Get Creative with Report Cards in The Education Edge

Did you know that the report card form in The Education Edge allows you to customize and modernize your report cards? Report cards don’t have to be plain and contain only a grade for the term.

We work with a lot of clients that utilize The Financial Edge or The Education Edge, many of whom use our MailOmatic for Schools solution to enhance the communication with parents by automating the sending of information such as report cards, tuition statements, schedules, general notices, invitations, upcoming events, etc. Whether or not your school has an online portal where parents/guardians can log-in and see their student’s grades, it is essential to provide this information directly to these individuals.

With technology ever increasing, it is important to provide this type of system for your parents. However, let’s not forget that these same parents/guardians are incredibly busy and it is your responsibility as a school to keep these parents informed. Therefore, many schools have taken a dual approach – provide the information on demand, but also send it to them. Put the information in their hands where it can be quickly and easily accessed; send it to their work or personal email. While today we are going to focus on report cards, this is true of most communications and our clients have used MailOmatic for Schools to send personalized data as frequently as you wish to these parents/guardians/students/etc.

For today, we want to provide you with some of the basics for navigating the creation and editing of your report cards.

Font

You’re not limited to one font; you can choose a different font and size on the General tab. If your school prefers a landscape layout, this can be selected here as well.

Layout

Over on the Format tab, under Header, you can change the layout so that the student’s name and school name are side by side, or stacked. You can also add your school’s logo. Under School Information, you can change the location of the School Name and Address.

Display

There are many items to display for the student under Student Information. Advisor, rank, current grade, and cumulative GPA are just a few of the items that can be included in the header.

Details

The Details tab allows you to specify exactly what you want to see for different sections of the report card.

Open the courses section and add different columns for each detail item. Add each marking column for the current term here. You can include the teachers’ names and the number of credits each course is worth.

Course Notes

Course notes can also be added to the report card. Attendance information based on the course can be added, and you can specify which attendance codes to include. If your school uses Skills, these can be shown for the courses.

Additional Sections

Other sections, in addition to courses, can be included in the report card. You can show overall attendance for the grading period. GPA, activities, and conduct are some examples of different sections available. Open each section to customize what is seen on the report card.

Summary/Notes

The Summary/Notes tab gives you space to add free form notes that can apply to each student. This is a good area to include the grading scale your school uses.

Other sections can be added under Summary/Notes, similar to the Details tab. Sections such as test scores and academic summary can be included. With columns for each section, your parents can see summarized information that spans the academic term.

Many parents want to see more than just a number or letter grade when it comes to their child’s academic performance. The Report Card form allows you to share a lot of customized details for the current term. Show them you care with a bit of creativity and begin to put this information into their hands easily and quickly!