Entering Class Subject/Academic Standard Report Card Comments

You can enter comments that display on your students' report cards in your gradebook if your school office has enabled this feature. For each student, you can either choose a comment from the Comment Set that your District has created, or you can enter a freeform comment for the Grading Period, Subject, or Academic Standard. You can also enter the same freeform comment for your entire class as necessary.

Listed below are the sections for entering class subject academic standard report card comments.

  • Entering Comments for Grading Periods

  • Entering Comments for Subjects

  • Entering Comments for Academic Standards

Scroll past the video to access the step-by-step instructions.

Audio Transcript

Entering class subject and academic standard report card comments enables you to add comments to your students’ report cards individually or en masse. Depending on how your school office has configured report card comments, you may be able to enter comments using a pre-determined comment set or enter in free-form comments. For this video we’ll be going through how to enter subject and academic standard report card comments. Within the Teacher Access, we’ll navigate to the Gradesheet feature in the Gradebook module. We’ll select the class tile we want to add report card comments to. To add subject comments, we’ll click on the subject header. For our example, we’ll select the Math header. Within the Subject Options drop-down menu, we’ll click on the Add / Edit Comments for Subject option. Here, we have the option to add the same comment to all our students by entering a comment within the “Default Blank Comments to” field or enter individual comments by utilizing the Add Free Form Comment options next to each student. Since we want to enter the same comment for all our students, we’ll enter our comment within the “Default Blank Comments to” field. Let’s click the green checkmark to apply this comment to all our students. We’ll notice that this comment now displays next to each student. Let’s click Save & Back to return to the gradesheet. Next, we’ll add academic standard comments. Similarly, we’ll click on the academic standard heading that we want to add comments to. For our example, this will be our Mathematical Process Standards heading. Within the Academic Standard Options drop-down menu, we’ll select the Add / Edit Comments for Academic Standard option. If we have additional academic standards that we’d like to enter comments for, we could search for them within the Academic Standards field. For our video, we also want to add comments for the Recognizes numerals academic standard. We’ll notice that this academic standard now populates on the screen. Let’s add a comment for the Mathematical Process Standards and apply it to all our students. Again, we’ll enter our desired comment into the “Default Blank Comments to” field and then click the green checkmark. For the Recognizes numerals academic standard, we want to enter different comments for each of our students, so we’ll utilize the Add Free Form Comment option next to each of our students. Within the Free Form Comment drop-down, we’ll begin entering our comment for this student. Let’s click Done to apply this comment to this student. We’ll repeat this process for our remaining students. Once we’ve entered in all our desired comments, we’ll click Save & Back. Back on the Gradesheet, we’ll notice that we now have comment indicators for the subject and academic standards we just added. We can view these comments if we want, by clicking on the desired comment icons under the subject or academic standards headers. Now that you know how to enter class subject and academic standard report card comments, you can ensure that you’ll be able to add comments individually or en masse, depending on how your students are doing in class.

Entering class subject and academic standard report card comments enables you to add comments to your students’ report cards individually or en masse. Depending on how your school office has configured report card comments, you may be able to enter comments using a pre-determined comment set or enter in free-form comments. For this video we’ll be going through how to enter subject and academic standard report card comments. Within the Teacher Access, we’ll navigate to the Gradesheet feature in the Gradebook module. We’ll select the class tile we want to add report card comments to. To add subject comments, we’ll click on the subject header. For our example, we’ll select the Math header. Within the Subject Options drop-down menu, we’ll click on the Add / Edit Comments for Subject option. Here, we have the option to add the same comment to all our students by entering a comment within the “Default Blank Comments to” field or enter individual comments by utilizing the Add Free Form Comment options next to each student. Since we want to enter the same comment for all our students, we’ll enter our comment within the “Default Blank Comments to” field. Let’s click the green checkmark to apply this comment to all our students. We’ll notice that this comment now displays next to each student. Let’s click Save & Back to return to the gradesheet. Next, we’ll add academic standard comments. Similarly, we’ll click on the academic standard heading that we want to add comments to. For our example, this will be our Mathematical Process Standards heading. Within the Academic Standard Options drop-down menu, we’ll select the Add / Edit Comments for Academic Standard option. If we have additional academic standards that we’d like to enter comments for, we could search for them within the Academic Standards field. For our video, we also want to add comments for the Recognizes numerals academic standard. We’ll notice that this academic standard now populates on the screen. Let’s add a comment for the Mathematical Process Standards and apply it to all our students. Again, we’ll enter our desired comment into the “Default Blank Comments to” field and then click the green checkmark. For the Recognizes numerals academic standard, we want to enter different comments for each of our students, so we’ll utilize the Add Free Form Comment option next to each of our students. Within the Free Form Comment drop-down, we’ll begin entering our comment for this student. Let’s click Done to apply this comment to this student. We’ll repeat this process for our remaining students. Once we’ve entered in all our desired comments, we’ll click Save & Back. Back on the Gradesheet, we’ll notice that we now have comment indicators for the subject and academic standards we just added. We can view these comments if we want, by clicking on the desired comment icons under the subject or academic standards headers. Now that you know how to enter class subject and academic standard report card comments, you can ensure that you’ll be able to add comments individually or en masse, depending on how your students are doing in class.



  1. To enter comments for grading periods, complete the following sub-steps.
    You can enter comments for grading periods using Comment Sets created by your District, or you can enter freeform comments for Subjects or Academic Standards that have a hierarchy depth level of two or greater. This is helpful if you want to track student progress within a Grade Bucket, subject, or academic standard but beyond the grade the student is receiving. For example, if a student is earning a B and you want to indicate that compared to the last Grading Period the student made significant improvements, you could enter a comment about their improvements. Additionally, you can enter comments for a specific subject or academic standard individually or en masse. For example, if you are entering freeform comments, you could indicate the student is Exceeding Expectations.

    Before you begin, the maximum number of characters for freeform comments must be configured for your entity in the Entity Group Configuration of the Grading module. Additionally, comment sets must exist for your district.

    1. Select Menu > Teacher Access > Gradebook.
    2. Select Gradesheet under Features.
      If you have not opened a gradesheet in your current session, you see the Gradebook Class List, which displays a Tile containing class information for each class you teach.

      If you have already opened a gradesheet in your current session, you return to the most recently opened gradesheet. To select a different class, click Class List near the top right of the screen.

    3. Verify you are in the correct school year by checking the information at the top left of the screen.
    4. Click the Tile for the class with the grading period you wish to add report card comments to.

      You see the Gradesheet for the class you selected.

    5. Click the column heading for the Grading Period you wish to enter report card comments for.

      You can only add report card comments in open grading periods.

      You see the Grading Period Options drop-down menu.

    6. Select Add / Edit Comments for Grading Period from the menu.

      You see the Student Comment List.

      If you only wish to enter comments for subjects, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you only wish to enter comments for academic standards, skip to sub-step h.

    7. Under the Comments For heading, enter one or more Subjects or click the Magnifying Glass icon to choose from the drop-down list, if appropriate.

      This field enables you to limit the subjects you can enter comments for. The subjects available for selection are based on the subjects attached to the grading period.

      You can click outside of the selection box once you have made your selections.

      Selecting one or more subjects displays the corresponding subject columns under the Student Sections heading.

      If you wish to enter comments for academic standards and the academic standard has a hierarchy depth level of one, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you do not wish to enter comments for academic standards, or if the academic standard has a hierarchy depth level of two or greater, and you wish to enter a pre-defined Comment code, skip to sub-step i.

      If you do not wish to enter comments for academic standards, or if the academic standard has a hierarchy depth level of two or greater, and you wish to enter a freeform Comment code, skip to sub-step j.

    8. Under the Comments For heading, enter one or more Academic Standards or click the Magnifying Glass icon to choose from the drop-down list, if appropriate.
      This field enables you to limit the academic standards you can enter comments for. The academic standards available for selection are based on the academic standards attached to the subject if those academic standards are made available within the grading period. Additionally, the comments you add to the academic standard will display on the report card for the Grade Buckets associated with the academic standards you select.

      You can click outside of the selection box once you have made your selections.

      Selecting one or more academic standards displays the corresponding academic standard columns under the Student Sections heading.

      If you wish to enter pre-defined Comment codes, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you wish to enter freeform Comment codes, skip to sub-step j.

    9. Under the Student Sections heading and in the appropriate comment column, enter the Comment Code in the "Default Blank Comments to" field or click the Down Arrow icon choose from the drop-down list.

      For example, you can use this option to mass assign a well-behaved Comment code after you have manually entered the Comment codes for students who need improvement in their behavior. This option only displays if you are using pre-defined Comment codes.

      All the blank comment boxes automatically populate based on the Comment code you selected.

      If you wish to enter freeform Comment codes, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you do not wish to enter freeform Comment codes, skip to sub-step k.

    10. Under the Student Sections heading, enter a comment in the "Default Blank Comments to" field and click the Checkmark icon to the right of the field.

      For example, if you are entering a comment for the math subject, you could enter Exceeding Expectations.

      The freeform comment you enter in this field applies to all students.

      Alternatively, you can click Add Free Form Comment to the right of a student's name to add an individual comment. If you choose to enter an individual comment, enter the freeform comment in the field that displays in the Free Form Comment drop-down menu and click Done near the bottom right of the window to return to the Student Comment List.



      The Student Comment List displays comments for specific subjects and academic standards.


      The freeform comment is applied to each student. If the box for Display Student Comment Indicator is checked on the Gradesheet Display sub-tab of the Gradesheet Settings screen, a comment indicator replaces the Add Free Form Comment option.
    11. Repeat sub-steps i or j for each subject or academic standard you selected.
    12. Choose one of the options near the top left of the screen to save your work.
    OptionDescription
    Save & Back Saves your changes and you return to the Gradesheet. If the box for Display Student Comment Indicator is checked on the Gradesheet Display sub-tab of the Gradesheet Settings screen, a comment indicator displays in each grading period row you added a comment for.
    Save Changes Saves your changes and you remain on the Student Comment List.

    You have successfully entered comments for grading periods.

  2. To enter comments for subjects, complete the following sub-steps.
    You can enter comments for Subjects using Comment Sets created by your District, or you can enter freeform comments. This is helpful if you want to track student progress within a subject but beyond the grade the student is receiving. For example, if a student had poor math scores and you want to indicate that compared to the last scores the student made significant improvements, you could enter a comment about their improvements. Additionally, you can enter comments for a subjects individually or en masse. For example, if you are entering freeform comments, you could indicate the student is Exceeding Math Expectations.

    Before you begin, the box for Subjects must be checked for the Allow Comments for field for your entity in the Entity Group Configuration of the Gradebook module. Additionally, the maximum number of characters for freeform comments must be configured for your entity in the Entity Group Configuration of the Grading module, and the comment sets must exist for your district.

    1. Select Menu > Teacher Access > Gradebook.
    2. Select Gradesheet under Features.
      If you have not opened a gradesheet in your current session, you see the Gradebook Class List, which displays a Tile containing class information for each class you teach.

      If you have already opened a gradesheet in your current session, you return to the most recently opened gradesheet. To select a different class, click Class List near the top right of the screen.

    3. Verify you are in the correct school year by checking the information at the top left of the screen.
    4. Click the Tile for the class with the subjects you wish to add report card comments to.

      You see the Gradesheet for the class you selected.

    5. Click the column heading for the subject you wish to enter report card comments for.

      You see the Subject Options drop-down menu.

    6. Select Add / Edit Comments for Subject from the menu.

      You see the Student Comment List.

      If you wish to enter pre-defined Comment codes, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you wish to enter freeform Comment codes, skip to sub-step h.

    7. Under the Student Sections heading and in the appropriate comment column, enter the Comment Code in the "Default Blank Comments to" field or click the Down Arrow icon choose from the drop-down list.

      For example, you can use this option to mass assign a well-behaved Comment code after you have manually entered the Comment codes for students who need improvement in their behavior. This option only displays if you are using pre-defined Comment codes.

      All the blank comment boxes automatically populate based on the Comment code you selected.

      If you wish to enter freeform Comment codes, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you do not wish to enter freeform Comment codes, skip to sub-step i.

    8. Under the Student Sections heading, enter a comment in the "Default Blank Comments to" field and click the Checkmark icon to the right of the field.

      For example, you could enter Exceeding Math Expectations.

      The freeform comment you enter in this field applies to all students.

      Alternatively, you can click Add Free Form Comment to the right of a student's name to add an individual comment. If you choose to enter an individual comment, enter the freeform comment in the field that displays in the Free Form Comment drop-down menu and click Done near the bottom right of the window to return to the Student Comment List.



      The Student Comment List displays comments for a subject.


      The freeform comment is applied to each student. If the box for Display Student Comment Indicator is checked on the Gradesheet Display sub-tab of the Gradesheet Settings screen, a comment indicator replaces the Add Free Form Comment option.
    9. Repeat sub-steps g or h for each subject you selected.
    10. Choose one of the options near the top left of the screen to save your work.
    OptionDescription
    Save & Back Saves your changes and you return to the Gradesheet. If the box for Display Student Comment Indicator is checked on the Gradesheet Display sub-tab of the Gradesheet Settings screen, a comment indicator displays in each subject row you added a comment for.
    Save Changes Saves your changes and you remain on the Student Comment List.

    You have successfully entered comments for subjects.

  3. To enter comments for academic standards, complete the following sub-steps.
    You can enter comments for Academic Standards using Comment Sets created by your District or you can enter freeform comments. This is helpful if you want to track student progress within an academic standard but beyond the grade the student is receiving. For example, if a student was struggling reciting numbers 0 - 100, and you want to indicate that compared to the last academic standard assessment the student made significant improvements, you could enter a comment about their improvements. Additionally, you can enter comments for a specific academic standard individually or en masse. For example, if you are entering freeform comments, you could indicate "Surpasses Reciting Numbers 0 - 100".

    Before you begin, the box for Academic Standards must be checked for the Allow Comments for option for your entity in the Entity Group Configuration of the Gradebook module. Additionally, the maximum number of characters for freeform comments must be configured for your entity in the Entity Group Configuration of the Grading module, and the comment sets must exist for your district.

    1. Select Menu > Teacher Access > Gradebook.
    2. Select Gradesheet under Features.
      If you have not opened a gradesheet in your current session, you see the Gradebook Class List, which displays a Tile containing class information for each class you teach.

      If you have already opened a gradesheet in your current session, you return to the most recently opened gradesheet. To select a different class, click Class List near the top right of the screen.

    3. Verify you are in the correct school year by checking the information at the top left of the screen.
    4. Click the Tile for the class with the academic standards you wish to add report card comments to.

      You see the Gradesheet for the class you selected.

    5. Click the column heading for the academic standard you wish to enter report card comments for.

      You see the Academic Standard Options drop-down menu.

    6. Select Add / Edit Comments for Academic Standard from the menu.

      You see the Student Comment List.

      If you are entering comments for the primary academic standard, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you are not entering comments for the primary academic standard, skip to sub-step h.

    7. Under the Student Comment Bucket Details heading, enter one or more Academic Standards or click the Magnifying Glass icon to choose from the drop-down list, if appropriate.
      This field enables you to limit the academic standards you can enter comments for. The academic standards available for selection are based on the academic standards attached to the subject if those academic standards are made available within the grading period. Additionally, the comments you add to the academic standard will display on the report card for the Grade Buckets associated with the academic standards you select. This field only displays if you are entering comments for the primary academic standard.

      Selecting one or more academic standards displays the corresponding academic standard columns under the Student Sections heading.

      If you wish to enter pre-defined Comment codes, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you wish to enter freeform Comment codes, skip to sub-step i.

    8. Under the Student Sections heading and in the appropriate comment column, enter the Comment Code in the "Default Blank Comments to" field or click the Down Arrow icon choose from the drop-down list.

      For example, you can use this option to mass assign a well-behaved Comment code after you have manually entered the Comment codes for students who need improvement in their behavior. This option only displays if you are using pre-defined Comment codes.

      All the blank comment boxes automatically populate based on the Comment code you selected.

      If you wish to enter freeform Comment codes, continue to the next sub-step.

      If you do not wish to enter freeform Comment codes, skip to sub-step j.

    9. Under the Student Sections heading, enter a comment in the "Default Blank Comments to" field and click the Checkmark icon to the right of the field.

      For example, you could enter "Surpasses Reciting Numbers 0 - 100".

      The freeform comment you enter in this field applies to all students.

      Alternatively, you can click Add Free Form Comment to the right of a student's name to add an individual comment. If you choose to enter an individual comment, enter the freeform comment in the field that displays in the Free Form Comment drop-down menu and click Done near the bottom right of the window to return to the Student Comment List.



      The Student Comment List displays comments for an academic standard.


      The freeform comment is applied to each student. If the box for Display Student Comment Indicator is checked on the Gradesheet Display sub-tab of the Gradesheet Settings screen, a comment indicator replaces the Add Free Form Comment option.
    10. Repeat sub-steps g or h for each academic standard you selected.
    11. Choose one of the options near the top left of the screen to save your work.
    OptionDescription
    Save & Back Saves your changes and you return to the Gradesheet. If the box for Display Student Comment Indicator is checked on the Gradesheet Display sub-tab of the Gradesheet Settings screen, a comment indicator displays in each academic standard row you added a comment for.
    Save Changes Saves your changes and you remain on the Student Comment List.

    You have successfully entered comments for academic standards.

Result(s)

You have successfully entered report card comments for grading periods, subjects, and academic standards.