My Small School District versus The Giant MOSIS Chris Warden West St. Francois County R-IV

1. My Small School DistrictversusThe Giant MOSISChris WardenWest St. Francois County R-IV

2. About Me* Married; have 2 children* Work at West St. Francois County R-IV School District in Leadwood, MO (1hr 20min south of St. Louis)* My wife is the Elementary School Nurse* District Technology Director*whatthe-tech.com

5. About My District* 1000 students* 100 staff* 3 schools (elementary, middle, high)* 3 Principals* 3 Secretaries* 3 Counselors* 1 Superintendent * 1 Central Office “Core Data” Person* 1 Person in the Tech Dept

6. About My District* Third Year with PowerSchool* Before PowerSchool, Lemberger

7. Fast FactIn 2006-2007, the Technology Dept spent an estimated 3 hours/month on student data.This school year, the Technology Dept estimates 12 hours/week on student data.

8. Fast Fact“The increased requirements from DESE concerning state reporting/MOSIS and the technical aspects to how and what data district’s must collect and report has affected the Technology Department’s responsibilities and workload. The Technology Department is now actively involved with training to faculty/staff, state reporting, working with Central Office and each Building Office to ensure state reporting and student data is accurate, as well as standard workorders.”

9. Once upon a time, in the land of Dese, there was a little school district named David R-4. Life was good at David R-4, everyone was happy, all the students learned and played every day, all the staff enjoyed their responsibilities, even the task of tracking student data. Everyone was nice to one another, even the Tech Guy was nice and helped everyone he could…

10. Until one day, King Dese, king of the land of Dese, decided things should be different, and that schools like David R-4 should not enjoy student data. And so King Dese announced that there would be a new sheriff to govern over all the schools in Dese. The sheriff’s name was Gosis, which stood for Goliath Student Information System.

11. David R-4 didn’t like Gosis. The school district often felt like it was a battle of good versus evil, the school versus the state, the little guy versus the big monster… My School District versusThe Giant GOSIS

12. Actually… it’s My Small School DistrictversusThe Giant MOSIS

13. How to defeat the giant task at hand:* Training* Documentation* Work Month by Month* Reports* Know your data* Troubleshooting Skills

14. Training:“After a hard day of basic training, you could eat a rattlesnake. “ – Elvis Presley

15. Training:* At the start of the school year, we have “Boot Camp.” A day’s worth of training with all the secretaries, counselors, principals, all PowerSchool Admin staff.* This is a time to cover any changes that took place over summer, and a time to quickly review the in’s and out’s of student data and state reporting.

16. Training:* Throughout the year, we have “PowerSchool Admin Meetings.” These are usually targeted towards just the secretaries, just the counselors, just whoever needs to come at the time of the meeting.* This is a time to cover any issues that have been coming up that need explanation, and is a good time to quickly review state reporting requirements.

17. Training:* We have a “PowerSchool Admin Email List.” Everyone who has PowerSchool Admin access is a member of this list.* Use the email list to send out reminders on things coming due, to announce server downtime, server updates and changes, MOSIS errors that need corrected, anything and everything student data related.

18. Documentation:“The palest ink is better than the best memory. “ – Chinese Proverb

19. Documentation:* We created a “PowerSchool Handbook.”* This Handbook will continually be edited with content. I.E. Create a Word document, save it as html, and make it accessible to staff on a website.* Every time something new comes up, add it to the handbook.

20. Documentation:

21. Documentation:

22. Documentation:So now, every time an issue is addressed in the district, it can be addressed individually first, then documented in the handbook for future use.“Please refer to the handbook.”

23. Work Month by Month:“How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour, and gather honey all the day from every opening flower.” – Isaac Watts

24. August:Secretaries – update lunch status, demographics, “state – mo,” make sure we’re ready for Student Core and Student Enrollment/AttendanceCounselors – enroll new students, fill out “state – mo,” demographics, make sure we’re ready for Student Core and Student Enrollment/AttendanceCentral Office – remind buildings of Student Core and Student Enrollment/Attendance, get reports ready for MOSIS upload

25. September:Secretaries – review/update staff info, confirm/update transportationCounselors – review/update courses and sections especially “state report information,” review/update “special programs”

26. October:Secretaries – make sure we’re ready for Student Core, confirm info under “transfer info,” transportation countCounselors – Course Assignment and Student Assignment is due, so make sure we’re ready, and make sure we’re ready for Student Core, confirm info under “transfer info”Central Office – remind buildings of Student Core, Course Assignment, and Student Assignment, get transportation count to buildings, get Educator Core and Educator School ready, review staff info, get reports ready for MOSIS upload

27. November:Counselors – review/update info under “Student Core” and “Special Programs”

28. December:Secretaries – make sure we’re ready for Student Core, confirm demographics, “state – mo,” “transfer info”Counselors –make sure we’re ready for Student Core, review “special programs” and “transfer info”Central Office – remind buildings of Student Core, get report ready for MOSIS upload

29. January:Secretaries – confirm/update transportation

30. February:Secretaries – transportation count, make sure Student Core is ready, confirm “demographics,” “state - mo,” and “transfer info”Counselors – make sure Student Core is ready, High School Student Graduate Follow-Up is due, confirm the info for graduated students under “state – mo grad follow-up information”Central Office – get transportation counts ready, remind buildings of Student Core and Graduate Follow-Up, get reports ready for MOSIS upload

31. March

32. April:Secretaries –make sure we’re ready for Student CoreCounselors – make sure we’re ready for Student CoreCentral Office – remind buildings of Student Core, get report ready for MOSIS upload

33. May:Secretaries – have the items for June complete before you leave for summerCounselors – have the items for June complete before you leave for summer, if students are going to be retained, enter exit code into PowerSchool, enter graduating exit codes

34. June:Secretaries –make sure we’re ready for Student Core and Student Enrollment/Attendance, make sure we’re ready for Discipline Incident and that all discipline logs have been entered into PowerSchool, confirm remedial hoursCounselors –make sure we’re ready for Student Core and Student Enrollment/AttendanceCentral Office – remind buildings of Student Core, Student Enrollment/Attendance, and Discipline Incident, get reports ready for MOSIS upload

35. July

36. Reports:“We need to talk about your TPS reports…” – Office Space

37. Reports:Click under “Reports,” “State Reports”

38. Reports:* MO Attendance Hours Audit Report* MO Attendance Hours by School and Grade Level Report(use a calculator to manually divide the totals for an attendance percentage)

39. Reports:* Student Core Extract* Student Enrollment and Attendance* Educator Core Extract* Educator School Extract* Course Assignment* Student Assignment* Student Graduate Follow-Up* Student Discipline Incident Extract

40. Know your data: “Data is not information. Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not understanding. Understanding is not wisdom.” – unknown(Side Note: I don’t actually know what this means…)

41. Know your data:The most important pieces of student data are: Demographics, State/Province – MO, Lunch (for status), Transfer Info, Scheduling…but ALL are still important.

42. Know your data:* Initial Enrollment is key.* “What should I fill out?” Fill out EVERYTHING, every field on every page, not just the “enroll new student”* Someone should click on every page for each student* Someone should be responsible for every field in PowerSchool. You can know that your data is correct if you can know that someone is being responsible for it.

43. Troubleshooting Skills: “I got the skills to pay the bills.” – Beastie Boys

44. Troubleshooting Skills:* Excel, working with spreadsheets* DESE documentation* Core Data Manual* MOSIS documentation* DESE phone calls* PowerSchool support* MOPSUG* PowerSchool fields and MOSIS fields

45. How to defeat the giant task at hand:* Training* Documentation* Work Month by Month* Reports* Know your data* Troubleshooting Skills

46. Here’s a Quick Recap:* Train, train, train* Document, document, document* Know what you’re doing each and every month in regards to state reporting* Know what reports to run to audit your data, and know what reports to run to collect your data for MOSIS* Know your data, correct/validate your data* Know how to troubleshoot through MOSIS issues

47. Questions/Comments?cwarden@westco.k12.mo.usWhatthe-tech.com