If you’re using standards / criteria in your Report Cards, then you know there are many ways to set up standards / criteria in QuickSchools, including via the Standards-Based Gradebook. But did you know you can standardize your report cards while allowing teachers to skip the gradebook and submit grades directly to the report cards? Here we discuss how you can use Standard Groupings (or Standard Set Groupings) to configure standards that appear in your report cards.

REMINDER: If you’re thinking of using Standards in your QuickSchools Report Cards for the first time, be sure to select a Report Card Template that supports Standards.

Setting up Standards

Before you begin, you’ll need to install the Standards-Based Gradebook app. More details on setup can be found here:

• Standards-Based Gradebook
• Standards-Based Gradebook Tutorial
• Standards-Based Gradebook Tutorial (Part 2)

Note that for the Standards Grouping to work, teachers don’t necessarily have to use the Standards-Based Gradebook (SBG) to track assessments. If they do, grades will automatically flow into the Report Cards. But if they don’t, teachers can still manually enter grades directly into the Report Cards.

Linking Standards Sets to Subjects

Once you’ve configured the Standard Sets, the next step is to link the Standard Sets to subjects. This is simply done by clicking on the Standard Set, and configuring the Academic Years, Grade Levels and Subjects:

Setting up Groupings

Once Standard Sets have been linked to Subjects, the last step is to define which Standards appear in the Report Card, and in what order. You can also configure groups/sections for these standards. Start by clicking on the “Edit” button under the “Edit Groupings” column:

In the example above, there are 5 groups, each with its own set of standards. You can configure any number of groups, and each group can have it’s own header.

Some things to note:

• You can deactivate the Standard Grouping temporarily, and the standards in that grouping will NOT appear in the report cards
• You can opt to show the Header in the Report Cards. Otherwise, only the standards will be displayed.
• Standards appear in the order they are added to the Standard Groupings. Simply select a standard from the “Add Standard” dropdown.
• When a Standard Grouping is activated for a subject, any standards created manually by the teacher will NOT appear in the Report Cards. Report Cards will instead use the Standard Groupings, if it’s available.

Here’s an example of how the standards appear in the Report Cards:

OPTIONAL: Adding Mapped Standards to the Gradebooks

As mentioned previously, once Standard Groupings are created, the Report Cards are fully configured to show the standards you’ve defined. Teachers can directly enter the grades into the Report Cards, or then can create the standards in the Gradebook first. As a matter of convenience, you can also automatically create all the mapped standards from the Standard Grouping, by clicking on the “Add mapped standards to gradebooks” button. 

This is an optional step, since teachers can also create standards in the SBG by pulling the standards from the Standard Sets that you’ve configured.

Skipping the Standard Groupings

It’s important to note that the Standard Groupings is also an optional feature. If you decide not to add/configure Standard Groupings, the Report Card will automatically pick up ANY standards that are created in the SBG. This gives the teachers flexibility to use their own standards, all of which will appear in the report cards automatically. 

So to summarize, the Standard Groupings allow school administrators to standardize which standards to display in the report cards. Without the Standard Groupings, the report cards will use any standard created in the SBG.

Updating Standard Groupings

Over time, you may want to change the standards that appear in the Standard Sets as well as the Standard Groupings. It’s important to note that your Standard Sets are shared, and may be used across several academic terms. If you’re making changes to standard sets that you’ve used before, we recommend creating a copy of the Standard Set, and then archiving the previous standard set. Both the “Copy” and “Archive” functions are provided under the “Actions” column.

When reviewing a report card, if you want to find out which Standard Set was used to apply the Standard Grouping to the Subject, you can use the “Standard Groupings (for Report Cards)” Summary Report:

Be sure to star the report to your Favorites, if you intend on using it frequently. Here’s a sample of what the report looks like:

Once you know which Standard Set was used, you can search for the Standard Set from the main “Standards” menu. As usual, if you need help with making changes to your report card standards, please chat in with our support team.