Location: Set in the Categories tool, accessed in Grade Book > expand Settings menu > Categories; Planner > My Curriculum > click Section name > Categories; Progress Monitor > Settings > Categories
The Drop Lowest Score feature marks as dropped the lowest scored assignment (by percentage) for a category for each student. This setting is applied in the Categories tool and is applied at the category level.
The dropped score is determined through a series of steps:
First, the feature creates a list of possible scores to drop for each student based on the following characteristics:
- The assignment must be active.
- The score field must be not null; in other words, some kind of score must be entered, including an entered shortcut such as M: Missing.
- The score must not be flagged as exempt.
Next, the feature assigns a percentage value to each acceptable score based on the following logic:
- If the Score Type is Assignment Marks and the score does not equal a valid mark score, or if the Score Type is Points and the score is not a shortcut key or number, the score will not be considered among those to be dropped because it is not in a valid format that the calculation can consider.
- Assignments with valid scores entered will calculate as a percentage of points possible.
- If an assignment has a score entered of M: Missing or Ch: Cheated, that score will calculate as 0%.
Assignments scored as M or Ch will be assigned a percentage of 0. Scores flagged as missing or cheated using the Context Menu will not be considered in the calculation because the score is Null. Keep this in mind when using this feature. For example, if the score of a "cheated" assignment should not be among those considered to be dropped, mark it using the checkboxes in the context menu rather than the "ch" keyboard shortcut.
- If an assignment has a score entered of M: Missing or Ch: Cheated, that score will calculate as 0%.
Finally, the feature marks the score with the lowest percentage value as "dropped" and removes the dropped flag from any other score for that student. As long as the Drop Lowest Score checkbox is marked, this calculation will run each time an assignment score is changed.
In the event of a tie between multiple assignments, the score with the highest points possible is dropped.
