Dropping lowest score: Canvas vs. PowerSchool

ggongwer

A teacher at my school set up her coursework category to "Drop the lowest score" in both Canvas and PowerSchool (we use both).

At the end of the semester, 13 of her 78 students had different percentages, with 8 of those being corner cases, resulting different letter grades. And all of those scores were higher in Canvas.

I was wondering if anyone else has had such an experience?

Interestingly, I asked both chatbots how the lowest score is determined, and here is what they said.

Canvas: Canvas will drop the score that gives the student a better total score for the group.

Powerschool: If multiple scores are tied for the lowest, select all tied scores for potential dropping. The specific score to drop can be chosen based on additional criteria, such as the earliest occurrence or a random selection.

NatJohnston

This happened to me, though I only noticed a difference for one student. I wondered if Powerschool drops the lowest based on percentage, while Canvas does it based on what is hurting your score the most (e.g. 25/30 would be dropped before 3/6 for Canvas, but Powerschool would drop 3/6). But I would expect that to create more differences than I saw.

Not sure how the chatbot's explanation would lead to different scores, since if they are tied you should be able to drop either with equal effect. There definitely is some difference between PowerSchool and Canvas.