My DE grade book

Note that Blackbaud (the supplier of our My DE site) did a significant upgrade to the My DE grade book during summer 2021 so the interface may look a bit different as compared to some of the information below. If something is confusing or very out of date, please email help@d-e.org so we can address it.

If you want to jump right in and get started with Gradebook now, take a look at Back to School - Gradebook Setup.

A grade book is available to teachers in My D-E to track student work and calculate various statistics. You also have the option to publish assignment grades to students if you wish.  Other features include:

• • automatically adding grade book entries at the same time as posting homework assignments

  • viewing individual student analytics and scores including comparisons to class averages for an assignment

  • calculating overall averages using your choice of methods including weighting assignments by type (e.g. projects 50%, quizzes 20%, etc) or using a total points system

To access the My DE grade book, select a class under Classes then click on "Launch gradebook". Here is a four-minute video introduction to using the My DE grade book:

The Assignment Grades and Grading Teacher's Guide video above is a good introduction to the My DE grade book. However, if you prefer written information here are directions from Blackbaud (the publisher of the My DE software):

• Back to School - Gradebook Setup

One-Time (per semester) grade book setup

Click here for step by step directions for setting up your My DE grade book. You only need to do this once per semester. Also, note the recommendations below.

Setup Recommendations:

• • For the Gradebook calculation setting, use Marking Period. This will allow you to calculate separate averages for semester 1 and semester 2.

  • If you want to enter numeric grades for each assignment of a particular type, do NOT choose a Letter Grade Scale. This is time consuming to change after you have entered assignment grades.

  • Calculation method:

    • If all of your assessments within an assignment type/category are worth the same, choose Percentages. For example, if you want every quiz to have the same weight toward the semester cumulative and every essay to have the same weight as every other essay, choose Percentages. (Essays can still be worth more than quizes based on what you enter for the Assginment Type Weight %.)

    • If you want each of your assessments to have different weights even within the same assignment type, choose a Total point method.  For example, a Total point method is appropriate if Test 2 should be worth twice as much as Test 1.

    • Click the blue circle with white "i" icon next to the calculation method if you want to read more details on a setting.

  • Make sure that "Add to cumulative grade" is enabled (with a check) for each assignment that you want to include in your semester average calculation. You can enable this be default in Assignement Center using  More > Preferences.  (See animated image below.)

  • Ignore the marking period that says "do not use 2nd semester marking period xxx". There is no need to set that one up. For sem 2 use the one that says "S2 marking period" or "2nd semester marking period" (without the XXX).

  • If you want to share individual assignment/assessment grades with US students, you need to enable that in grade book under Display Options > Access > Students AND you need to enable Publish in each assignment when you create it (or edit it later). Students will only be able to see their own grades not those of peers.  By default, students can not see grades unless you enable this. Principals and chairs suggest and request that you do not show cumulative grades so only enable "Show assignment grades" and "Show assignment comments" under grade book Display Options.

Letter Grade Scale

The rules used to convert a letter grade to a numeric percentage or points is called a Letter Grade Scale. They are defined system wide. Letter Grade Scales can be modified or more can be added but it is for everyone so contact help@d-e.org if you have a need for that. Requests to add a Letter Grade Scale for an department or group of teachers are preferred over adding something used by only a single teacher. Current scales available are here: My DE Gradebook Letter Grade Scales

Questions/Issues and Answers

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