How HexerSMS works out terminal reports

In most schools, report day means a pile of mark books, a calculator and late nights. HexerSMS, the school management system we're building for Ghanaian schools, is meant to change that: in its own words, reports are worked out, not written out.

HexerSMS is still in development. This post explains how it turns a term's scores into terminal reports.

The mark book

Teachers enter scores into a mark book that works like the paper one. Each assessment type, like class work or a class test, can have several dated scores in a term, each out of 100. HexerSMS averages them.

On a phone, the mark book shows one assessment at a time, down the class list, the way a teacher marks a paper mark book. Each score saves as the teacher moves on.

The weights

Each school sets how much each kind of work counts, on its Grading System page. Every row there becomes a column in the mark book. Rows are either class score (the term's continuous assessment) or exam, and the weights have to add up to 100.

A new grading scale starts at class work 10, homework 10, class test 20 and exam 60. With one click, a school can switch to the GES 50/50 split instead: four class tasks (individual test, group exercise, class test and project work) at 12.5% each, and the end-of-term exam as the other 50%. Schools can also add columns of their own.

The sums

For each subject, HexerSMS works out:

• The class score: the weighted average of the class score columns
• The exam score: the weighted average of the exam columns
• The total: class score plus exam score

Then, for each pupil:

• The overall average: the average of their subject totals
• The position: their rank by overall average among the pupils in that class that term, shown on the report as, for example, "3 of 37"

The pass mark is 50 unless the school sets another. Nursery reports don't show a position.

Locking marks, and fixing mistakes

When a teacher finalizes a subject, its marks lock. If they spot a mistake after that, they send a correction request for that one score. The school office approves or rejects it, and an approved correction updates the averages.

Remarks

For each pupil, the class teacher writes a comment and a conduct remark. When they're done, they submit the class's report cards, and they appear on the administrator's dashboard, ready to generate.

Generating and publishing

The office generates reports for a whole class at once, for a term, as a midterm or terminal report. Report templates set how they look:

• The layout: standard, detailed or compact
• How marks show: as a percentage, a letter grade, or on the scale of 1 to 9
• What's included: grades, attendance, teacher's comments, behaviour, and developmental milestones for nursery

Reports start as drafts. The office publishes them one at a time or all together, and only published reports appear in the pupil's portal.

What's on the report

Each report has the school's logo, name and contact details at the top, then the pupil's name, Student ID, class, position and overall average. Below that is a table of subjects with class score, exam score, total, grade and remark, followed by attendance, comments, the date next term begins, and lines for signatures. Reports print on A4 from the browser.

Nursery works differently. Instead of subject marks, the class teacher records developmental milestones across physical, cognitive, social, emotional and language development, and each one shows on the report as achieved or developing.

Where it stands

HexerSMS isn't open to schools yet. If you run a nursery, primary or JHS school and want early access, email us at info@hexerize.com, or look around the preview.