Student Pacing Tool: Mentor Toolkit

Modified on: Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 6:58 AM

About

The Student Pacing Tool, introduced in Summer 2025, replaces traditional pacing documents by providing students with a personalized assignment schedule based on their enrollment and course end dates. This tool is designed to streamline planning, simplify grading workflows, and enhance communication among students, teachers, and mentors.

Important: This tool applies only to courses in Brightspace. Essentials credit recovery courses delivered through the Buzz learning management system are not supported by the Student Pacing Tool.

How to Leverage This Toolkit

Familiarize Yourself:
Explore the information and resources below to understand how the Student Pacing Tool works and how it enhances the gradebook.
Inform and Support Your Students and Their Guardians:
Use the student- and guardian-facing materials to help explain pacing and progress reporting. These are especially useful for start-of-term orientations and check-ins.

Why This Change Matters

Research shows that consistent pacing is the key to student success in online learning. The Student Pacing Tool will provide students with real-time progress in Brightspace. While it automatically enters a zero for missed target dates, students can still submit work afterward, balancing accountability with the flexibility needed for mastery learning.

This tool encourages student ownership and accountability, while offering mentors and instructors transparent, timely insights into student progress. It’s also a powerful tool for check-ins and interventions—supporting both proactive and responsive mentoring strategies.

Key Features

Real-Time Grades: The Grade-to-Date metric provides an up-to-the-minute snapshot based on completed and graded work.
Personalized Due Dates: Automatically generated from the student's start and end dates in each course.
Assignment Tracking: Students can view submission status, due dates, and how many days an assignment is overdue (if applicable).
Downloadable Schedule: Students (and mentors) can export a personalized PDF schedule to stay organized offline.

Resources for Mentors

Student Pacing Tool - Mentor View
Overview of how the tool functions and what mentors can see.
Video: Student Pacing Tool for Mentors and Schools
A brief video highlighting key features of the tool.
Student Pacing Tool: Mentor FAQs
Common questions with mentor-specific guidance.

Gradebook Enhacements

Grade-to-Date: Represents the student’s performance on all assignments that have been assigned and graded so far.
Student explanation: "This is your current score. It reflects how you’re doing at this point in the course." Note: Mentors may choose to use the Grade-to-Date metric for local reporting purposes, such as eligibility checks.
Overall Score: A projection that includes all course assignments, even those not yet submitted or graded.
Student explanation: "Think of this as your exit grade—if you stopped working today and earned zeros on all remaining assignments, this would be your final score."

Communication Tools for Students & Guardians

To support transparency and strong partnerships with families, consider sharing these helpful articles:

Need Support?

If you have questions or would like to speak with someone directly, please reach out to the Mentor Support Manager or our Customer Care Team. We're here to help!