About Grades

Spark’s Grades feature gives schools and educational programs a flexible way to assess student learning. In Grades, you can:

• Create grade records using Mastery, Traditional, or Pass/Fail grading
• Link assignment submissions to grade records or enter grades manually
• Share grades in real time with guardians using Live Grades
• Create and share grade reports

This overview will introduce the main components of the Grades feature, how they work together, and how to get started.

Grading Strategies in Spark

When you create a Grade Record, you'll choose one of four Grading Strategies. Each strategy determines how grades are entered, calculated, and reported:

• Mastery
• Traditional Percentage
• Traditional Points
• Pass/Fail

Mastery Grading

Mastery grading focuses on whether a student has mastered specific learning standards or skills, rather than averaging scores across assignments. This strategy is often used in standards-based or competency-based education programs.

• Teachers define a list of learning objectives.
• Instead of giving a percentage or point score, teachers select a mastery level for each standard (such as “Beginning,” “Progressing,” or “Mastered”).
• The system can display each student’s progress toward mastery of the standards over time.

Mastery grading emphasizes growth and proficiency rather than comparing students to each other. It’s ideal for personalized learning models or programs focused on clear outcomes.

Traditional Percentage Grading

With traditional percentage grading, each assignment is given a percentage score (e.g., 87%) based on the student’s performance. Spark then converts these percentages into letter grades based on a grading scale you define.

• Teachers input the percentage earned on each assignment.
• You can customize the letter grade scale used by your program (for example, A = 90–100%, B = 80–89%, etc.).
• Final grades are calculated as a weighted or unweighted average of the assignment percentages.

This method is widely used in schools and is familiar to students and families.

Traditional Points Grading

With traditional points grading, each assignment is worth a certain number of possible points, and the teacher records the points earned by the student. Spark calculates the total points earned out of the total possible points and converts that into a letter grade.

• For example, if a student earns 85 out of 100 total points, their grade is 85%.
• Like with percentage grading, your school can define a custom letter grade scale.
• This method works well when assignment weights are tied directly to point values.

Points-based grading is simple to set up and works well when assignments have very different values (e.g., a quiz worth 10 points vs. a project worth 100 points).

Pass/Fail Grading

Pass/Fail grading is the simplest of all grading strategies. Instead of assigning a letter or numerical grade, the teacher indicates whether the student has passed or not passed either individual assignments or the entire course.

• No letter grade is calculated.
• Useful for internships, electives, participation-based classes, or programs where mastery is binary.

Pass/Fail grading reduces grading complexity and puts the focus on completion or competency instead of scores.

Choosing a Grading Strategy

You can select a grading strategy when setting up a Grade Record in Spark. Choose the one that best fits your educational goals for the course or subject. Spark supports multiple strategies across your school, so different teachers or programs can use the approach that fits them best.

Grade Records and Gradebooks

When first creating a Grade Record, you have the option to place it in a Gradebook for organizational purposes.

Gradebooks

A Gradebook is an organizational container that holds one or more Grade Records. They don’t contain the actual grades themselves—but they organize the records where the grades are entered. You can create a gradebook for:

• A specific student
• A classroom/pod
• A general subject
• A school term or academic period

To create a Gradebook:

1. Go to Grades → Books in the left-hand menu.
2. Click + Add New Gradebook.
3. Fill in the gradebook details (e.g., name, term, classroom).
4. Click Create Gradebook.
5. Add Grade Records to the gradebook. Records within a gradebook will inherit gradebook settings (term, classroom, live grade settings) unless this is turned off.

Grade Records

A Grade Record is the actual place where grades and assignments are entered. Each grade record is linked to a specific Grading Strategy (Mastery, Traditional Percentage, Traditional Points, or Pass/Fail).

Grade Records:

• Can live inside a gradebook or stand alone
• Contain assignments and student scores
• Can be used for individuals or groups of students
• Track progress according to the selected grading strategy

To create a Grade Record:

1. Go to Grades → Records.
2. Click + Add Grade Record.
3. Choose a Grading Strategy.
4. Enter the details (name, students, term, subject, etc.).
5. Create or select the Scales and Weight Categories or Learning Objectives.
6. Click Create Grade Record.

You can also choose to open a Gradebook first and add a grade record from there. Grade records created within a gradebook will automatically inherit that gradebook’s settings—such as term, classroom, and Live Grade settings—unless this option is turned off.

To learn more about how Live Grades work, see the Live Grades help doc.

Scales & Weights

Scales define how student performance is measured—whether through letter grades or mastery levels—and are applied in all grading strategies except Pass/Fail.

• In Traditional Grading, scales convert percentages or points into letter grades (e.g., A = 90–100%).
• In Mastery Grading, scales define performance levels such as Beginning, Progressing, or Mastered.
• You can create custom scales to match your school’s grading philosophy and apply them across multiple classes or grade records.

Weights define how an assignment score is computed in the final grade. Weights are only used in Traditional % Grading.

When creating a grade record, you can choose to create a new scale, select an existing saved scale, or proceed without a scale and add one later. After a grade record is created, scales can be created or edited at any time from the record’s Settings. The same options are available for category weight sets.

The Scales & Weights page is your central hub for managing saved grading tools. From this page, you can create, store, and edit grading scales (used in both traditional and mastery grading strategies) as well as category weight sets (used in traditional percentage-based grading).

Mastery Objectives

If you're using the Mastery Grading strategy, use the Mastery Objectives page to organize and store your objective sets for resuse in any grade record. Mastery, or Learning Objectives represent the learning objectives or skill areas students are expected to master.

• Teachers can create and organize sets of learning objectives by subject or course.
• These objectives can then be aligned with assignments in a grade record.
• Tracking progress toward these standards helps focus on student growth and proficiency over time.

Grade Reports

Grades can be shared in real-time with guardians and students through the Live Grades feature.

Official reports can also be created and printed or sent to guardians. Report types include:

• Report Cards: a summary of a student’s performance and progress during a specific grading period.
• PDF Reports: a more detailed view of student grades, offering expanded breakdowns of assignments. More PDF report types will be added.
• Transcripts: an official academic record that lists a student’s completed courses, final grades, credits earned, and often cumulative GPA. It provides a long-term summary of academic history, typically used for college admissions, transfers, or scholarships.

See our help docs for more information about Live Grades and each report type.