Grade Conversion Scales

Overview

In the realm of numeric grading, grade conversion is the process of translating a numeric grade to another value, such as a letter grade or GPA points. Grade Conversion Scales are configured for each school from the System Homepage. This report displays all scale levels for each grade conversion scale.

Schools are initially set up to have one grade conversion scale per school level, but there is no technical limit to how many grade conversion scales a school may have. Schools may have several additional scales if using Honors/AP weighting for GPAs.

Grade Conversion Scale Levels

Each Grade Conversion Scale consists of several Scale Levels, and each Scale Level contains the output values for the conversion (letter grade, GPA points, etc).

• Minimum Value: determines which Scale Level is selected for conversion in that scale. The numeric grade must be at least the “minimum value” to be used.
• Letter: Typically A-F letter grade, if American style letter grades are used. It may also be a 1-7 scale at IB schools.
• GPA Points: The corresponding GPA point value for the numeric grade.
• Stored Value: For letter grade entry scenarios, this is the numeric grade stored in grade records. In IB scenarios it will again be the numeric equivalent of the 1-7 letter grade.
• Text: Additional notes, may be used for IB explanations.

Honors/AP Bumps

It’s common for schools to give GPA points added value for students taking Honors/AP (or other) courses. In Veracross GPA point bumps are configured by creating a new Grade Conversion Scale for that bump scenario. For example, if Honors courses receive a 0.75 GPA point bump and AP courses receive a 0.5 point bump, two addition Grade Conversion Scales should be created and the GPA Points field on those Scale Levels should be adjusted to include the bump. The next step is choosing where that scale is used.

Setting the Scale

The Grade Conversion Scale is specified in the following places:

• Transcript Item
• Course
• Class
• Class Person

The configuration of Course, Class, and Class Person are related. There are drop-down fields on each of these detail screens to set which Grade Conversion Scale should be the course default, class-default, and student override respectively. The course default will be used to set the class scale on newly created classes. The class scale will be used for class grade conversions including Report Cards and GPAs based on class grades. The override scale can be used for setting a different scale for specific students who need a scale different than the one specified on the class. For example, when the course/class is non-honors, but some students are taking it at an honors level in the same section.

Which Grade Conversion Scale to use for Courses or class enrollments is not directly related to any course classifications or enrollment levels that would indicate it’s Honors/AP. The scales must be set up separately regardless.

The Transcript Item Grade Conversion Scale is used for displaying Transcript grades and for Transcript based GPAs. This value will be populated by the Transcript posting procedure. It is also available on the Transcript Item detail screen.