Don't Just Grade - Grade Happy

Happy Grader is a semi-automated, computer-based grading program for teachers.  Designed by Jeff Simon (Math Dept Chair, Sage Creek High School), it provides an electronic means of assigning full- and partial-credit scores for any type of test question, even open-ended.

• Developed to:
  1. Save teachers time
  2. Increase consistency in grading 
  3. Facilitate the transition to the Smarter Balanced computer-based testing system.  

• Students take traditional pencil-and-paper assessments, but submit their responses to the teacher via a Google Form. The teacher then downloads the Google spreadsheet to Excel

• Initially, Happy Grader runs in “Rubric Building Mode” to assist the teacher in assigning full- and partial-credit scores for students’ responses to each question. Happy Grader stores the teacher’s grading patterns in a scoring guide, along with any standards-based comments that the teacher chooses to provide. These scoring guides can later be shared between colleagues and applied to future similar assessments.

• Happy Grader then runs in “Student Grading Mode” to guide the teacher in scoring additional student responses that had not been previously identified in the scoring guide. The program also facilitates the scoring of rubric-based constructed response items that students may have been prompted to type.

• Once grading is complete, Happy Grader reports summary statistics, prints mini grade reports by student, and generates standards-based feedback sheets for each assessment.

Happy Grader is available at no charge to active Carlsbad Unified School District employees at www.happygrader.com/carlsbadusd.html.  Be sure to download the free Demo Version first and read the system requirements and FAQs. Please note that Happy Grader is configured only for PCs at this time.  Other interested teachers can purchase it for $10 by contacting Jeff Simon directly at jeff@happygrader.com.