|
What security
features are in place to protect me and my data? |
Any time
we add new features to the software, client security is at
the forefront of our programmers' minds. We have scores of
security measures in place to protect you and your data -
1) We
have a "virtual keyboard" on all screens where sensitive
data is entered (user name, password, etc...). This allows
you to avoid any chance of a malicious key-logger stealing
your password.
2) Our
system notifies you immediately if your account has been
accessed by a computer other than yours. Right when you log
in, you are displayed a dialog box showing you the exact
time when your account was accessed, as well as the IP address of the computer used to access your account.
3)
GradeSpeed™ generates automatic, restorable backups of
all the data within your teachers' gradebooks. Every 2 hours
and every time you log off, our system takes a "snapshot" of
all the data inside your gradebook and stores it in a
restorable backup. So if anyone gets unauthorized access to
your account and changes some info inside, you can restore
all your data to the state it was when you last
accessed your account.
4) We can support
Microsoft's Active Directory/LDAP to simplify user access and
increase security (Active Directory is a centralized and
standardized system that automates network management of
user data, security, and distributed resources, and enables
interoperation with other directories).
5) ParentConnection,
our parental access module, works over a secure
connection – supports SSL.
|
What reporting features are available in
GradeSpeed™? |
GradeSpeed™ boasts possibly the most powerful reporting
features in the industry. The built-in reporting features
are second to none, and should fulfill 99% of your needs.
But if you need to create additional reports to track
different things, we offer a Custom Reports feature. Using a
simple SQL query, you can pull any data stored in our
database - in any combination.
Built-in
reports for teachers include:
Grade
List
Category Averages
Conduct/comments
Assignments
Missing Assignments
Class Roster
Grade List (paper saver)
Attendance Roster
Failure Report
Honor Roll Report
GradeSpeed™ Monitor
Administrators have even more helpful reports available to
them. Administrators can see...
...which teachers have not turned in attendance.
...which teachers are not keeping their grades up to
date.
...the failure rate among students per teacher.
This is extremely helpful for spotting teachers with too
high of a failure rate compared to others.
...eligibility reports. These reports, based on your
specified criteria, pull up which students are eligible
and ineligible to compete in sporting events or
participate in other extracurricular activities.
...report card data. In fact, administrators can print
report cards directly out of GradeSpeed™.
Custom
reports can be generated using the standard report viewer
that's built in to GradeSpeed™, or the Crystal Reports
viewer. They can also be saved as a file (ex. Excel *.XLS or
*.CSV) that pulls fresh data every time it's loaded.
|
Can I restrict access to certain features for certain
accounts? |
GradeSpeed™ has a very powerful permissions system. So
the system administrator can decide exactly what every
person needs to have access to... and what they don't.
Every
administrator and teacher can be given access to only
what he/she needs. For example - attendance clerks can be
set to have access to only attendance-related features.
Substitute teachers can be given read-only access to grades
and conduct, full access to the seating chart, and
restricted access to other aspects of the gradebook that
they do not need.
It's 100%
customizable. And setting up user permissions is a snap. You
can edit a user's access restrictions with just a few clicks
of your mouse.
|
Is the teachers' control panel easy to use? |
The
teachers' gradebook control panel was designed to be as
efficient and easy to use as possible. There is a nav bar at
the top of every page, which allows for easy access and
simple navigation between features.
Our teacher gradebook
has a very simple, easy-to-navigate interface. It's very
intuitive. New users will have no trouble just logging right
in and using it immediately.
From within the
teacher interface, you can create and edit assignments,
check and enter grades, check and submit attendance, print
out progress reports, manage your seating charts, manage
lesson plans, and take
advantage of a host of helpful reporting features.
Built-in
reports for teachers include:
Grade
List
Category Averages
Conduct/comments
Assignments
Missing Assignments
Class Roster
Grade List (paper saver)
Attendance Roster
Failure Report
Honor Roll Report
GradeSpeed™ Monitor
|
Is there a parent module where parents can
access their student's grades? |
We
certainly do offer a very helpful and intuitive parental access module called ParentConnection.
With it, parents can create an account and log in to see their student's
grades, attendance, and other valuable information. What's
more, inside ParentConnection they can set up "Triggers." Basically, they
can set specified criteria - like the student's grade
dipping below a certain level, when he/she misses class,
etc... - and then receive automated notification when the criteria is met. Trigger notifications can be sent as a phone call,
email, or even a text message to your cell phone!
Inside
the ParentConnection interface, parents also have
access to a "school calendar" that can be updated by an
administrator and customized to reflect the upcoming events
and holidays of your school.
Parents
can sign up for a ParentConnection account, or system
administrators can create accounts for them. When a parent
creates an account, they can be either auto-approved when
they are created, or our system can be set to require
administrator approval before each parent is given their
account. This can prevent fraud and phony accounts.
ParentConnection
works over a secure connection and supports SSL.
|
How are assignments set up? |
From
within the teacher control panel, you can create and manage unlimited
assignments - quickly, easily, and painlessly. Creating
assignments is a breeze. You simply click the "Assignments"
icon and then click the "Add new" button. From there, you
can enter the assignment name (GradeSpeed™ also supports English and Spanish
assignment titles), specify the type of assignment
(homework, quiz, test, etc...), and manage other handy
options.
When creating a new assignment, you can
specify which state objectives are being taught. This is an
incredibly useful tool to help administrators monitor
whether teachers are meeting the standards set by the state.
You
can even attach homework documents to be available from within
ParentConnection, our parental access module. Inside,
parents can monitor their student's grades, attendance,
homework, and more.
|
Can I set up how each type of assignment affects
the students' grades? |
Everything within GradeSpeed™ is 100% customizable.
You can set up "homework," "tests," "quizzes," and any other
assignment categories that you wish. Then you can specify
how each assignment weighs toward students' overall grade.
You can weigh assignments as a percent of the
students' overall grades or as a multiple. For
example, you can set it to where homework counts as 1 grade,
quizzes as 2, and tests as 3.
At the
district level, the system administrator can set required
categories and weights for different subjects. Or simply
preset some weights as guidelines for teachers to use when
they set their own. The software also provides automatic
category handling for grouped courses. In other words, an
administrator can set all biology classes to have the same
categories and weights.
You can
also set up color-coding for each assignment category for
clarity and organization. That way, in your teacher
gradebooks you can see homework highlighted in RED, quizzes
in BLUE, or however you'd like to set it up.
GradeSpeed™ allows you to drop low grades as well. It
uses Intelligent algorithms when it drops the lowest grade,
should you choose to do so. You can set how many low grades
can be dropped from each category, as well as a maximum
number of assignments it should drop. Our system will drop
the grade that will most adversely affect the student's
average, even if the grade itself isn't the lowest. For
example, if a student gets a homework grade of 40 and a quiz
grade (which weighs more heavily on the student's grade) of
60, the 60 may be dropped if it would pull down the
student's grade more than the homework assignment.
|
Can GradeSpeed™ be set to drop the lowest
grade? |
Inside
the GradeSpeed™ teacher control panel, you can set the
system to drop up to 3 of the lowest student grades.
See, in
GradeSpeed™ you can create unlimited assignment types (categories).
These are things like "homework," "quizzes," and "tests."
You can set the number of total grades to drop per
category.
What's
more, our system uses intelligent algorithms when it drops
the lowest grade. It will drop the grade that will most
adversely affect the student's average, even if the grade
itself isn't the lowest. For example, if a student gets a
homework grade of 40 and a quiz grade (which weighs more
heavily on the student's grade) of 60, the 60 may be dropped
if it would pull down the student's grade more than the
homework assignment.
|
Does grading have to be set up on a 0-100 scale? |
Not at
all. GradeSpeed™ supports any grading scale -
0-100, A-F, E/S/N/U, or even a custom grading scale that
you specify.
|
Can
GradeSpeed™ track disciplinary incidents? |
It sure
can! In our Discipline module, student disciplinary
incidents can be recorded and tracked by both teachers and
administrators. The Discipline module can track everything from minor
infractions to illegal activity. What's more, all the
data is compiled into a searchable database for future use,
whether by an administrator, or by a teacher during a
parent/teacher conference.
Custom infraction types
can be set up, as well as the desired response to each
infraction. You can also write up a letter template that can
be auto-filled with relevant data and printed out to send
out to the parents of the troubled student.
|
Does
GradeSpeed™ support Spanish-speaking students? |
Nearly
every critical feature within GradeSpeed™ can be
customized to include the Spanish language alternative. For
example - you can print out select students' progress
reports and report cards in Spanish. And when creating new
assignments, assignment categories, and course titles, you
can also include the Spanish alternatives.
|
Is there support
for progress reports and report cards? |
Both
progress reports and report cards can be printed directly
out of GradeSpeed™.
Teachers
can print off progress reports directly from their accounts.
This is especially handy for parent/teacher conferences.
It's a great way for teachers to be able to give parents a
handout with all related data pertaining to the student.
Report
cards can be printed out directly from the administrator
control panel. Because of the efficient organization of the
data on our end, report cards can be processed for large
student bodies very quickly. Gathering that much data can
really take a long time, but we've streamlined the process
to pull all report card data in minutes - even for large
campuses.
We also offer a
stand-alone "Report Card Template Designer" plugin for
Microsoft Word that can be used to create custom report cards, although GradeSpeed™ does have a clean, clear, and
easy-to-read report card template built right in to the
gradebook.
|
Can individual teachers track permission slips or other custom things? |
In our teacher gradebook control panel, we
offer "custom fields". Basically, you can set up a custom
field to store information for each student. For example -
if you wanted to track whether each student in your class
returned their permission slip or got their progress report
signed on time, you could do that. You could track summer
reading, or anything else you can imagine. You simply name
the field for the data you want to track, and set up either
a checkbox, text field, or dropdown menu to store the data
for each student. It's a very quick and simple process.
GradeSpeed™ already
has loads of data tracking abilities built right into the
software. But if you need to track any other data at all,
it's simple to do!
|
Can you monitor students' eligibility? |
Teachers, coaches,
directors, and administrators may need to monitor the
eligibility of students involved in extracurricular
activities.
So we created a report
strictly for that purpose.
Administrators can
pull an eligibility report sorted by teacher, student, or
activity. You can generate a 3 or 6 week report. You
can then pull a list of all eligible or ineligible students,
based on your specified criteria.
In addition to that,
teachers can be assigned to specific activity codes by an
administrator. What this does is it allows teachers that
need to keep up on a certain group of kids' grades to
monitor their eligibility. For example, the football coach
would be assigned to the "football" activity group. That
way, he can monitor all the football players' eligibility
directly from his gradebook.
|
Can
GradeSpeed™ help me
with my seating chart? |
The
teachers' gradebook control panel has a slick seating chart
module built right into it. It's a freeform tool. In
essence, every student in your class is represented by a
little blue or red (depending on whether the student is male or female) icon
with his/her name. You can edit their seating arrangement in
one of two ways -
1) Since it's a
freeform tool, you can simply click and drag where you'd
like each student to be, or
2) You can use a
variety of preset seating arrangements and have our system
"auto-arrange" your classroom setup for you. You can also
use a combination of both methods where you can click and
drag students roughly where you want them, and then have
GradeSpeed™ line them up properly.
If you have a picture
of your students, you can also set it up to where instead of
the little red or blue icons, you actually see the picture
of the students. This is very helpful for learning students'
names as well as for substitute teachers.
|
What customer support
options do you offer? |
All purchases includes
one year of free telephone technical support and
updates. E-mail support is unlimited.
All customers get updates
to the latest version of our GradeSpeed™ software.
We also have extensive
user guides for all our software products that are
accessible directly off our support site, as well as a
customer forum that is moderated very closely. In fact, any
time there is a post to the forum, all the moderators of
that particular forum are notified by email.
We also have training
videos that currently cover all the most crucial aspects of
the teacher interface. The videos are A-Z, step-by-step
walkthroughs that will get you up and running in no time.
Lastly, we pride
ourselves on offering software that is extremely
user-friendly. However, depending on the experience level of
your technology staff or faculty, we do offer one-on-one
training. We can do it in one of two ways -
1) We can come to you and
do an in-person training for you and your staff.
2) We also periodically
hold in-house training seminars at our office in San
Antonio, TX.
For more info on
in-person training,
go here.
