer but had to redownload the installer and run it.  We replaced the one that they already had installed and that got it to work.

I haven't had a teacher enquire about the java webstart launch since they are all using the GradeBook app.  I am able to launch the .jnlp file with Java 8 Update 45, but can't launch with update 51 (Mac OS 10.10.4)

If you click into System/ System Settings/ Global Server Settings

There is a PowerTeacher Gradebook settings link : which if it is selected for Windows / Both or whatever, it will only allow you to download and launch that way.

If it is set to none, it will return to normal.

Try that

When I go to the global server settings page the only options I see for PowerTeacher Gradebook Settings are:

Secure Server SSL
Server Host name or IP Adress
Port
PowerTeacher Gradebook Socket Timeout (Minutes)

?????

If you are running 7.10.x the "Enable alternate deployment method for PowerTeacherGradebook" link is in Global Server Settings.  With 7.11 they removed it.  There is a "Gradebook Launcher Installers" link in System Settings but that is only to down the installers. You could try using one of those for the installs.

I'm posting my answer, in case anyone else comes across this issue where a pre-registered student shows up in PT Gradebook before active date. There's a setting in PT Gradebook:

Go to Gradebook Preferences.
Click the Student tab.
Check the box "Hide pre-registered students."

I meant Stored Grades vs. Grade book.  :)

We had the same thing happen last summer. We ran the custom report and found a lot of changed grades.   We decided this year we are going to watch closely.   After quarter ended this Oct we ran the report and had 3 teachers change grades and didn't following the proper procedure to get stored grades changed.   I think it is just a matter of you being "cop" so to say and watch the report after you store and talk to those teachers.   We have a Yellow Grade Change form they are suppose to fill out if they change the grade after we store.  This way we have a record of why it was changed.  Maybe show the teachers this report and have them figure out why it changed.  It might make them more responsible the next time you store grades.

We tell our teachers it is important because parents see what is in PowerSchool on the Parent log in side which is Live Grades and the grades for a class could be different from what was sent to them on the report card which are Stored Grades.  If they are different the Teacher must explain to the parents how this has happened. 

There is an issue with the Java 1.7.0_45 update and PowerTeacher.

This is the workaround.

In PowerTeacher, click on Gradebook at the left. Under the Launch PowerTeacher Gradebook there is a warning line - "If the launch button failed to open PowerTeacher gradebook, click here to further assess the problem." Select the "click here" and it takes you to the directions.

I have had good luck (in a Mac environment) downloading and installing the gradebook app.  Teachers can then access their gradebook via an icon on their dock; that still gives them a web interface but one that isn't affected by the Java issues (or so far that's the case, anyway).

I had to do a little configuring of the properties file in order to get the app to run properly; I did that on one machine and then put the app to a USB stick and copied to the rest of the machines.

We are Mac, running 10.8.    We finally got everything working great until yesterday.  They can "Skip" the update, but it's too late for some already.   Ray, tell me more about the gradebook app, and what you did?   If you don't want to post it all here, you can email me    jibarra@apschools.org

Had the same problem pop up late last week on our machines running 10.6.8.  Once again, it was the result of the ongoing Apple-Java not playing nice issues.

Java for Mac Update 15 will fix the problem for 10.6.8 (until the next updates from Apple kill Java again and result in the next Java for Mac update.

Here's a link for that update:
  http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1573

Thanks, we will give it a try.

I had the same issue crop up today for teachers running Mac OS 10.6.8 (Apple continues to create problems for that OS and then has to come up with Java updates to fix those problems).

I downloaded and installed Java Update 14 from the support site; that fixed the issue.

As to not all teachers mentioning the issue, my guess is they are either not running 10.6.8 or haven't actually re-started their laptop/desktop in several days (once re-started I bet the gradebook won't work).  

In the teacher's gradebooks, select Tools > Categories. Select each category and check the Publish Scores box.

They might want to check the other settings in that window, too. If you always use 100 points, I would change the default from 10 to 100.

They will have to publish the scores in the assignment section for any assignments created before checking the box in Categories.

Thanks, I will give that to them :)