Set default grading settings for teachers in your districts

Supported editions for this feature: Education Plus. Compare your edition

As an administrator, you can set default grading settings in the Google Workspace Admin console for your teachers’ classes. When a teacher creates a new class in Google Classroom, these default settings are populated for the class. This saves teachers’ time and helps ensure consistency across classes in your school.

You can set default settings in the following areas:

• Grading periods: Set grading periods and their dates. 
• Grade calculation and categories: Set a grading system, determine how grades are calculated, choose whether overall grades are shown to students, and add grade categories. 
• Grading scales: Set grading scales for all classes.

Teachers can still edit or delete these settings for their classes if they choose. 

If any of the settings need to be changed or deleted, you can quickly do so by making your updates in the Admin console. But note that any changes you make to default settings will apply only to new classes going forward, not existing ones. 

Set default grading periods

You can set default grading periods based on organizational units. If you create a grading period at a parent organizational unit, it will propagate to the child organizational units. 

1. Sign in to the Admin console.
2. In the Admin console, go to Menu  Apps Google Workspace  Classroom.
3. Click the Default grade settings section.
4. From the menu, click the name of the organizational unit you want to set the grading period for. 
5. Click Grading periods. 
6. For Grading periods, select On.
7. Enter a name for your grading period. Grading period names must be unique.
8. Enter your Start date and End date. Start and end dates for grading periods can't overlap.
9. To add additional grading periods, click Add Grading period.
10. Click Save.

You must manually update your grading periods before each school year.

Set default grading scales

You can set default grading scales based on organizational units. If you create a grading scale at a parent organizational unit, it will propagate to the child organizational units.

1. Sign in to the Admin console.
2. In the Admin console,  go to Menu  Apps Google Workspace  Classroom.
3. Click the Default grade settings section.
4. From the menu, click the organizational unit you want to set the grading scale for. 
5. Click Grading scales.
6. For Grading scales, select On.
7. Select a Grading scale. 
   • Choose from 3 preset scales:
     • Proficiency
     • Letter grades
     • 4 point scale
   • Create a custom scale. To create a custom scale, click Create grading scale.
8. For Level, enter the grading level.
9. For Min. %, and Max. %, enter whole numbers.
10. To add an additional level, click Add Level.
11. Click Save.

Set default grade calculation and categories

You can set default grading systems and categories based on organizational units. If you create a grading system at a parent organizational unit, it will propagate to the child organizational units. 

1. Sign in to the Admin console.
2.  In the Admin console, go to Menu  Apps Google Workspace  Classroom.
3. Click the Default grade settings section.
4. From the menu, click the organizational unit you want to set the grading system and categories for. 
5. Point to Grade calculation and categories, then click Edit .
6. For Grade calculation, select On.
7. Select a Grading system.
   • You can choose No overall grade, Total points or Weighted by category.
     • No overall grade is the default setting.
     • If you choose Weighted by category, the categories must add up to 100%.
8. (Optional) To Show overall grade to students, click On.  
9. For Grade category, enter a name for your grade category.  
10. For Default points, enter a whole number.
11. To add another grade category, click Add grade category.
12. Click Save.