Starting A New School Year

Information must be provided so the new data files are set up properly. This menu selection is ONLY used for:

• First time installation

• Starting a new school year

• The start of the spring semester when four terms per semester is selected

Remove Previous Year Student Data from the Hard Drive (if Necessary)

If last year's grades were kept on the hard drive, they need to be erased before starting the new school year.

1. Make a back up copy of those grades to a diskette or CD-ROM before erasing the old files.

2. Erase the previous year files using the Utility | Delete Class Files menu selection. Your password to delte class files is your serial number displayed on the Help Menu About screen.

3. If you will be saving your student data in a different folder, you can delete the CO file from the program folder (C:\GRADES\). The CO file indicates the location of the student data. The file can be deleted with Windows Explorer. When Gradebook Power is started again, it will behave like a new installation.

If your data was saved on a diskette last school year, use a brand new formatted diskette for the new school year. Place the brand new diskette in the A:\ drive, and then start the program. The following dialog box will be displayed:

Click Yes. The following screen will be displayed.

Drive / Folder Location

Decide if student grade data will be kept on a diskette or in a folder on the hard drive.

Some network administrators may require your data to be stored in your home directory or on a floppy diskette. The decision or where you store your primary student data will affect the location of your student data back up. Each choice has advantages and disadvantages. Select the disk drive (and optional folder) to be used for saving your student data.

If your student data will be saved on a diskette, select either A: or B:. Your grades do not have to be in a folder on the diskette.

If your student data will be saved in the same folder as the program (C:\GRADES\), do not change the displayed selection.

If your student data will be saved in a different hard drive folder, select the new drive letter and folder location. Make sure the complete drive and folder appears below the folder selection box.

School Year

Click on the spinner to change the school year. Gradebook Power defines a school year as starting in August and ending in June. A school year is divided into semesters. Each semester is divided into 1, 2, 3, or 4 terms. The correct number of terms (1, 2, 3 or 4) is needed so the correct number of empty files are created for recording grades.

Traditional School Year

A traditional school year is divided into two semesters. Semester 1 runs from August to January. Semester 2 runs from January to June. Most schools divide each semester into either 2 quarters or 3 terms. Colleges use one term per semester.

Block 4 Scheduling

Some schools are using a Block 4 schedule to complete a year's worth of academic work in one half of a school year. (about 90 student contact days). Students take fewer classes each day, but each class meets for a longer amount of time each day. Each of the two semesters of the Block 4 schedule includes about 45 student contact days for each semester. Each semester of the block schedule can include 1, 2, or 3 terms. Gradebook Power allows selecting either the fall or spring block.

Trimester School Year

The trimester schedule breaks the school year into 3 semesters (fall, winter, and spring). Each semester of the school year is divided into 2 terms (A total of 6 terms for the school year). The strict dictionary definition of semester is one-half of a year (6 months). The Gradebook Power program screens, manual, and help file uses the terms semester and trimester to mean the number of major parts in the school year (either 2 or 3). When the program, manual, or help file refers to a semester, it means the major part of the school year. In the case of a trimester schedule, the reference is to the fall, winter, and spring semesters.

Starting Term Number

Click the spinner to select the starting quarter (term) number. If you were beginning the program at the start of the school year (August), you would answer 1. The spring semester starts with term 2 for colleges, term 3 for those having 2 terms per semester, and term 4 for those having 3 terms per semester. These options indicate a regular school year.

Click the Continue Button

Make sure your information is correct before clicking the Continue button. Two files will be created. The CO file is created in the program folder, It indicates the location of the student data folder. The file CONFIG.GRD is created in the student data folder. The CONFIG.GRD file will eventually contain class names, and other values used by Gradebook Power. At this time most values will be blank, or contain default (start-up) settings. The following dialog box is displayed.

After clicking the OK button, the following informational dialog box is displayed.

Click OK to close this dialog box. Click the OK button in the lower left corner to close this window. You are ready to enter your class names.