| Feature |
Grade
Machine® |
Other
Gradebook Software |
| License
Terms and Copy-Protection |
The
software is not copy-protected. All licenses (site and
single-user) allow unrestricted, unlimited installation
by the licensee at home and at school. The name of the
licensed teacher or school is encoded into the software
and appears on all reports. |
|
| Interfacing
with School Administration Software |
There
are no hidden costs when you choose Grade Machine. Out-of-the-box,
Grade Machine supplies you with Smart Data Exchange Filters
to import to and export from many school administration
software products. Plus, Grade Machine's flexibility
lets you create and design filters to your specifications.
See the Smart Data Exchange
section below.
|
|
| Customer
Support |
Customer
Support is free (but not toll-free) for all registered
licensees of Grade Machine version 6 or newer, and there
is no time limit on the call. Technical support is also
available via fax and email.
An optional Maintenance and Support Agreement is available
for site licensees.
|
|
| Kindergarten
thru College |
Specific
instructions for setting up elementary, secondary, and
college classes are provided, as well as sample class
and style files for each level. |
|
| Easy-To-Read
Manual with Beginner's Tutorial |
The
Grade Machine manual contains a friendly, step-by-step
tutorial section that introduces basic features quickly
and easily. It also contains a thorough index and a wide
variety of sample reports.
Licensees are authorized to make copies of the manual.
The manual is also included in printable form on the
program disks.
|
|
| Grade
Machine Help |
Grade
Machine offers extensive help directly from within the
application. Easy searching makes it simple to learn about
all of Grade Machine's features.
| |
| Cross-Platform
Compatibility |
Class
files from Grade Machine for Macintosh and Grade Machine
for Windows are cross-platform compatible. You can start
a class file using Grade Machine for Macintosh at school,
then edit it using Grade Machine for Windows at home (or
vice-versa). |
|
| Automatic
Backup Path |
The
automatic backup feature lets you designate a location,
such as a network folder or floppy disk, to save extra
copies of your Class files. |
|
| Default
Folders |
Choose
a default folder for opening and saving Class files. Create
another default folder for Style files. Save time and
organize your work. |
|
| Collapsing
Assignments |
Collapse
multiple assignments into a single assignment to make
room for more assignments for the rest of the year. Retain
the original assignments if you wish.
Use this feature to take periodic "snapshots"
of students' current overall grades.
|
|
| Maximum
Number of Students per Class |
Grade
Machine for Macintosh: 250
Grade Machine for Windows: 250 or more, depending on
available memory.
Supports large classes such as Band and Physical Education.
Permits copying and pasting student data from separate
class files into one large class file for statistical
computations.
|
|
| Maximum
Number of Assignments per Class |
Grade
Machine for Macintosh: 250
Grade Machine for Windows: 250 or more, depending on
available memory.
|
|
| Overall
Grade Summaries |
Create
up to 10 Overall Grade Summaries, each based on any range
of grading periods, even if those ranges overlap. For
example, you can produce a single report that shows students'
performance in Quarter 1, Quarter 2, Semester 1, Quarter
3, Quarter 4, and Semester 2, as well as a Year-long Grade.
Overall grades may be based on weighted grading periods
or on total points across grading periods.
These multiple Overall Grade Summaries can also be exported,
which is particularly useful when sending grades to
school administration software.
|
|
| Grading
Periods |
With
20 possible grading periods, you can set up any type of
grading period you like (e.g. 6 weeks, 9 weeks, or quarter).
Detailed information for each grading period can appear
on individual progress reports and group reports.
Grading period grades may be based on weighted categories
or on total points across categories.
|
|
| Assignment
Categories |
Sort
assignments into 10 assignment categories within each
grading period. Detailed information for these categories
can appear on reports.
Assignment categories can be different for each grading
period. Weigh categories against each other, or use
total points.
|
|
| Alternate
Grades |
Override
any percentage grade or description calculated by Grade
Machine. For example, you can easily adjust a calculated
B+ Semester grade to A, or an Overall Grade of 79% to
82%. |
|
| Grading
Scales |
Use
the 30 teacher-defined grading scales to grade students
in the same class on different grading scales. This is
especially useful for mainstreamed students.
Grade students using descriptions such as Pass/Fail,
A/B/C/D, Excellent/Good/Satisfactory, 4.0/3.0/2.0/1.0,
etc.
|
|
| Scoring
Options |
Enter
scores into your gradebook as whole numbers, decimals
to the nearest tenth, grade descriptions (Pass/Fail),
letter grades (A+/A/A-/B+), or teacher-defined Special
Scores. |
|
| Special
Scores |
Teachers
can create and define their own special scores (e.g.,
"Excused", "Cheating", "+",
"OK", etc.). Provide a description, abbreviation,
percent equivalent, and keyboard shortcut for each. |
|
| Easy
Score Entry From an Unsorted Stack of Papers |
Use
the "Jump To" utility to automatically move
to a score cell by entering student initials, ID, miscellaneous
fields, student row (roster) number, or assignment column
number. |
|
| Typographical
Errors Protection |
Set
a warning to appear whenever a score is entered that is
larger than the teacher-defined "Safety Factor"
times points possible. |
|
| Extra
Credit Methods |
Use
any or all of these four methods to track extra credit:
1) create assignments with 0 points possible
2) give bonus points beyond the points possible on any
given assignment
3) create an Extra Credit category to adjust a Grading
Period grade
4) create an Extra Credit grading period to adjust an
Overall Grade
|
|
| Password
Protection |
Protect
your data by defining a password for each Class file.
Teachers who forget their passwords can call Misty City
Software technical support for help to get immediate
access to the Class file.
|
|
| Moving
Students, Assignments and Other Data |
Cut,
Copy, and Paste students and assignments, to move them
(with their associated scores and other data) to new positions
within the same class, or to another class.
Use the "Copy From" function to quickly and
easily duplicate your lists of assignments, categories,
special scores, comments, and other data between classes
without re-typing.
|
|
| Report
Preview |
To
save paper and time, you can preview all your reports
on the screen before printing. |
|
| Types
of Reports |
Use
individual progress reports and multi-class
reports to give to students or send home to parents.
Use group reports as your gradebook or to post
student grades in the classroom, using student IDs for
confidentiality.
Bring student progress graphs to parent conferences
to dramatically illustrate trends in work habits.
Post histograms to summarize class-wide performance
on any assignment, category, grading period, or overall
grade.
Print seating charts, attendance totals,
and daily attendance records.
|
|
| Multi-Class
Reports |
A
single report can summarize a student's performance in
multiple subjects from multiple Class files. This is especially
helpful for Elementary teachers. |
|
| Report
Flexibility |
Design
an unlimited number of report styles, rather than being
limited to a few "canned" reports. Each report
style can be saved as a unique Style file for quick, easy
selection of customized reports. Sample Style files are
included for printing gradebooks, bulletin board reports,
individual progress reports, elementary reports, etc.
Each individual score, category grade, grading period
grade and overall grade may be expressed as a combination
of points, percentage, or grade description.
Include/exclude virtually any class data on reports
(scores, class averages, grading period summaries, category
summaries, signature lines, assignment tables, etc.).
Set column widths, paper orientation, margins, fonts,
columns, and more.
|
|
| Report
Comments |
Create
an unlimited number of 250-character comments. Designate
specific comments for each student's progress report.
Use Smart Comments to merge student data (such
as "his/her" pronouns, scores on particular
assignments, class rank, grades for any period or range,
attendance, etc.) directly into comments, so comments
will appear different for each student. Comments can
be linked together to form narrative-style personalized
letters. Comment variables that refer to a specific
grading period can also refer to the "latest grading
period", so you don't need to re-edit your comment
variables when you add a new grading period to the class.
|
|
| Student
Notes |
Use
the 250-character Student Notes fields to track personal
information on each student (behavior, medical problems,
etc.). Choose whether or not to print Student Notes on
individual progress reports. |
|
| Post
Scripts |
Individual
student reports may contain up to two identical 250-character
postscripts for all students to announce upcoming events,
office hours, etc. |
|
| Prevent
Modifications |
Lock
the Student ID and Misc columns in the Student window
to avoid accidentally deleting or changing student information.
Valuable when importing and exporting information between
Grade Machine and school administration packages. |
|
| Seating
Charts |
Easily
design multiple seating charts for your Class files. Configure
your seating plan "on-screen" into almost any
layout (rows, circles, etc.).
Preview and print seating charts.
Assign students to desks alphabetically, manually, or
randomly.
Assign attendance/behavior codes directly from the student
desks.
|
|
| Pick
Student(s) |
Randomly
select one or more students from the seating chart for
drills, assignments, or cooperative learning groups. |
|
| Smart
Data Exchange
(Interfacing
with School Administration and Other Software and Hardware)
|
Grade
Machine's Smart Data Exchange
provides flexible options and controls for importing and
exporting data relating to your students, assignments,
and other class information.
Seamless interfaces ("filters") for many school
administration packages are provided at no extra charge.
Or quickly and easily build your own filter to communicate
with any school administration software package that
can read and write text files in a reasonable format.
If the administration changes its format for importing
and exporting data, you can modify the filters yourself,
avoiding the costs and delays associated with customized
programming.
Import critical student information (e.g. names, IDs,
phone numbers, course codes, section numbers, etc.)
at the start of the year to avoid keying the data.
Export student information, attendance data, and grade
data at the end of each term. Export as standard ASCII
text files.
Define all facets of the import/export format, including
the specific data fields for import/export, the order
in which the fields are to be imported and exported,
and the format of each field.
Smart Data Exchange also supports systems that enable
parents to access student data through an automated
phone system. Automatically update assignment scores
from text files created using bar code readers or optical
mark readers (Scantron and others).
|
|
| Post
Grading Information to Your School's Web Site |
Use
Grade Machine's Smart Data Exchange to generate HTML files,
which can be posted to your school's web site.
HTML files can contain almost any data from your Class
file, providing an easy and informative method of communicating
with students, parents and administrators.
|
|
| Attendance
& Behavior Data |
Using
Grade Machine's 50 teacher-defined attendance/behavior
codes, take roll using either the grid on the Attendance
Window or the individual student desks on the Seating
Chart.
Include attendance/behavior totals and specific dates
of absences, tardies, etc. on individual student progress
reports. Produce separate reports of class-wide attendance/behavior
totals.
Merge attendance/behavior data into "smart"
comments (e.g., John was tardy 3 times).
Adjust students' grades based on the number of occurrences
of specific attendance/behavior codes (e.g., penalize
students 5 points for each tardy beyond the third tardy).
Teacher-defined week (e.g., Monday, Thursday, Saturday).
|
|
| Languages
for Reports |
Enter
teacher-defined text (such as category names, comments,
etc.) in any language that is supported by your computer
system.
Hard-coded text (column titles, words like "Assignment",
"Average", etc.) can be automatically translated
to Spanish, French, German, or Russian.
|
|
| Contacting
Misty City Software |
Browse our web site to find important information about
updates to the Grade Machine program, demonstration software
and much more.
Visit Misty City's Home Page on the World Wide Web at
the following URL:
http://www.mistycity.com
For further product information, please email us at:
sales@mistycity.com
Or call our toll-free sales line,
1-800-795-0049
|
|
Grade
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