GradeBook Year-End Meeting May 15, 2013

1. GradeBook Year-End MeetingMay 15, 2013

2. Welcome & Introductions Name District Favorite Actor or Actress

3. 13.3.1, 13.4 & 13.4.1 Release Discussion • Known Issues • Browser Issues • User timeouts – timeout value is 60 min • Receiving reports of premature timeouts mostly in StudentInformation • Password Expirations

4. Password Expirations • Current bug • Users are unable to reset their passwords from the Central “Password Expired” Screen • Passwords must be reset in StudentInformation until the bug is fixed

5. Password Expirations • Common issue at end and start of the school year • Passwords expire every 350 days

6. District Mass Password Resets • District ProgressBook Coordinators or StudentInformation Team Leaders can request a District mass password re-set • Submit a helpdesk ticket to request a mass re-set • Specify in the ticket an approximate date you would like the reset to be done • Also specify if you want the new passwords sent as an email to the individual users or sent in a single file to whomever requests the re-set

7. Password Changes Teachers can change their passwords from the Teacher Homepage in GradeBook(if enabled in District Features)

8. Password Changes Users Can also change their passwords by selecting CentralAdmin from the Quick Launch Menu then clicking on the dropdown in the upper right corner and selecting Change Password

9. Upcoming Future Releases 13.5 – May 22nd (tentative) 13.6 – June 7th (tentative) 14.0 – August 2nd (tentative) An email will be sent out once an installation date has been set

10. Software Answers Beta Site Logins The Software Answers Beta site is updated every Thursday morning between 9am – 11am.  Draft Release Notes are available on the login screen. 

11. Year-End Report Card Generation • GradeBook> Run Report Cards • Users must now select the Reporting Period(s) they want to print on the report cards • User must select at least one reporting period • If the report card selected has a current comment template piece mapped you will also see the option to “Select a Reporting Period for Current Comment”

12. Year-End Report Card Generation • Opening Report Card Windows Admin Home Page > Reporting Periods > Entry Dates Column > Edit link • Open window for last grading period and any additional reporting terms your building(s) need to enter marks for • Examples: Exam2, 2nd Semester Average, Final, All Year

13. Summer Rollover • Tentative Date – July 17thEstimating minimal downtime again this year, hoping to limit it to just one day! • Case Management Classes • Be sure to set “Retain during rollover” flag before July 17th • Teachers and rosters are retained so there may be updates needed at start of school

14. Summer Rollover • What’s Deleted? • Teacher’s, courses, and classes • Daily and period attendance records • Students’ addresses • Students’ homerooms

15. Summer Rollover • What’s Retained? • ProgressBook system settings • Parent/Student Access Website Administration settings • Parent/Student Access Website class home pages • Student, parent, and staff login account information • Student contacts and addresses with IEP’s • Named codes • Report Cards • Courses Associated with standards-based report cards • Student information • Assignment and homework banks • Lesson Plan Banks • Special Services district and user banks

16. Summer Rollover • Optional Scripts Available • Purge Assignment Bank • Deletes Assignments that are older than three years • Can adjust number of years at District’s Request • Purge Teacher Lesson Class History • Deletes lesson plans from lesson bank that are older than three years • Can adjust number of years at District’s Request Note: Scripts are only ran if District’s Request for MEC to run them • Enhancement Requests Submitted • Additional script to purge Homework Bank • Ability for teachers to manage their own bank items

17. Year-End Reports • Reports cannot be generated until Rollover is completed • Will schedule batch jobs to run between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. after rollover is completed • During this time the system will be operational, however, users may encounter slowness due to the processing requirements of the report generation jobs • Typically takes 10 days to complete reports for all Districts • Email will be sent when reports are available for download from FTP server • Instructions for downloading will also be attached to notification email

18. Year-End Reports • Class Progress Reports • Includes comprehensive class progress reports for all teachers and classes for the entire year

19. Year-End Reports • Period Attendance Report • Includes a file for each school building that has used Period Attendance. The reports lists the period attendance by reporting period for each student that had period attendance entered during the school year.

20. Year-End Reports • Enhancement Request Submitted • Daily Attendance Report • We requested Software Answers include a report that could be generated for each school building that has used Daily Attendance. Also requested the report include any Daily Comments that were entered for each student • Software Answers provided us with a script to generate a District CSV file that contains the Daily Attendance and Daily Comment information • Script will be ran this year for each District and CSV file will be copied to FTP Server

21. Archiving Report Cards • No procedure available for MEC to mass archive the GradeBookReport Cards for Districts • Districts are encouraged to produce a copy for their records prior to the rollover (July 17th) • Copies can be printed, saved to a PC or server, or burnt to a CD NOTE: Once rollover is completed report cards for previous year cannot be re-generated • MEC does provide access to the previous years’ database for District ProgressBook Coordinators • Individual student grades can be viewed from the Student Profile - Assessment tab

22. Back to School Checklists • Two Checklists Available • Back to School Checklist • Outlines tasks that need to be done: • Before July 1st • Before integration can be turned on • After rollover but before first day of School • Checklist for GradeBook Integration Startup • Outlines tasks that MUSTto be completed before integration can be turned on • Signed form must be received before MEC will begin integration setup process • Teachers cannot begin using GradeBook until Integration is turned on! Note: Once form is received by MEC, integration setup can take up to two days to complete. Please plan accordingly!

23. Teacher Yearly Setup Steps • Must be completed before teachers can begin entering assignments • Setup must be done on ALL Classes • Step 1: Setup Assignment Types • Step 2: Setup Calc Methods & Weights • Step 3. Setup Grading Scales • Standards Based Report Cards – teachers must select Custom Setup 2 • Secondary Report Cards – teachers need to select Custom Setup 1 and select the appropriate grading scale

24. GradeBook Configuration Utility • Only available for Districts that use Standards Based Report Cards • Can only be ran for Active Report Cards • Eliminates a lot of start of year issues • Mass sets Grading Scale Setup options for teachers who have courses attached to the report card the utility is ran for • By default will only change classes currently set to Default Setup • Override option is available Use Override Option with Caution! NOTE: Teachers must still complete yearly setup steps 1 and 2 on the previous slide

25. Report Card Changes • Standards based report card changes must be done before teachers can complete their yearly setup steps • Work with your building staff to determine any changes that need to be made before the school year ends so that you will have plenty of time to make the changes over the summer Don’t wait until the last minute!

26. Report Card Changes • MEC offers consulting services to Districts for creating or changing standards based report cards at a cost of $100.00 per hour or $500.00 per day • Quote requests for the upcoming school year must be received by MEC before July 15th • You must provide specific details on the work you would like done

27. Report Card Changes • Two Report Card Builder Trainings offered • May 8th • May 21st (two seats still open)

28. Summer Open Lab Dates • Open to any GradeBook or StudentInformation users • Can work on completing start of year checklists, scheduling, report card changes, etc. • Registration Information can be found on MEC GradeBookwebsite http://www.mecdc.org/ProgressBook.aspx

29. Beta ParentAccess • All Districts will be using the Beta ParentAccess version at start of the 2013/2014 School Year • Classic ParentAccess will no longer be available • The most up-to-date manuals are available on the MEC GradeBookwebsite: http://www.mecdc.org/ProgressBook.aspx CAUTION: There may be additional changes made to the product between now and the 14.0 release in August

30. Contact and Listserv Updates Please review the Contact List and the Listserv Subscriber List and indicate any changes that need to be made

31. Open Discussion Forum Any questions on anything that was covered? Anyone have any other items they would like to discuss or share?