October 2020

As the end of the quarter approaches, your teachers will need to go through the ReportCard input process.  This means an administrator will allow input, the teachers will enter grades into the ReportCards and then the administrator will close input.  From there, you can either print the ReportCards or permission them to be viewed by parents online.

Opening up teacher input for 1st Quarter ReportCards will require:

  • Changing input for 1st mid-quarter from ‘Allow Input’ to ‘Input Complete’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Changing input for 1st quarter ReportCards from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Having teachers go through the 1st quarter ReportCard input process
  • Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’

If your school started in late August or early September, then you may be gearing up for mid-quarter reports.  FastDirect allows you to create mid-quarter reports in two different ways. Click here to read about the two different ways to create progress reports.  If your school has chosen the import process, then here are the functions that will need to be addressed:

  • Confirming the 1st mid-quarter dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Changing input for mid-quarter from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Having teachers go through the mid-quarter ReportCard input process
  • Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’

Previewing your report cards is a very important step and should be completed during these first few weeks of school. This step involves looking over each grade level’s report cards to make sure all courses, sub-categories, grade scale and layouts look correct. When you complete this step early in the school year, you help support your your teachers by making sure they have what they need and reduce last minute report card corrections at the end of the grading period. Please note that report card changes can take up to a week to process.

Here are the steps to view a report card:

  1. Go to ‘Grades’
  2. Choose a homeroom instructor in the ‘select instructor’ drop down then click the ‘view instructor’s grade book’ button
  3. Click the button ‘view report cards’
  4. When the homeroom roster appears, click ‘print’ next to any child’s name

Here are the components to review on a report card:

  • Course names
  • Course subcategories
  • Grade scales/marking codes
  • General formatting, for example school header, course list columns, layout

Click here to read the FAQ on how homeroom teachers can view their report cards!

Click here to read the FAQ on how administrators can view report cards!

If your school uses trimester scheduling, then you may be gearing up for mid-trimester reports.  FastDirect allows you to create mid-trimester reports in two different ways. Click here to read about the two different ways to create progress reports.  If your school has chosen the import process, then here are the functions that will need to be addressed:

  • Confirming the 1st mid-trimester dates in ‘Grades’ then ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Changing input for mid-trimester from ‘Not Yet’ to ‘Allow Input’ in ‘ReportCard Input Controls’
  • Having teachers go through the mid-trimester ReportCard input process
  • Closing the input process by changing ‘allow input’ to ‘input complete’

Previewing your report cards is a very important step and should be completed during these first few weeks of school. This step involves looking over each grade level’s report cards to make sure all courses, sub-categories, grade scale and layouts look correct. When you complete this step early in the school year, you help support your your teachers by making sure they have what they need and reduce last minute report card corrections at the end of the grading period. Please note that report card changes can take up to a week to process.

Here are the steps to view a report card:

  1. Go to ‘Grades’
  2. Choose a homeroom instructor in the ‘select instructor’ drop down then click the ‘view instructor’s grade book’ button
  3. Click the button ‘view report cards’
  4. When the homeroom roster appears, click ‘print’ next to any child’s name

Here are the components to review on a report card:

  • Course names
  • Course subcategories
  • Grade scales/marking codes
  • General formatting, for example school header, course list columns, layout

Click here to read the FAQ on how homeroom teachers can view their report cards!

Click here to read the FAQ on how administrators can view report cards!

Tuition’s ‘Show All’ report has been redesigned with filters! The filters for this report allow you to view members or non-members, grade ranges, and a posting filter. For example, if you only want to post to Member families with students in preschool who only get charged on the 15th, now you can make that happen! Here are the steps to view the Show All report with filters:

  1. Go to Finance
  2. Click on ‘Tuition Setup/Log Receipts/Post Payments..’
  3. When the page loads, underneath the option to select individual parents are the new filters.  Chose the information you need and click ‘Show All Families’ Tuition’

Here are explanations for each filter:

  • Min/Max grade levels – Allows you to specify which grade levels you want in the report
  • Members/Non-Members – For schools that track which families are part of the school’s church
  • Allow Post – Posting for families can happen at any time during the month but this filter allows you to choose to only post for families whose specific posting date has occurred or post to any family, regardless of their posting date for the month

In the Cafeteria section of FastDirect, the ‘Display Today’s Orders’ sheet may have a ‘CASH ONLY’ flag next to some students’ orders.  This is how the system lets you know that the family has reached their maximum credit allowance.

Click here to read the FAQ that explains the ‘Cash Only’ flag.

Click here to watch the Cash Only video tutorial as an MP4! or watch it in Youtube!

When entering in grades in your grade book, it is important to know how entering in letter/symbol grades vs. number grades can yield different results. When entering in grades in FastDirect (either in the grade book or in a report card), we recommend using number grades (instead of letter/symbol grades).  The reason why is because when the system calculates grades that have a letter/symbol, then the system must use the click percentage. The click percentage (or click value) is a numeric equivalent of a letter grade (ie. A=100; B=90).  The click % provides the system a way of calculating a letter grade by giving it an exact numeric value. Therefore, when a student receives a grade of a B+, the system needs to use the click % for that grade, which is specific to the grade scale that has been applied to that course.

Click here to see examples of letter vs. number discrepancies

These examples (in the link above) show how using click percentages will slightly change a student’s grade over time.  While the report card grade differences can be minimal, grade book grade differences can be substantial especially if there are many grade book event grades.

Don’t want to log in to read your FDmail messages? With Email Forwarding, you can receive all FDmail messages directly to your email! Here is the FAQ that explains how to set up your parent account to receive Email Forwarding:

Click to hear to read the FAQ on Parent Email Forwarding!

If this is not an option at your school, contact a school administrator to let them know this is something you are interested in receiving.

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