Post on 01-Apr-2015
My Small School District
versusThe Giant MOSIS
Chris WardenWest St. Francois County R-IV
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
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
About My District * Third Year with PowerSchool
* Before PowerSchool, Lemberger
Fast Fact In 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.
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.”
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…
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.
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 versus
The Giant GOSIS
Actually… it’s My Small School District
versusThe Giant MOSIS
How to defeat the giant task at hand:* Training
* Documentation* Work Month by Month
* Reports* Know your data
* Troubleshooting Skills
Training:“After a hard day of basic training, you could
eat a rattlesnake. “ – Elvis Presley
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.
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.
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.
Documentation:“The palest ink is better than the best
memory. “ – Chinese Proverb
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.
Documentation:Documentation:
Documentation:Documentation:
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.”
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
August:Secretaries – update lunch status, demographics, “state – mo,” make sure we’re ready for Student Core and Student
Enrollment/Attendance
Counselors – enroll new students, fill out “state – mo,” demographics, make sure we’re ready for Student Core and
Student Enrollment/Attendance
Central Office – remind buildings of Student Core and Student Enrollment/Attendance, get reports ready for MOSIS
upload
September:Secretaries – review/update staff info, confirm/update
transportation
Counselors – review/update courses and sections especially “state report information,” review/update “special
programs”
October:Secretaries – make sure we’re ready for Student Core,
confirm info under “transfer info,” transportation count
Counselors – 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
November:Counselors – review/update info under “Student Core” and
“Special Programs”
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
January:Secretaries – confirm/update transportation
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
March
April:Secretaries –make sure we’re ready for Student Core
Counselors – make sure we’re ready for Student Core
Central Office – remind buildings of Student Core, get report ready for MOSIS upload
May:Secretaries – have the items for June complete before you
leave for summer
Counselors – 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
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 hours
Counselors –make sure we’re ready for Student Core and Student Enrollment/Attendance
Central Office – remind buildings of Student Core, Student Enrollment/Attendance, and Discipline Incident, get reports
ready for MOSIS upload
July
Reports:“We need to talk about your TPS reports…”
– Office Space
Reports:
Click under “Reports,” “State Reports”
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)
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
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…)
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.
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.
Troubleshooting Skills: “I got the skills to pay the bills.”
– Beastie Boys
Troubleshooting Skills:
* Excel, working with spreadsheets* DESE documentation
* Core Data Manual* MOSIS documentation
* DESE phone calls* PowerSchool support
* MOPSUG* PowerSchool fields and MOSIS fields
How to defeat the giant task at hand:* Training
* Documentation* Work Month by Month
* Reports* Know your data
* Troubleshooting Skills
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