While most staff members move from one school to another during the summer, staff members do change their names throughout the year and, at times, change schools during the school year. In both cases, there are implications for the staff member's computer and Active Directory account.

When staff members have a name change or change schools, we will need to do work over a three-day period on their computer. We will need the computer in order to:

• Create these changes on both the servers and on the staff member’s computer, resetting the school and/or the account name
• Make the appropriate changes in our Active Directory system
• Complete any necessary changes in email
• Move all of your documents from your home directory back on to your computer

Staff members should contact the CCSD21 Technology Office by email (tech@ccsd21.org) at least 48 hours in advance of the Macbook service session and to sign-up for one of the following sessions:

October:
October 25 - Drop-off: 7.30-9.00 AM
October 27 - Pick-up: 12.00-4.30 PM

December:
December 5 - Drop-off: 7.30-9.00 AM
December 7 - Pick-up: 12.00-4.30 PM

January:
January 11 - Drop-off: 7.30-9.00 AM
January 13 - Pick-up: 12.00-4.00 PM

February:
February 22 - Drop-off: 7.30-9.00 AM
February 24 - Pick-up: 12.00-4.30 PM

April:
April 9 - Drop-off: 7.30-9.00 AM
April 11 - Pick-up: 12.00-4.30 PM

May:
May 9 - Drop-off: 7.30-9.00 AM
May 11 - Pick-up: 12.00-4.30 PM


To sign-up for your date and time, email: tech@ccsd21.org

Then, on your assigned date, please drop your computer off with a member of the Technology Team in the Administration Building.

Tags: Staff MacBook

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our work with each individual student in District 21, building leaders and teachers are meeting throughout this year to examine the growth of students with IEPs. For the moment, this analysis is being based on ISAT results because: (a) that is how the State assesses the District's performance and (b) ISAT data is well-understood and can help us become competent and efficient with this process. Of course, ISAT assessments are not an appropriate assessment for our students learning English, but their results are necessarily included in this analysis.

Moving forward, we look forward to using this same process with multiple meaningful assessments for all students.

Logging In to Inform
To analyze growth over time, we are going to use Inform. Teachers will login as members of their team, as they do to enter Core Academic and Core Learner Quality data in the PowerTeacher Gradebook.

• Elementary school teachers should log in as the fifth grade team's Mathematics teacher.
• Middle school teachers should log in using either the team's Self-Directed Learner or Quality Producer teacher.

Necessary Information before Analyzing
This analysis can only be performed for fifth through eighth grade students because students need at least two years' worth of ISAT data points in order to compute their growth.

To analyze this data, you will also need the ISAT Growth Expectations Chart. This chart, using the Meets cut scores that have been established by ISBE, provides information on what percentage growth a student will show from one grade to the next on ISAT. This chart includes three different definitions of growth:

• ISBE Growth (e.g., from the meets cut score in fourth grade to the meets cut score in fifth grade)
• Growth Plus Realistic (e.g., the above growth score + 25% additional growth)
• Growth Plus Ambitious (e.g., the above growth score + 50% additional growth)

The ISAT Growth Expectations Chart is a 3-page PDF that contains the following information:

• Page 1 includes data on 1-years' growth (e.g., from 3rd grade ISATs to 4th grade ISATs for current 5th graders)
• Page 2 includes data on 2-years' growth (e.g., from 3rd grade ISATs to 5th grade ISATs for current 6th graders)
• Page 3 includes data on 3-years' growth (e.g., from 3rd grade ISATs to 6th grade ISATs for current 7th graders)

On each page, in the three columns furthest to the right, you can see the values for each grade level of: ISBE Growth, Growth Plus Realistic, and Growth Plus Ambitious.

Setting up the Growth Query in Inform
For nearly all groups of students, we are going to focus our analysis on the Growth Plus Ambitious targets. Using a group of current sixth graders as an example, we are going to look at their performance over the past two years, from their 3rd grade ISAT scores to their 5th grade ISAT scores.

Use the picture below and the steps in-text that follow it to perform the growth query.

1. Choose the Student Performance Gains query (11) from the pull-down menu.
2. Choose either Reading or Mathematics.
3. Choose "All" from the Year pull-down menu. (To show growth, we need to look at ISAT scores from multiple years.)
4. Choose "IEP" from the Target Group pull-down.
5. Click the "Get Assessments" button.
6. Choose the Base Test for the analysis based on the students' current grade level and the number of years of growth you want to measure. Use the information on the ISAT Growth Expectations Chart as a guide for this.
7. Choose the Target Test based on the same factors as above.
8. Using the ISAT Growth Expectations Chart, enter the Tolerance Threshold percent from the Growth Plus Ambitious column.

Click the "Create Report" button, and analyze your data!

Tags: Inform

For 2011-2012, we will be using the same process as we have in past years for closing out each trimester for grades 3-8, verifying grades, and publishing report cards. The one change that will take place this year is that, with the opening of the Parent Portal, middle school students will no longer receive specific, separate Mid-Trimester Progress Reports.

Mid-Trimester 1

• October 6 - Mid-Trimester Date
• October 14 - Mid-Trimester Progress Reports Go Home (No more Mid-Tri Progress Reports in Grades 6-8)

Trimester 1

• November 22 - End of Trimester 1
• November 28-9 AM - Grades Due--Academic Grades, Learner Quality Grades/Marks, Comments Due in PowerTeacher Gradebook
• November 28 & November 29 - Verification Period--School offices will print & distribute verification sheets. Teachers make corrections to verifications directly in the Gradebook.
• November 30-9 AM - Final Grades Due--All corrections must be complete by teachers in the Gradebook by 9 AM.
• November 30 & December 1 - Report Card Printing--School offices will print & distribute trimester report cards.
• December 2 - Report Cards go home with students (Grades 3-8) at the end of the school day.

Mid-Trimester 2

• January 20 - Mid-Trimester Date
• January 27 - Mid-Trimester Progress Reports Go Home (No more Mid-Tri Progress Reports in Grades 6-8)

Trimester 2

• March 2 - End of Trimester 2
• March 5-9 AM - Grades Due--Academic Grades, Learner Quality Grades/Marks, Comments Due in PowerTeacher Gradebook
• March 5 & March 6 - Verification Period--School offices will print & distribute verification sheets. Teachers can make corrections to verifications directly in the Gradebook.
• March 7-9 AM - Final Grades Due--All corrections must be complete by teachers in the Gradebook by 9 AM.
• March 7 & March 8 - Report Card Printing--School offices will print & distribute trimester report cards.
• March 9 - Report Cards go home with students (Grades 3-8) at the end of the school day.

Mid-Trimester 3

• April 20 - Mid-Trimester Date
• April 27 - Mid-Trimester Progress Reports Go Home (No more Mid-Tri Progress Reports in Grades 6-8)

Trimester 3
Timeline will be published when the final day of school is determined in the Spring.

Please remember that do to the impact of attendance, we would ask the following two things of all staff members:

• Please do not enter grades between 9-9.30 and 1-1.30 if at all possible.
• Please remember to LOG OUT when you are done using PowerTeacher, particularly after taking attendance.

As we move forward with the opening of the Parent Portal this year, and as we anticipate the process of moving our Primary teachers in to PowerTeacher and the PowerTeacher Gradebook, we are excited about the potential of capturing high-quality detailed assessment data that can be used to differentiate instruction for all students across all grade levels and classrooms.

Tags: Report Cards, Gradebook, Grades