The following guide is to assist in simplifying and demystifying the grade reporting process for students in our courses. Even if your students are exclusively taking online courses, you may still have some end of semester reporting to receive your student’s grade report, so keep reading! 

 

What courses can I report?

You can only report grades for courses your student is officially registered in. If you wish to register in an additional Kolbe or non-Kolbe course, please fill out a Course Change Request Form for your advisor to review and approve prior to submitting your grade portfolio.

Note: "In High School, students are permitted to report a maximum of 8 academic courses per semester."

 

What courses do I need to report?

You do not need to report any online Kolbe courses taught by our instructors; these will be reported by the teachers. Also, you do not need to report in the portfolio any courses taken at other schools that you intend to transfer in by sending us the official transcript. The courses you need to report in this portfolio are:

 

1. Any non-academic courses like PE, Fine Arts, Music, etc.
2. Any Kolbe courses taken in the homeschool, self-paced, and digital homeschool formats.
3. Possibly self-placed plus. The self-paced plus format has two reporting options. One of these is a parent reporting option. Please see self-paced plus reporting below.
4. Any non-Kolbe courses that you want on the Kolbe transcript.
5. Any online course your student is auditing.
6. Lab work for science labs, if seeking the "with Lab" notation on the transcript.

Note: “It is important to remember that review of portfolios of sample work is a service of Kolbe Academy, not a requirement. However, if reports are not filed, recommended grades provided on the report card cannot be validated for the purpose of issuing diplomas or providing an official grade record."

 

How does my student earn the "with Lab" notation on their transcript for high school lab sciences?

For Kolbe courses, please see the course plan for details. For non-Kolbe courses please see the Non-Kolbe Curriculum Providers article in our Help Center.

 

A separate grade should NOT be given for the lab work but should be incorporated into the overall grade given for the course. Parents may determine the lab component's weight on the final grade, but typical values range from 15-25% of the total grade. Two written lab samples are needed per semester for lab credit on the transcript. These lab samples may be informal or formal lab reports. On the Grade Submission Form, you will use an "X" to indicate that your student is seeking the "with Lab" designation.
 

 

My student has a PE and Fine Arts course in Schoology. Do I still need to report these in the grade portfolio?

No. Submitting grades again in the grade portfolio may cause confusion and duplicate entries on the transcript. If your student has a Schoology account for a self-paced, digital homeschool, asynchronous online, or online course, they will have a Physical Education course and may have a Fine Arts course in Schoology. These courses contain only a reporting “assignment” for you and your student to complete at the end of each semester. In this assignment, you will verify that your student has completed the hours requirement for the course and provide a brief description of their activity. If you do this, you do not need to report these courses via the portfolio process. If your student is exclusively taking online courses, aside from PE or Fine Arts, you can complete all your reporting via Schoology and do not need to send in a grade portfolio. 

Note: "The primary educator will need to be logged into the student's Schoology account to complete these assignments."

 

Do I still need to submit work samples when reporting grades for Self-Paced and Digital Homeschool courses?

Yes. To report grades for these courses, please see our grade reporting articles for more information. We suggest starting with reviewing the "Grade Report Submission Overview" and the "Grade Reporting Guide" for your student's grade level to get started! 

 

How do I report grades for Self-Paced Plus courses? 

To understand the two options available for reporting Self-Paced Plus courses, please see our Reporting SP+ Courses article.

 

How do I report grades for Asynchronous Online courses?

The asynchronous instructor will automatically report term grades upon completion of a semester, unless the primary educator has opted out of teacher reporting. In this case, the asynchronous courses must be reported by the primary educator as if they were homeschool courses.

 

What is a Grade Portfolio?

A Grade Portfolio consists of the following items, which you will ideally compile into one PDF and email for 12th grade students to [email protected].

 

1. 9-12th Grade GRADE SUBMISSION FORM (GSF) – A two-page document including a checklist page and a grade submission page to report high school courses. The GSF must include: 

   • Student’s name 

   • Grade Level (eg. 12th) 

   • Reporting semester

   • Primary educator’s email address 

   • Course designation code

   • Semester letter grade for each course  

   • Primary educator's signature and date 

   • HONORS COVERSHEET – (Required only for high school honors courses.) 
      

2. SAMPLES – Two samples per subject per semester for each registered course you are reporting. Each sample must be completed by the student and reflect grading with a letter grade, percentage, or score (e.g. 42/45). Please label each sample with: 

   • Student’s name

   • Course/subject 

   • Assigned grade (letter or percent) 

   • Assigned semester  

   • Academic year 

Note:

• Sample scans must be legible; faded text, distant photographs, and other difficult to review samples will not be accepted.  Samples must show student work (eg. student answers to math questions, essays questions, answer selections, etc.) 
• If a link is provided, please allow permissions so the documents are easily accessible to anyone with the link.
• Grade sheets/books are not considered work samples.

• Samples do not need to include the entire assignment unless seeking the Kolbe or Honors designations. A good sample would be a page or two graded excerpt from an assignment.  

• If seeking a K or H designation, please reference the course plan and submit the correct samples for these designations. The H designation also requires an honors coversheet.

• Samples for online or computer-based courses can be print outs of graded tests and/or assignments. The print out must show questions and answers as well as the grade earned on the test/assignment.

• Computer science samples should indicate the assignment objective and information and display the student's work. Written work should also include something like: lines of code, coding journal/notes, and screenshots (if applicable). In addition, it is helpful to see the grading rubric for courses of this nature.

• No samples are required for the non-academic courses like Fine Arts, PE, and Music. Instead, please provide a description (type of activity, duration, frequency) on space provided in the Grade Submission Form.

• Videos, certifications of completion, and course descriptions for academic courses will not be accepted. In these cases, the course will be reported as a non-academic course with an automatic P/F grade.

  3. ATTENDANCE RECORD

• Submitted at the end of Semester 2
• Required for California residents
• Optional for non-CA residents
   

  4. HONORS COVERSHEET – Required only for honors courses

 

Where can I find these forms?  

• The Grade Submission Form and Checklist for all grade levels can be located on our Welcome Packet. The link to download the form is found halfway down the page under the header “Grade Submission Form and Checklist”. You can navigate to this page by searching for “Welcome Packet” in the Help Center or by navigating from the main page to Current Families > Filing Grade Reports > Learn More. 
• The Attendance Record is found on the same Welcome Packet page under the header “Course of Study.
• The Honor Coversheet is found alongside the course plan in the PowerSchool Parent Portal. Click the hyperlinked “[i]” in the S1 column of each course listing in your Quick Lookup view to find the hyperlinked coversheet available for download.

 

I Need Help Completing the Grade Submission Form and Checklist

For detailed help, please see our Completing the 9-12 Grade Submission Form and Checklist article. 

 

 I Need Help Scanning Documents

Please see our help article on How to Scan the Grade Portfolio Documents.

 

How should I submit this portfolio?

The following tips will help you submit a portfolio that is complete, easy to review, and likely to have a quicker turnaround. 
 

1. ONE DOCUMENT – Compile all portfolio documents into one PDF or a few scanned documents. The more scanned documents submitted over a long a period of time, the greater likelihood your forms or samples can get overlooked, misplaced, or misidentified. 
2. ONE EMAIL – Send all portfolio documents in one email or, if attachment size is an issue, at most a few well-labeled emails on the same day. 
3. CLEARLY LABELED – Labeling the subject line of the submission email with your student’s name, grade level, school year, the semester submitted ensures the email gets to the right team. Clearly labeling each document in the submission also ensures the team can review your portfolio accurately and efficiently.  
4. HSREPORTS or SENIORS – Email your portfolio directly to [email protected] for 12th grade students to ensure delivery. While advisors have accepted grade portfolios directly to their personal Kolbe emails in the past, and advisors may reach out to you directly with questions, all initial submissions and all follow-up sample submissions should be sent to this reporting inbox. This ensures that the team processing grade reports can prioritize the report correctly and that no submissions are lost with staff promotion or transitions. 
5. TIMELY– We recommend you submit your senior’s portfolio within 1-2 weeks of completing the semester. This recommendation is much shorter than other grade levels due to the unique needs of seniors. Please note:

• It is important to check graduation progress on PowerSchool after first semester to make sure all graduation requirements will be met. 
• Submit your senior's portfolio as soon as possible after completing the semester to allow enough time to meet college application deadlines and process diplomas/transcripts. 
• If the reviewers follow up with additional submission needs, you still have ready access and fresh memory for student work.

 

I Need a Visual Aid

Please see the visual guide below or scroll down to the bottom of this article to download this image as a PDF with clickable links. 

 

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Do you still accept submissions in the mail?

We’re still accepting grade reports by mail. This method does add time to the process due to transit and additional processing once it reaches Napa. After documents arrive they must be sorted, opened, and scanned before they are made available to the academic services staff for further processing. The portfolio will enter the queue on the date it’s marked as received in the office. Unfortunately, some families have also experienced significant delays and even lost mail in the past. For this reason you will want to be sure you have copies of everything you send in the mail. If you decide to send your senior’s portfolio by mail, please write “Attn: Seniors” in the address. We strongly recommend digital submissions to [email protected].

 

 

What is the “*D” column on the 9-12th Grade Submission Form?

This D stands for “Designation” and this column is where you indicate if you are taking standard, K (Kolbe), or H (Honors) designation for any Kolbe high school courses. For a brief review: 
 

• Standard designation indicates that you completed the Kolbe course plan but may or may not have modified it somewhat. Any two samples of student work from the course can be submitted. Submitting any two samples of high school course work will earn your student high school credit for the course.

• K (Kolbe) designation indicates that you completed the Kolbe course plan faithfully with minimal modifications. Specific, complete samples of certain tests are required to earn this designation. These specific samples are listed under the reporting requirements for K designation on each course plan. Submitting K samples to earn the K designation will ensure your student earns high school credit for the course. 

• H (Honors) designation indicates that you completed the honors version of the Kolbe course plan faithfully with minimal modifications. An honors cover sheet and specific samples are required to earn this designation. These specific samples are listed under the reporting requirements for K designation on each course plan. You can only earn this designation if your student is enrolled in the Honors version of the high school course. Submitting Honors samples to earn the Honors designation will ensure your student earns high school credit for the course. 

 

How long will it take for Kolbe Academy to process the grade portfolio?

We aim to send your student's finalized report card back to you within 3 weeks of our receipt of your grade portfolio. While it is our goal to return your grade report to you within a few weeks of submission, this is not always possible during our busier seasons. Submitting complete, accurate, and timely grade portfolios helps ensure your student has an official transcript ready when you need it! Please know that your student’s success is our goal. We make every effort to support you with the student records and documentation needed.
 

Will you expedite my senior's report?

We prioritize processing of senior grade portfolios, but your student cannot “skip the line” in the senior queue. Out of fairness, we process portfolios in the order they are received in the senior queue. You can expect to hear back from us with your senior’s updated transcript within 3 weeks of receipt.

If you submit multiple years at once, please anticipate a longer processing time. If you have previous grade levels that have not been reported, please send them in at the beginning of the school year for us to process ahead of time and avoid delays in processing your senior’s final transcript and diploma

 

May I wait until the end of the year to report everything?

We strongly advise against waiting until the end of senior year to report grades for several reasons:
 

1. If there are any problems, they can be caught after first semester while there is still time to course correct before graduation.
2. Seniors in the midst of college admissions will find that many colleges require mid-year reports. In these reports colleges require an updated transcript where they expect to see senior year progress and the completion of first semester courses. In this case, mid-year reporting is required.
3. One semester of records can be processed more quickly than two. This matters at the end of senior year because there are additional records (such as the graduation application) that must be processed after the grade portfolio.
    

Will you let me know if there are problems?

Yes, we will reach out to you if there are any questions or concerns with your grade portfolio submission. Please check your email regularly as this is our main line of communication regarding your student's records. When questions arise, your timely reply will help us to keep things moving as quickly as possible. 

 

Where can I find grade reporting guides for my students in other grades?

• Grade Reporting Guide: K-1
• Grade Reporting Guide: 2-5
• Grade Reporting Guide: 6-8
• Grade Reporting Guide: 9-11

 

Who can I contact for more information?

Please contact your family advisor or email [email protected] for any further questions you may have on the grade reporting process.