This article will discuss importing final grades into System Administration to unlock Term Completion and DFW metrics — and lay the groundwork for what’s next.
Term Success Metrics
Term Success Metrics give teams an at-a-glance read of institutional health for any term, right on the Insights page under the Strategy tab. Enrollments appear from the imported enrollment data alone; Term Completion and Average Course DFW Rate come to life once final grades are imported into System Administration.
Success Metrics on the Insights page (Strategy tab), with term selection and year-over-year comparison.
What these metrics display
- Enrollments — the total distinct students enrolled for the term (commonly called headcount), counted once each regardless of course load — the institution’s primary measure of total term enrollment.
- Term Completion — measured across distinct student enrollments: of the students enrolled that term, how many finished — earning a final grade rather than withdrawing or leaving work incomplete. An early, term-by-term pulse on persistence, well before end-of-year reporting.
- Average Course DFW Rate — among course enrollments with a final outcome, the share that ended in a D, F, or withdrawal. It’s counted per enrollment rather than per student, so a student in several courses is reflected in each — which is what makes it a course-level signal, pointing to the gateway courses and modalities where students struggle.
Read together these metrics connect cause and effect: DFW shows where students struggle at the course level, while Term Completion shows the institution-level result. Comparing them year-over-year turns raw grade data into a signal that can be presented to a provost or a program review.
Step 1 — Gather and prepare final grades for a term
Build a grades.csv file with three columns, matching the format shown below.
| Column | Format & Rules | Details |
| Required • valid email | Student identity. Example: nportman@example.edu | |
| section_id | Required • alphanumeric | Ties the grade to a section. Examples: BIO-110-001, EDU101SEC01SP2019 |
| final_grade | Optional • 1–3 chars | Allowed: A, B, C, D, F • W (or “Withdraw”) • I (or “Incomplete”) • P (or “Pass”) • Null |
Sample file:
| section_id | final_grade | |
|---|---|---|
| michael.berry@example.edu | ORGANC399_SU2025_03 | A- |
| richard.pratt@school.edu | ELATE172_SU2025_02 | D |
| michelle.daniels@example.edu | DDTA149_FA2025_02 | C |
| melissa.mccormick@school.edu | CLSMT342_SU2025_03 | P |
| angela.nelson@school.edu | NATURC265_SP2025_02 | B- |
Step 2 — Import final grades into System Admin
In System Administration, go to Courses & Sections → Import Data → Import Grades, then upload the grades.csv file.
System Administration › Courses & Sections › Import Data › Import Grades.
Step 3 — (Optional) Import a prior year to compare year over year
Import a grades.csv for the prior year the same way. This powers the Compare To → Previous Year selector, so each metric shows its year-over-year change.
How grades are counted today
A standard scale currently applies to all institutions: A, B, and C count as passing; D (grade points 1.0–1.9) and F (0.0) count in the DFW group; W and I do not count as completing. Institution-specific configuration through the Grades & Scales tab in System Administration is on the near-term roadmap, so your metrics will soon reflect your own grading conventions.
What’s next: your grade data powers Watermark Currents
Importing grades does more than light up today’s metrics — it builds the foundation for Watermark Currents, an upcoming conversational intelligence tool for Institutional Research & Effectiveness. Currents will let your team ask questions of this same data in plain language — “Which programs have the highest DFW rates and the lowest completion?” — and get synthesized, cited answers. Every term of grades you import now makes those insights richer the day Currents arrives.
To learn more about Watermark Currents register for its Aug. 6 webinar