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GPA Metrics

  • Updated

About GPA

Keeping an eye on GPA provides an important lens into students’ likelihood of graduation from high school, acceptance and entry into college, and even graduation from college. Research studies consistently find that a student’s GPA is closely linked to later high school outcomes. While this is by no means a comprehensive list, here are a few resources on this topic:

Based on research from the To & Through Project – a partnership of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute and Network for College Success – the default GPA metrics in Schoolzilla use a cut point of 3.0 unweighted GPA. Of course, your school system’s unique context matters, so GPA cut points and types can be configured.

Keep reading to find out more about what GPA metrics are available in Schoolzilla and how they are calculated.

GPA Metrics in Schoolzilla

Schoolzilla supports two types of GPA metrics: Cumulative GPA and Term GPA. The latter metric may be implemented to show data at the term level (e.g., S1) or grading period level (6-Week), depending on how your data are collected and stored in your student information system and grade books. We also offer Schoolzilla GPA calculations for customers using Powerschool and Aeries API.

Cumulative GPA
Currently available for Aeries, Aeries API, Aspen, eSchoolPlus, Focus, Infinite Campus, Tyler, and Synergy. For Powerschool customers, a Schoolzilla GPA calculation is available.

Metric Definitions

  • District and School Level Metrics: Percent of students with cumulative GPA greater than or equal to 3.0. To change the 3.0 cut point, please submit a Support ticket.
  • Student Metric: Student’s cumulative GPA

Defaults

  • GPA Calculation: Unweighted By default, Schoolzilla uses the unweighted GPA Type from your SIS (label of GPA Type may vary by SIS). To change the calculation type (e.g., Unweighted with Bonus Points), please submit a Support ticket.
  • GPA Type: Cumulative
  • Grade Level at the Time: 9-12 To adjust the grades included, please submit a Support ticket.

Configurations

  • Metric name, definition, goals, and visibility can be configured in Metric Settings.

Known Limitation

  • The trend line chart does not populate for cumulative GPA. Cumulative GPA calculates based on the latest term available for that student, and a student’s cumulative GPA values for past terms is not stored. To understand how GPA has changed over time, make sure the Term GPA metric is visible. This will help to evaluate when GPA fluctuated.

Term GPA
Currently available for eSchoolPlus, Infinite Campus, Synergy, and Tyler. For Aeries API and Powerschool customers, a Schoolzilla GPA calculation is available.

Metric Definitions

  • District and School Level Metrics: Percent of students with GPA in term greater than or equal to 3.0 To change the cut point, please submit a Support ticket.
  • Student Metric: Student’s GPA earned in the term.

Defaults

  • GPA Calculation: Unweighted By default, Schoolzilla uses the unweighted GPA Type from your SIS (label of GPA Type may vary by SIS). To change the calculation type (e.g., Unweighted with Bonus Points), please submit a Support ticket.
  • GPA Type: This is set up per SIS during implementation. To change the type of GPA (e.g., Rolling Term, Term), please submit a Support ticket.
  • Grade Level at the Time: 9-12 To adjust the grades included, please submit a Support ticket.

Configurations

  • We calculate results for each term group that you have set up in Data Configuration Settings. By default, term abbreviations from your source system are added to an Uncategorized group. You can create new term groups, put related values into each group and order the term groups. Grouping related values enables us to aggregate results across schools that have different term abbreviations for similar terms. The order enables us to display term groups in sequence on a trend line chart.
  • Metric name, definition, goals, and visibility can be configured in Metric Settings.

Schoolzilla GPA
For Powerschool, Aeries API customers, Cumulative and Term GPA metrics are available using Schoolzilla GPA calculations. These metrics are currently only available for grades 6-12.

  • Cumulative GPA: Calculates GPA for all courses a student has transcript grades within a single school level (e.g., High School or Middle School). The high school GPA would only include courses from grades 9-12 and middle school GPA only include courses taken when enrolled in grades 6-8
  • Term GPA: Calculates GPA for each term a student has final grades

A GPA calculation may use a combination of the following weighting types:

  • Credit Weighting

    • Simple: All courses are weighted equally loading, OR
    • Weighted: Courses are weighted based on how many credits they are worth. Mathematically we use the SUM(GPA Value * Attempted Credit Hours) / SUM(Attempted Credit Hours)

  • Grade Weighting

    • Unweighted: GPA is based on the unweighted GPA points (typically A = 4 points), OR
    • Weighted: Grades are weighted based on the GPA Weighted Grade. We populate this based on GPA Points + GPA_AddedValue from the STOREDGRADES table in Powerschool. For Projected GPA, we also used Grade_Points + AddedValue from the GSI table for weighting gradebook grades.

In addition, Schoolzilla supports two additional types of cumulative GPA calculations, which are NOT used by default:

  • Rolling Cumulative: Calculates GPA for each term, including all grades from before that term within a single school level
  • Projected Cumulative: Calculates GPA for all courses a student has transcript grades, plus the current term’s grades (in-progress grades)

By default, Schoolzilla GPA Metrics use a Simple-Unweighted GPA calculation and shows GPA only for grades 9-12. 

Frequently Asked Questions

We use Powerschool for grades. What GPA types are available?

For Powerschool customers, the metrics use Schoolzilla GPA types. This source system does not have an option for us to pull GPA aggregations directly. The calculation requires courses with a valid section ID (excludes courses where Section ID = 0).

Where are GPA Types sourced from?

For most source systems, we pull in GPA types directly from the system. The exceptions are: Powerschool which uses Schoolzilla GPA; Aeries_API uses Schoolzilla GPA for Term GPA only.

As we add new GPA Types, you can view how each is defined by referencing the GPACalcDescription field in the data block, if you have the advanced plan.

Can I build a custom deep dive?

Yes. For Enterprise customers, please refer to this article.

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