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Meeting Details: 3:30-4:30pm at the District Education Center
Schools Represented: Bemis, Carter, Dunn, Eisenhower, Kolb, Kucera, Milor, Morgan, Morris, Myers, Simpson.
eSchool Gradebook Review
The committee held this special meeting to review the latest version of the gradebook component available for our current student information system, eSchool Plus. Below are some key features and important notes from this review. Teacher View:- Standards: Teachers can associate an assignment to one or more standards/competencies. These are pre-loaded at the district level and associated to specific courses. The overall score for a standard/competency can be the average, highest, etc. based on settings at the district level. Teachers can click the Competencies tab to see all assignments associated to a particular standard/competency.
- Rubrics: A built-in rubric tool provides common district rubrics and teacher-created rubrics. Teachers can also copy common rubrics to customize them if desired. Teachers can then use the electronic version of the rubric to score a student's work.
- Categories of Assignments: Categories (project, quiz, homework, etc.) are identified at the district/site level and teachers then select from this list the ones they want to use. They then designate the weight, rules for lowest and missing scores, etc.
- Grading Scales: These are established at the district/site level and the teacher selects the scale to apply to a class. They can then choose to assign a different scale to individual students for special needs populations.
- Entering Assignments & Grades:
- As with all gradebook programs, the teacher enters the assignment name, due date, category, description if desired, points/weight.
- They can also attach files and decide when the assignment and students' scores are published for parents/students to view.
- Assignments can be copied to additional classes in the teacher's gradebook.
- When entering grades, teachers can add a pre-set or free text comment to an individual student's score and decide if that comment is available for parents/students.
- NOTE: Parent access will be available at no additional cost, but the ability for teachers to enter assignments and grades from home will require an additional yearly investment estimated at $43,000 for the district.
- Students: New students automatically appear in the gradebook
just as they do in the attendance screen. Teachers can hide/show
inactive students' grades. If a student transfers from one class to
another, the gradebook grades do not transfer, even if they remain with
the same teacher and have the same assignments.
- Students' Grades in Other Classes: A teacher can see their students' report card grades in all classes, but not the current gradebook grades in their other classes.
- Report Card Integration: A single click will auto-load grades from the teacher's gradebook into the report card and progress report screen. Teacher can then review both numeric score and letter score as well as previous term's grades to make final adjustments as needed before clicking the button to submit the final grades.
- Reports: Teachers can print a variety of different reports for one or more students including detailed individual report, missing scores, assignment average charts, class average, and score threshold (list of students scoring below a certain score on a particular assignment).
Administrator & Counselor View: While the committee did not have time to actually view this side of the system, some important points were highlighted. - Grade Details: They can view the student's report card summary and click on a grade to see a snapshot of the gradebook assignments that class grade was based on.
- Published Classwork: They can see all the published gradebook entries for all the student's courses.
Parent/Guardian View: Parents will be able to use the Home Access view at no additional cost to the district. - Multiple Children: A parent can access all their children's grades from one login.
- Current Grades: They can view the gradebook assignments, scores, and comments the teacher has chosen to publish. They can also view percentages by category (i.e. average on tests) and overall grade.
- Graduation/Pathway/A-G Requirements: parents can see each of these lists and their child's current credits for each requirement. For example, the Graduation Requirements list would show all the courses and credits required to graduate from high school and their child's current credit earnings for each item.
- Transcript: Parents can view their child's current transcript online.
- eChalk Integration: It is possible to integrate eChalk and eSchool's parent access so they would have one login to access both systems. However, this would require an additional yearly cost estimated at $2,000.
Pilot Program: The district will be seeking schools with a large percentage of teachers willing to pilot the gradebook program in the 2010-2011 school year. Principals will be asked to poll their staff. If you have any questions or comments, please email Noelle Kreider at nkreider@rialtoschools.org or post a comment to this blog post.
Meeting Details: 3:00-4:30pm at the District Registration Center
Schools Represented: Dunn, Garcia, Henry, Kucera, Trapp, Werner
Cyberbullying: Principals will be introduced to the Keenan Safe Schools online training system this month. The effort to implement the cyberbullying course will commence after that, likely in February. Gradebook Programs: The committee has conducted an evaluation of the following programs: eSchool, Easy Grade Pro, and GradeQuick. The gradebook component of eSchool will be updated in the spring to include a standards component so the committee will review it again after this release. Some general comments were shared: - We own eSchool so it would not require funds to use this gradebook program. It would require funds for security features to allow teacher and student/parent home access. It also requires students to be loaded into courses via a master schedule, something we only do at the secondary level right now. It is a traditional gradebook - it does not currently have a standards component.
- Of the three programs, Easy Grade Pro did standards-based grading most effectively. It allows teachers to do traditional or standards-based grading. The standards-based student report states the standards with current grade on each and lists the assessments for each standard and the student's grade on each of these assessments. So it is very clear which standards are strong/weak and how each standard was assessed.
- GradeQuick had a nice interface but did not do an adequate job of reporting by standard. An assessment could be associated to one or more standards, but the standards report does not indicate what assessments were used to arrive at the score on that standard.
- Committee members expressed the desire to have DataDirector data auto-imported into the adopted gradebook program. However, the DataDirector representative said it is not possible and is not aware of any school district importing data from DataDirector into a gradebook program.
Technology Scope and Sequence: To meet state and federal requirements for ensuring students acquire technology and information literacy skills, the District Technology Plan indicates that Rialto will develop a scope and sequence of lessons at each grade level. These lessons will be embedded in the core content pacing guides and provide progressive skill development K-12. To initiate the development of this scope and sequence, the committee will ask teachers to submit lessons/activities they are currently using within the content areas. The committee developed an online survey that will be sent to teachers to seek their recommendations.
Meeting Details: 3:00-4:30pm at the Professional Development Center Schools Represented: Bemis, Carter, Eisenhower, Garcia, Henry, Kucera, Milor, Myers, Trapp, Werner Cyberbullying: Based on the committee's prior recommendations, all teachers and administrators will be asked to complete a 24 minute online course addressing the topic of cyberbullying. This course will be delivered through the Keenan SafeSchools online training system. The link to this system is on the district page under "Quick Links" and on every school's page under the "More..." link for staff. We hope to initiate rollout in January. Some schools expressed an interest in getting login information out to teachers before Winter Break.
eChalk Implementation: - Principals and eChalk site managers will receive a site level midyear implementation report from our eChalk representative. This report will include # of active accounts, # of teachers with class pages, # of visits to the school website, and more.
- Districtwide, 86% of teacher accounts are active, 62% of administrators, and 45% of students. Actual activation is slightly higher since "old" accounts have not been cleaned out of the system and all 4th and 5th grade students were added, even though not all are participating in Project eSTELLAR,which is introducing student accounts at elementary.
- eChalk Training for teachers was announced via email, providing 2 opportunities each month in January, February, and March for teachers to learn how to create and use a class webpage. Dates and registration are available via the Professional Development System.
- Parents participating in the Parent Institute through the new Parent Center are receiving hands-on training in how to access and use schools' eChalk sites.
Gradebook Program Evaluation - GradeQuick: The committee participated in an online demonstration of the GradeQuick web-based software application. - User interface is very friendly - mimics desktop software with traditional grid view of gradebook. Able to move quickly from one students' grade to another. System saves every 4 minutes or when switching screens.
- Traditional Grading View:
- Shows average, hi/low for each assignment.
- Sort assignment columns by date, name, category
- Can sort students by score on a particular assignment to quickly identify low performing students
- Scores are entered as points; can choose to weight an assignment within its category
- Varying grading scales; can assign unique scales to particular students (i.e. a different scale for RSP students)
- Standards-based Grading - Skills View:
- Standards are entered as "skills" in the system and associated to assignments in the traditional grading view.
- Can associate multiple skills with one assignment, but can only give one score for the assignment. To give a separate score for each skill within an assignment (i.e. a test that covers multiple standards), teacher would have to enter the assignment multiple times, once for each skill.
- Can set a rubric/scale for each skill
- Choose skill score calculation - average of all associated assignments, highest, latest, mode, or none
- Can manually override score for each skill
- Reports:
- Standards-based reporting: lists the skills and the calculated score for each. This report does not list the assignments associated to the skill and the scores on these (as we saw in Easy Grade Pro).
- Test report: lists the assignments and their scores. Does not show the related skill (standard) associated with each assignment.
- Additional Notes:
- Can add notes to an assignment, student, class and have them included on reports. Can keep private notes on students as well. Cannot create a note associated to an individual student's assignment score.
- Representative indicated that scores can be imported from DataDirector using the Testlink function (additional cost).
- Can administer online tests and have scores entered in gradebook using TestMaker module (additional cost).
Gradebook Evaluation - eSchoolPlus: The committee reviewed the gradebook of our existing student information system in February and determined that it did not support standards-based grading. However, the company plans to release an update that will address this. Noelle with work with Beth Ann in IT Dept to arrange a new demo session for the committee. Next Meeting: Thursday, January 7th 3pm at the District Registration Center
Meeting Details: 3:30-4:30pm at the District Registration Center Conference Room Schools Represented: Bemis, Carter, Curtis, Eisenhower, Kucera, Myers, Trapp New Year: New committee members were welcomed and encouraged to familiarize themselves with the meeting minutes from last year (available on this blog) and the new District Educational Technology Plan available on the committee's website. One of the primary goals of the committee this year will be to continue reviewing gradebook programs and develop a recommendation for districtwide adoption.
Gradebook Program Review - Easy Grade Pro: Brent Copeland, teacher at Kucera, demonstrated how he uses Easy Grade Pro for standards-based grading. The following provides a brief synopsis of the functionality. More details and a demo version can be downloaded from the company website. - Standards-based Grading: In addition to traditional point/percentage grading, EGP supports grading by standard. An assignment can be identified with one or more standards and the score for each of these standards can be entered. The resulting student report shows each standard, the assignments that addressed that standard, the score for each assignment, the overall score on the standard, and the overall score across all standards. Key standards can be weighted within the overall score for the class.
- Management: the student roster can be copied from one class to another; a student and his/her grades can be moved from one class to another (in the case of a student changing periods); teacher can hide/show dropped students; an assignment can be copied from one class to another
- Reports: a variety of reports are available with many options to customize each of them. The list includes a student progress report by standard, missing assignments, roster sheet, and more.
- Compatability: does have the ability to interface with student information system (eSchool) to auto-enroll students; can import from assessment software (DataDirector, student response systems); can export traditional grades (not standards-based grades) into eChalk.
- Additional Features: includes seating chart, attendance tracking, behavioral notes. Has an optional web-publishing subscription to provide parent access to
grades; also has a web-based version of the gradebook program (with yearly
subscription fee) that allows teachers to enter scores from any
computer.
Committee members suggested also reviewing GradeQuick and SnapGrades. Cyberbullying: All certificated staff will be expected to complete the online Cyberbullying course in the Keenan SafeSchools program. This course was selected by the committee last year to address the need to train staff in how to identify and address cyberbullying. The course takes 25 minutes to complete and can be done through any Internet-connected computer. Committee members recommended principals set aside time during a staff meeting to allow their staff to complete the course; a completion date of 1/1/2010 was agreed upon. An announcement via email will provide directions on how to access the training. eChalk Expectations: All teachers, counselors, and administrators need to activate their eChalk account so they are listed in the Faculty & Staff directory on the school homepage. As part of the activation process, they need to verify the email settings are configured to forward mail to Outlook. Teachers are also strongly encouraged to establish a class page with a copy of their parent letter/syllabus; this class page can then be used to support technology integration and parental involvement. Schools are also expected to post their school events on the school calendar which will be used to automatically generate a districtwide calendar of school events. Each site has an eChalk site manager to assist staff in achieving these goals.
Next Meeting: October 1st, 3:30-4:30, District Registration Center Conference Room
Meeting Details: 3:00-4:15pm at the District Registration Center Conference Room Schools Represented: Bemis, Boyd, Carter, Curtis, Eisenhower, Rialto Middle, Trapp; Also present: Safety & Security, CWA
Cyberbullying: - The two online courses available for training teachers on this issue were reviewed. The committee recommends that all teachers and site administrators be required to complete the Keenan Safe Schools course. This course takes approximately 25 minutes to complete and can be completed online anytime, anywhere. Completion can be monitored by administrative reports in the system.
- Noelle Kreider presented a variety of free curriculum materials teachers can use to instruct students in the topic of cyberbullying. NetSmartz is linked on all schools' homepages and provides games and songs for elementary and video vignettes for secondary. CyberSmart provides lesson plans with related worksheets and online resources. Teachers who complete the online iSAFE training can also access this organization's curriculum materials.
- Jerry Sturmer and Floyd Braggs recommended the student AUP include clear language explaining the cyberbullying law to students.
District Technology Plan: The revised plan for 2009-2012 was approved by the state and will be presented for board adoption this month. This plan is required as a condition of various technology funding from the state and federal level. The plan is available on the Educational Technology Committee website. - Technology Scope & Sequence: The most significant task identified in the plan is to integrate a technology scope and sequence into the core content area timelines with key lessons at each grade level. These will help us meet and show evidence of achieving the NCLB goal for students to achieve technology literacy by the end of 8th grade. This will be the primary focus of this committee next year.
- Electronic Gradebook Program: The plan also requires the committee to continue evaluation of gradebook programs next year. eSchool's gradebook feature was evaluated in February; Easy Grade Pro will be evaluated early next school year.
New Helpdesk System: The IT Dept has implemented a new helpdesk system. This system will require users to indicate their computer name when submitting a problem - Noelle showed how to locate this information and recommended teachers label their computers with this information for easy access. Teachers will receive an email when an incident is reported for them and again when it is resolved. They will have 3 days to respond to this notice if they feel the problem was not resolved. Kidspiration 3.0: K-12 Voucher (aka Microsoft settlement) funds were used to upgrade to this new version, which includes math tools. IT Dept is pushing the installation out across the network to all teacher and student computers at elementary schools. Secondary school teachers can request installation as needed (ie: for Special Education). Noelle has provided multiple training sessions and will continue to do so next year. Training videos are also available online. Other:- Student file security was discussed. Secondary students are encouraged to store their electronic files in eChalk to prevent tampering. Each secondary student has 50mb of storage in their eChalk account. Concerns about large media files were discussed and suggestions were offered for compression. Questions or problems regarding the use of eChalk should be directed to Noelle Kreider.
- Noelle reported that IT Dept is currently evaluating a product by NComputing that allows one computer to serve multiple users. This could help address the age of our computers - 56% of student computers are over 4 years old.
This was the last committee meeting of the year.
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