GradeBook Year-End Meeting

May 15, 2013

Welcome & Introductions

NameDistrictFavorite Actor or Actress

13.3.1, 13.4 & 13.4.1 Release DiscussionKnown Issues

Browser IssuesUser timeouts – timeout value is 60 min

Receiving reports of premature timeouts mostly in StudentInformation

Password Expirations

Password ExpirationsCurrent 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

Password Expirations

Common issue at end and start of the school year

Passwords expire every 350 days

District Mass Password ResetsDistrict 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

Password Changes

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

Password ChangesUsers 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

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

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. 

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”

Year-End Report Card Generation

Opening Report Card WindowsAdmin 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

Summer Rollover

Tentative Date – July 17th Estimating minimal downtime again this year, hoping to limit it to just one day!Case Management ClassesBe sure to set “Retain during rollover” flag before July 17thTeachers and rosters are retained

so there may be updates needed at start of school

Summer Rollover

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

Summer RolloverWhat’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

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

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

Year-End Reports Class Progress Reports

• Includes comprehensive class progress reports for all teachers and classes for the entire year

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.

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

Archiving Report Cards No procedure available for MEC to mass

archive the GradeBook Report 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

Back to School ChecklistsTwo 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 MUST to 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!

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

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

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!

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

Report Card ChangesTwo Report Card Builder Trainings offered May 8th

May 21st (two seats still open)

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 GradeBook website http://www.mecdc.org/ProgressBook.aspx

May 22nd May 28th May 29th June 5th June 12th June 19th July 31st August 7th

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 GradeBook website: 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

Contact and Listserv UpdatesPlease review the Contact List and the Listserv Subscriber List and indicate any changes that need to be made

Open Discussion ForumAny questions on anything that was covered?

Anyone have any other items they would like to discuss or share?