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HARMONY HAPPENINGS LOGIC KEY, INC/OCTOBER, 2016

For all Harmony 3 users, there is no need to print or even email your report cards out! Instead, once report cards have been created, you will simply publish them to the Harmony 3 Family Access. This process will make the report cards available to parents and students.

After report cards have been created, select the ones you wish to publish in the Guidance…Report Cards view. Check the box by “Name” to select all report cards at once. Then click the “Publish Report Cards” button.

Once the report cards are published, you will be prompted as to whether or not your wish to notify parents. Regardless

of what you choose here, report cards will still be available to parents. However, you may wish

to send parents an email to let them know that the report cards are available!

What is the best way to get report cards to my parents and students?

Did you know that you can check the grade book preferences selected by teachers at any time?

Before report cards are run, it is a good idea to check over their preferences to ensure that everything has been set up correctly.

Harmony 2

1. In the classroom navigator, go to View…Go To…Check Preferences.

2. In this view, you can see each teacher with all their grade books listed under them. Use the column headers to see what items they picked for their grading period, grading scale and grading method. You can also see if the grade book is finalized.

3. If there are any errors in the settings for a grade book, you can double-click on the grade book from this view. Then go to Tools…Change Preferences to correct the settings.

Harmony 3

1. Go to Classroom…Check Preferences to look at the preferences they have selected on each grade book. In this view, you will see the grading scale, grading method and finalized status for each grade book.

2. Use the filter at the top to narrow down the view to a particular grading scale, teacher, grading method, etc.

3. If there are errors in the settings for a grade book, touch right on the grade book from this view. Then go to Tools…Change Preferences to correct the settings.

It’s almost time for report cards! Are you ready??To make sure your attendance shows correctly on report cards, please make sure the following items are entered correctly…

▪ Grading period dates on your System Profile

▪ Days off on your calendar

Harmony will use the first and last days of the grading period as well as how many days off from school there have been to determine how many days are in the grading period. If the dates are wrong on the System Profile or days out of school have not been entered, the possible days enrolled will be incorrect.

In addition, you can easily check to be sure that teachers have finalized their grade books before report cards are generated. To do this, go to Guidance…Open Grade Books. Select the term and grading period you wish to review. This will display all open grade books for that term and grading period. Touch the email icon to send an email to teachers to remind them to finalize their grade books.

Want to get an early start on Next Year’s scheduling?

The next year scheduling area of Harmony is now set to 2017-2018. Any schedule changes, etc for the 2016-2017 school year will now need to be made in the current year area of Harmony.

You may use the next year area to get started on your master schedule, four year plans, course requests, and even student schedules when you are ready! Make sure to change your Scheduling Profile to 2017-2018 before you get started. To do this go to Office Use… System Settings an open the Scheduling Profile. Remember this profile allows you to control your scheduling options.

Mark your calendars to join us for the Customer Appreciation Dinner at the HECC conference!

When: November 10th at 6:30 pm

Where: The Old Spaghetti Factory

210 S Meridian Street

Indianapolis, IN

The Old Spaghetti Factory has been serving authentic Italian meals for over 45 years, and we look forward to sharing a meal with you!

The dinner will start at 6:30 PM on Thursday November 10, 2016. The restaurant is within walking distance from Union Station. We look forward to spending time with you!

Touch here to register for this fun-filled evening!

As you start your new grading period, please make sure to update your System Profile!

At the close of each term/grading period, your System Profile does need to be updated with the current term and current grading period. At this time, most schools will still be in term 1. However, as you move to your second grading period, please be sure to change that on your System Profile.

The grading period needs to be updated on the day your new grading period begins. This will not cause any problems with grade books that are still open or report cards that have not yet been run. Instead, changing this will ensure that your data will be accurately recorded for the new grading period. All new attendance entries and reports run do draw from the settings on your system profile!

Why should I use the Four Year Plans/Grad Track in Harmony?

Did you know that you can…

• Generate course requests with the course choices tied to the four year plan for the 2017-2018 school year. Students just select electives!

- There is no need to hand enter individual course requests for all students.

• In Harmony 3, four year plans can be set up to automatically generate a specific list of courses based on the Career Path the student is on.

- The Career Path can be created to include specific courses students need to take each year.

Contact us at support if you need assistance using this feature that will help Principals, Guidance Counselors, Students and Parents keep track of the graduation requirements including credits required, projected, earned and needed.

Harmony User Group (HUG)

Are you interested in hosting a Harmony User Group meeting? These sessions include updates from Harmony staff, open floor general questions, and help with specific issues. It is set up to be a flexible agenda. Our goal is to provide as much information as possible at NO COST. Your time is valuable and the intent is to bring the sessions close to you. We do request that the hosting school provide support so that all attendees can access their school data. If you are interested in hosting, please contact Carol Call at ccall@logickey.com.

JOIN US FOR A BIG HUG FROM HARMONY!

We often take support questions about what the “Percent by Category” method of calculating grades does or why it seems a grade isn’t calculated as expected when this method is used.

When using this method to calculate grades, the teacher creates at least two categories and assigns each category a weight. The sum of all category weights must equal 100%. When an assignment is created, a category from the drop down list must be applied to the assignment.

The grade book grade is determined by calculating a score from all assignments per category and then multiplying that score by the assigned weight of the category. The weighted category scores are then totaled to obtain the overall grade score from which the grading scale then assigns the letter grade.

We can look at a student’s assignment summary to easily see how the grade is calculated.

This grade book was created with two categories: formative – worth 20% and summative – worth 80%.

The top row shows that the student has earned 210 points from a possible 136 points in the formative category (this teacher offers assignments worth 0 points as bonus points). Divide 210 by 136 and the student has 154.41% for assignments in the formative category. The student has earned 126 from a possible 144 points on all assignments marked summative. 126/144 = 87.5%

In order to obtain the current grade we have to multiply each of those percentages by their assigned weight:

Formative: 154.41% x 20% = 30.88% Summative: 87.5% x 80% = 70%

Add the two totals together (30.88 + 70 = 100.88). The student has 100.88% for the class.

Often we get a support issue that says a student’s grade has gone down after an assignment was entered where they got a perfect score. In our example the next assignment is a formative assignment worth 5 points and the student got a perfect 5. The student now has 215 points out of a possible 141. When you do the math, you can see the grade actually does drop.

((215/141) x 20%) = 30.49. 30.49 + 70 = 100.49%

This understanding of how the percent by category method works should remove the mystery of how a grade book grade is calculated. Remember the assignment summary will always show the breakdown and is an important tool for teachers, students, and parents to understand how the final grade is reached.

Removing the Mystery from Percent by Category Grade Books

October State reports

DOE RT – Real Time – due each week. We are receiving several calls on conflicts within the same corporation. This means your data in Harmony does not match the previously submitted data on the STN site. Look up the student’s RT record on the STN application center and compare that to what you have in Harmony. It is usually a new enrollment or withdrawal date that has been updated. You can edit the record on the STN site or you can change the data in Harmony. The data must match!

DOE-GR Graduate report closes October 28. Please refer to the report layout for details.

DOE-TR Termination – SPED closes October 21. Please refer to the report layout for details

Opening

DOE-TL Test layout – ISTAR opened September 27. ECA Winter opened October 3. We have updated these layouts to the September 22 version.

DOE – CE Certified Employee – Collects data for all certified personnel. Purpose: The purpose of this data collection is to gather data on certified employees employed during the 2016-2017 school year. The data are collected for federal and state reporting and program monitoring. Impacts • Updating “C” data will update the EE (Educator Evaluation) source • Certified personnel CE data matches CC (Course Completion) student data • All CE records will require a CP record • Average teacher salary • Teachers who are certificated employees (as defined in IC 20-29-2-4 for teacher retention rate) First collection opened October 3 Closes November 14, 2016.

DOE-ER Educator Evaluation Rating Purpose: The purpose of this data collection is to collect the final summative rating on each educator in your corporation as required by I.C. 20-28-11.5-9. Impacts Per IC 20-28-11.5-9 the DOE must post this information on the website and report it to the State Board of Education no later than December 15 of each year. Opens October 24 and closes December 15, 2016

New Features: Graduation comparison report: Historical information covering the last 4 years for Graduation Rate, Types of Diplomas issued, Post High School Plans and listing of Student s not reported as Graduates. This is located on the Learning Connection –Report – Accountability – Graduate report.

SPN roster download has been improved to include employee’s full name. Application center – Data Verification-Roster Download-SPN (School Personnel Number)

As always, continue to send emails to support@logickey.com on any issues you have with State reports.