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How to configure overall grade calculation for a course?

Prerna Singh

Last edited 28 days ago by Anukruti Singh.

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Toddle supports both score-based and standards-based grading, giving schools the flexibility to define how student performance is calculated and reported. School admins configure the grading methodology at the school level. Course editors can customise these further at the course level to align with course-specific needs. These settings ensure that final grades reflect your school’s assessment approach accurately.

This article will cover:

Configure the grading setup at the school level

Configure the grading setup at the course level • Score-based calculation • Standards-based calculation

Configure the final grade for the course • Score/letter-based grading • Standards-based grading

Configure the grading setup at the school level

Set up grading methodology

As an admin, you can set up grading methodology for your school from the Admin portal > School > Grading setup > Grading methodology.

Here, you can allow one or both grading methodologies for courses:

Score/letter-based grading – Student grades are calculated by aggregating scores from individual tasks, typically using methods such as totals or averages.

Standards-based grading – Student performance is reported against learning standards, highlighting levels of mastery.

Note: Schools can enable both methods if they want courses to use different approaches.

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Set up grade scales

Grade scales define how raw scores or performance levels are translated into meaningful grades.

As an admin, you can set up grade scales from the Admin portal > School > Grading setup > Grade scales. You can configure:

Regular grade scales: Used for assigning a numeric or letter grade to students for courses, assignments, or standards.

Special grade scales: Used alongside a regular grade scale to assign special grading codes.

Dependent grade scales: Used to convert the values of a regular grade scale into a different scale.

Tip: Read

this article⁠

for a detailed guide on creating grade scales.

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Set up Score/letter-based grading

Score/letter-based grading allows you to evaluate student performance using numeric or letter grades. This method aggregates results from individual tasks to generate a final grade for each grading period.

To configure this in Toddle, go to Admin portal > School > Grading setup > Score-based grading.

Here, you can:

Create grading categories such as homework, projects, assessments, etc.

Choose how scores are calculated and displayed for individual as well as cumulative grading periods

This setup ensures grading practices remain consistent and aligned across all courses using score-based evaluation.

Tip: Read

this article⁠

to learn how to set up and manage score-based grading.

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Set up standards-based grading

Standards-based grading helps you assess students on specific learning goals or achievement standards, providing a clearer picture of mastery. To set this up, go to Admin portal > School > Grading setup > Standards-based grading.

Here, you can:

Map grade scales to each standard set

Choose how multiple evaluations for a single standard are combined (e.g., mean or weighted mean).

Choose how scores from sub-standards roll up to the overall parent standard (e.g., mean or maximum value).

Tip: Read

this article⁠

to learn how to set up and manage standards-based grading. the

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Once the grading setup is defined, it becomes available at the course level. Course editors can then customise it further to align with their course requirements. We’ll look at this in the next section.

Configure the grading setup at the course level

As a course editor, you can customise grading configurations for your course. To do this, go to Course> Settings > Course settings > Grading configurations.

Here, you can do the following configurations:

Score-based configuration

Standards-based configuration

Let’s look at each in detail.

Note: Configuration made for this course will apply to all the classes associated with this course. Additionally, the changes made at the course level will not change the configuration done at the school level.

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Score/letter-based grading

If you select Score/letter-based grading, a dedicated Score calculation setup section will appear. This is where you configure how student scores are calculated for your course.

Here, you can:

Choose whether to calculate category scores.

If enabled, decide whether category scores contribute to grading period scores as weighted or unweighted.

Set whether the same categories and weights apply across all grading periods or vary by term.

Configure how the grading period score is calculated and how it's displayed.

If using cumulative grading periods, choose whether to calculate cumulative scores from assignments or grading period scores and decide the display settings.

Let’s understand this in detail in the following sections.

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Score calculation for grading periods

In this section, you can configure how final scores for the grading period are calculated - either directly from assignments or category scores, depending on the setting done in the section above.

There are two possible cases:

If category scores are disabled, the grading period score is calculated directly from assignments. You can choose how assignment scores contribute - whether each assignment is treated equally, proportionally to its maximum score, or assigned custom weights.

If category scores are enabled, assignment scores first roll up into category scores, and the grading period score is then calculated from those category scores (and their assigned weights if using weighted categories).

When calculating either category or grading period scores from assignments, you can choose the assignment weight options by clicking the pencil icon next to ‘Assignment weights’.

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A pop-up window will appear, displaying three calculation methods:

Average: All assignments are treated with equal weightage, and their scores are averaged to calculate the total.

Weights proportional to maximum score: Assignments are weighted based on their maximum scores -higher-value assessments carry more weight in the final calculation.

Weighted average: Assignments can be assigned custom weights, independent of their maximum score. The assessment weights are then applied to each assessment to arrive at the overall score.

Once you have selected your preferred method, click ‘Save’ to apply the changes.

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Next, use the ‘Display setting’ dropdown to choose whether the scores will reflect as absolute weights or percentages in the gradebook.

Note: If you have selected the unweighted categories option, then the ‘Weight’ option will be disabled as the scores can only reflect as percentages.

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Next, use ‘Decimal settings’ to configure how the overall scores are formatted and displayed. Choose how many decimal points should be shown and whether to round or truncate values.

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Once these configurations are done, they will be reflected across all linked classes and their gradebooks. Read this article to learn more about how teachers can evaluate students using score based setup.

Let’s take a look at how final scores reflect in the gradebook:

1. Weighted categories

In this setup, each category contributes to the grading period total based on the percentage weight assigned at the course level.

Example: For Ali, Ahmed —

Formative (20%): Three assessments: 80/100, 78/100, and 89/100 — average to 82.33%. Applying the 20% weight gives a category score of 16.47.

Exam (80%): One assessment — 91/100 — gives an average of 91%. Applying the 80% weight gives a category score of 72.80.

Grading period score= 16.47 + 72.80 = 89.27%

Adding both category scores, Ali Ahmed’s overall Term 1 score = 89.27%.

On the A–F scale, 89.27% maps to A.

On the Mastery scale, 89.27% maps to Acc(Accomplishing).

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2. Unweighted categories

Here, all categories contribute equally to the grading period score, regardless of their point totals or the number of tasks they contain.

Example: For Ali, Ahmed —

Formative: Average of (80/100, 78/100, 89/100) = 82.33%.

Exam: Average of (91/100) = 91%.

Grading period score using the average method: (80+78+89+91)÷4=84.50%

Ali Ahmed’s overall Term 1 score = 84.50%.

On the A–F scale, 84.50% maps to A.

On the Mastery scale, 84.50% maps to Acc(Accomplishing).

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3. No categories

If categories are disabled, each assessment contributes directly to the grading period score. The calculation depends on the assignment weighting method selected:

Average: Each task contributes equally.

Proportional to max score: Tasks contribute based on their maximum points.

Custom weights: Teacher assigns weights to each task.

Example: For Ali, Ahmed —

Tasks: 80/100, 78/100, 89/100 and 91/100

Grading period score using the average method = (80+78+89+91)÷4=84.50%

Ali Ahmed’s overall Term 1 score = 84.50%.

On the A–F scale, 84.50% maps to A.

On the Mastery scale, 84.50% maps to Acc(Accomplishing).

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Score calculation for cumulative periods

This section is applicable only if your school has defined cumulative grading periods (e.g. Semester 1 made up of Term 1 and Term 2).

When cumulative periods are set up, you can configure how the cumulative score should be calculated:

Based on weighted grading period scores: The score is calculated using the final scores from each grading period included in the cumulative period. Each grading period can carry a specific weight (e.g. Term 1 – 40%, Term 2 – 60%). The final cumulative score is then computed based on these weights.

Based on assignments: The score is calculated directly from all assignments across the grading periods that make up the cumulative period. The calculation method will be the same as that for grading period score calculation.

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Next, use ‘Decimal settings’ to configure how the overall scores are formatted and displayed.

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Standard-based grading

If you select Standards-based grading from the dropdown, a Standard calculation setup section will appear.

Here, you will see:

Standard sets: These are pulled in automatically based on what’s been selected for the course.

Mapped grade scales: The mastery scales linked to each standard set by the admin are visible here in view-only mode.

Calculation methods: Both horizontal and vertical calculation methods (configured at the school level by the admin) are displayed. You can edit these methods to suit your course needs.

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For each of the standard set and grade scale, you can edit the vertical and horizontal grade calculations, configured by the admin at the school level. Note that the changes you make to the calculation methods from within a course will apply everywhere that standard set and grade scale is being used.

Horizontal calculation (for Individual standard):

Horizontal calculations determine how a student’s multiple ratings for a single standard are aggregated into one final grade. Click on the pencil icon to configure.

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You'll then be able to choose from the following methods:

Most recent score: Uses the latest rating to reflect recent performance

Decaying average: Weighs recent scores more heavily than older ones

Mean (average): Averages all ratings equally. Best used when all tasks carry a similar weight

Weighted mean: Assigns a fixed weight (provided by you) to the most recent rating while averaging the rest

Mode: Picks the most frequently occurring rating

Maximum value: Takes the highest score achieved

You can also toggle between Alphabetical and Numeric grade scale views to see how scores are interpreted.

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Vertical calculation (for higher-level standards):

Vertical calculations define how child standards roll up into parent standards, such as how sub-skills contribute to a strand-level performance. Click on the pencil icon to configure.

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Here, you can choose one of the following roll-up methods:

Mean: Average scores across all child standards. Most balanced method.

Maximum value: Uses the highest score among child standards.

Rollup weighting: Uses standard weights to determine the final grade.

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Additionally, for both of the calculation methods, you can choose between whole numbers, 1 decimal place, or 2 decimal places. You can also decide whether scores should be rounded or truncated for both the calculation methods.

These settings give you precise control over how final scores appear in gradebooks and reports.

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Once these configurations are done, they will be reflected across all linked classes and their gradebooks.

Teachers can assess students on learning standards in two ways:

By tagging standards as learning goals in an assignment, or

By creating a standards-based rubric (alpha or numeric).

Tip: Read

this⁠

article to learn more about how teachers can evaluate students on standards and

All evaluations recorded by the teachers will appear in the Standards gradebook. If a standards-based rubric is used with a numeric grade scale, those evaluations will also appear in the Assessment gradebook.

Horizontal calculation (for individual standards)

For example, a student’s grade for a standard may reflect the score they received on the most recent task, if ‘Most recent’ is selected as the horizontal calculation method for the course.

Vertical calculation (for parent standards)

Configure the final grade for the course

As a course editor, you can configure how this final grade should be calculated. To do so, navigate to: Settings>Course settings>Grading configurations>Final grade.

You can calculate the final grade for a course by either of the two methods: Score/letter-based grading or Standards-based grading.

Score/letter-based grading

When using score/letter-based grading, the final grade for a course in a grading period is determined by configuring grade scales. These scales define how raw percentages or scores are translated into grade labels (like A, B+, C or Mastery, Developing, Beginning).Here you can:

Choose a grade scale from the school-wide list of grade scales configured by the admin (e.g., A–F, Mastery, 1–5).

Multiple grade scales can be added to a course for each grading period, allowing complete flexibility.

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Once added, you can adjust the cutoff values in the grade scale to determine the criteria for converting scores into corresponding grade levels. These can be modified at the course level to meet your requirements.

However, you cannot edit the scale itself (labels, descriptors, or color coding) since those come from the school-level setup. At any time, you can also remove grade scales from the course or add new ones, depending on what has been made available at the school level.

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The overall score for each student (numeric or percentage) is then mapped to the selected grade scale(s) to arrive at the final grade.

Example: Ali Ahmed’s overall score is 89.27%:

On the A–F scale, 89.27% maps to A.

On the Mastery for Design scale, the same score maps to Acc (Accomplishing).

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Standards-based grading

When using standards-based grading, the first step is to select one or more grade scales for the grading period. After this, you can choose the standard set on which the final grade will be calculated.

Here you can: Here you can:

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