Master Grade Software

After briefly searching and experiencing what the internet has to offer in terms of gradebook utilities, a piece of software called Master Grade by Maxium Developments seems to be capable of fully meeting the needs of my physical education curriculum. The software is available for a free 30-day trial at http://www.maxium.com/index.htm.

The software offers an array of options for easy use by teachers. The product allows for unlimited numbers of classes and students to be stored in one gradebook. Editing and sorting classes is an option at any point in the process of completing grades. Even personal information can be stored about particular students, including a photo of the student, gender, grade, phone number, home address(es), and email address(es). Also, the software allows for an entry of an unlimited number of reporting periods and exam periods and weighting this periods accordingly. Perhaps the most useful portion included with this software is the ability to tailor a number of different scales to meet the needs of the educator. For example, a teacher may customize scales according to certain percentages which can then be translated into equivalent letter grades. Even more useful, in my opinion, is the ability to create "special scores" that may deal with attendance, participation, not handing in assignments, etc.

Of course, educators are able to enter grades and view student progress whenever necessary. More useful for a health educator than a physical educator may be the ability to create and utilize a seating chart using student photos. As with other grading software, there is a large bank of comments that can be assigned to students respectively. Progress reports can be emailed to those who may want to view them (parents, principles, classroom teachers, etc.). Finally, anecdotal information may be typed in the form of notes for any individual student.

One last major upside to this software is that is can be used by those educators who prefer Mac OS X as well as Windows users. The versions for both operating systems appear to be fairly streamlined and customizable. Downsides to using this software appear, at least at first glance, to be few and far between. At times, however, it seems that the weighting system is a bit confusing in that the category for"weighting" appears at multiple points in the gradebook. Additionally, although there is a separate "gradebook" for attendance, it is unclear as to where to include participation - whether it should fall into the term reports section or into the actual gradebook as a "special score".