eSchoolPlus COVID-19 FAQ

[MariaBarklage]

After each Office Hour, the following will occur:

• A separate post will be added to the eSchoolPlus COVID-19 Resources channel, which will include:
  • a link to the recording of that day’s discussion
  • any reference materials will be attached
• New topics discussed will be documented in this post, including the date it was discussed
• If a previously documented topic is amended based on a later discussion, we’ll also add an inline note with the date that detail was updated.
• By capturing the dates discussed for each topic and amendment, you will be able to easily reference the appropriate day’s recordings to see the screens and hear the full discussion if necessary. 

April 1, 2020

How do you adjust calendars? (4/1/2020)

Create the Day Type Code.

• Administration-General Setup-District-Validation Tables
• Application: Registration
• Validation Table: Day Types
• Add new codes (These are example codes for COVID-19; you may name the codes anything you want.)
  • Code: CT
  • Description: COVID Teacher Day (preparing for online learning)
  • Active: checked

         and

• • Code: CS
  • Description: COVID Student Day Applications
  • Active: checked

Use the new codes on the calendar

• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Calendar
• Select a Building and Calendar, click on the Month View, View Detail
• Navigate to the Month: use the right and left arrows on the Year at a Glance title bar
• Click on the Date
• Panel on the right displays the Calendar Day
• Day Type: add the Day Type Code
• Follow state guidelines for Day Information: Membership Day, Value; Attendance Day; Include in Totals

Other Considerations:

• Consider creating an alternate cycle
• Remember that Membership Day needs to be checked to allow add of TAC Gradebook assignments
• You can use Calendars-Mass Update Days to mass update all buildings and all calendars
  • When mass updating days, be careful if you have special calendars for half day, vo-tech, or other non-traditional students
  • When using Calendars-Mass Update Days, you can select all buildings and all calendars since eSchoolPLUS is smart enough to only update the calendars that exist in each building

How do you change the number of school days? (4/1/2020)

Add additional days or remove days

• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Calendar
• Select Calendar:
• Dates panel
• Last Day of School: select date
• Save
• Pop up
  • Saved Calendar

                   You have changed the date for the Last Day of School.

                   Do you wish to change the last marking period of the year to this date?

                          If you select Yes, eSchoolPLUS will change the end date of the last marking period for every 

                          duration in the building

Other Considerations:

• You can use the View Details from the top right of the Calendar page
• This applies to Regular Year or Summer School, depending on which environment you select when logging into eSchoolPLUS
• Remember that the last day needs to be a non-membership day for any states that use the Student Withdrawal Rule: First Day student is not in school (AR, KY, TX)
• Marking Period dates affect marking period marks and which Gradebook assignments are used to calculate any averages: TAC: Load From Gradebook and eSchoolPLUS: Load Gradebook Averages; Mark Averages Calculation
• Check the Marking Period dates for the building after making changes
• Check Attendance Intervals for any intervals with a date Begin Span and End Span
• Calendars should not overlap last day of school for previous year and first day of school for next school year

April 3, 2020

How do you take attendance and not report it to the state? (April 3, 2020)

Mark the day as Membership Day and Take Attendance in the Calendar

Mark the day as an Alternate Cycle

• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Cycle Days
• Create Alternate Cycle for COVID19 days
• When creating the Alternate Cycle, be sure to check Alternate Cycle
• Administration-Scheduling-Setup-Scheduling Timetables
• Select Alternate
• Cycle Days panel: Select Cycle Day or All if your Cycle Days have the same setup
• The Alternate Cycle day will have the same scheduling periods as the “Parent” Standard Cycle Day
• The Parent Cycle Day is the Calendar Cycle Code for the Date
• You assign the Parent Cycle on the Scheduling Timetable Alternate screen
• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Calendar
• Select Month View  for the Building Default Calendar
  • Navigate to the Month: use the right and left arrows on the Year at a Glance title bar
  • Click on the Date
  • Panel on the right displays the Calendar Day
  • Alternate Cycle: Add the Alternate Cycle Code
  • Follow state guidelines for Day Information: Membership Day, Value; Attendance Day; Include in Totals

Other considerations

• Be careful to use the correct Cycle Flag for what you want to happen to the Cycle Code for future days
• Check Online help for an explanation of each Cycle Flag
• In the Attendance View, you could use a different Attendance Code, then do not include the Attendance Code in the Absences for any criteria
• You could set the Calendar Day: Day Information to Membership Date checked but Attendance Day unchecked. Include in Totals should be set according to state guidelines
• If you set Calendar Day: Day Information to Membership Day checked and Value to 0, the ADA/ADM Statistics report generates 0 (zeros)
• If the day is not a Membership Day, the Date will be gray in HAC
• You cannot take Attendance unless the Membership Day is checked
• TAC Gradebook Entry: assignment Due Dates must be a Membership Day
• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Setup-MR Building Configuration
• Teacher Access panel: Gradebook: Assignment Date Validation has two choices: Scheduled Class Dates and Any Membership Day

How do you adjust attendance view setups? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-Attendance Setup-Setup-Attendance View Setup

• If you do not want the Alternate Cycle Days to count in the attendance
• When using Days In Criteria • Cycle Days
• On the View Criteria panel:
• For any criteria, do not select the Alternate Cycle Days
• When using Days In Criteria • Days Of The Week?

Considerations

• Attendance reporting is based on Attendance Intervals
• Using Marking Periods for Attendance Interval dates automatically adjusts the Attendance Interval Start Date and End Date

How do you set the district configuration regarding Entry/Withdrawal Dates? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-General Setup-District-District

• Preferences panel
• Entry/withdrawal
• Student Withdrawal Rule: set by state
• Membership Day Rule:
• R – Required – to require calendar membership dates for enrolling and withdrawing students.
• E – Required Except for Rollover – to allow non-membership dates for Registration Rollover withdrawal but otherwise enforce membership days for student entry and withdrawal. Use this setting if your district has a Student Withdrawal Rule of F – First Day student is not in school and you want to require membership dates for dates other than the rollover withdrawal date.
• N – Not Required – to ignore membership day status for Entry and Withdrawal Dates.

How do you change the attendance interval dates for multiple marking periods?  (April 3, 2020)

• You can use the menu option: Administration - Attendance Setup - Attendance Intervals
• If your intervals are defined by marking period, your intervals will automatically adjust to any changes to marking period date ranges
• You may wish to add new intervals that are date based so you can be more specific in start end dates for attendance purposes if they will not exactly match your marking period start/end dates (this may be dictated by district or state guidance on how attendance is to be processed for the second half of this year)

How do you set TAC when you do not want the teachers to take attendance? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-Attendance Setup-Setup-Attendance Building Configuration

• Teacher Access panel
• Teachers/Substitutes May Take Attendance and View Morning Bulletin: uncheck

How do you change the StartDate and End Date for Marking Periods? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Marking Periods

• Marking Period Dates panel
• Adjust Start Dates and End Dates

Other Considerations

• TAC Gradebook Setup Assignment Due Date must be a Membership Day
• Attendance Intervals may be impacted by Marking Period date changes
• Marking Period dates determine which Gradebook Assignments are included
• If you want teachers to enter assignments in TAC, you need to keep the marking periods
• If you remove a marking period, you must remove the marking period from the master schedule
• Combining the last two marking periods with the last marking period one day long needs to be addressed

Can we add additional Progress Runs? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Setup-Progress Runs

• Considerations
• You may add additional Progress Run Dates as you need them

General Considerations

• Some districts will be using a Pass/Fail instead of the standard mark for the rest of the year. In this case remember to override the Pass/Fail so future calculations do not recalculate the Pass/Fail to a standard mark.
• Before you decide to use Pass/Fail, you should test what will happen to Final averages, GPAs

Can the Gradebook Scale be used for specific marking Periods? (April 3, 2020)

• Cannot change the Gradebook Scale for a specific marking period
• Adding a Gradebook Scale will affect the entire school year
• If you change the minimum percent on an existing Gradebook Scale it will affect the entire year
• Ask teachers to manually enter the P or F into report cards
• You can run the Mark Reporting-Entry & Reports-Report Card Reports-Student Mark Summary to check for marks other than Pass/Fail
• You can get the Marking Period mark to read the Average Mark Substitution Setup for the last marking period
• In the Average Setup, Calculation panel: Resulting Average for Regular Courses Is: S-Use Mark Substitution
• Average Setups can change as they are year sensitive

When the Average Setup uses a %Weight, what happens when a Mark Type/Average ID is missing? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Calculation Setup-Average Setup

• Course Rules
• Blank Marks: I-Exclude blank marks from the calculation
• Considerations
• You may create a new Mark Type to use in a new Average Setup
• You must add the new Mark Type to the Master Schedule Course Sections

Will the GPA/Honor Roll be affected by the Pass/Fail marks? (April 3, 2020)

Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Setup-Level Table

• The Include in Honor Roll and Include in GPA controls whether a Mark will be included in the calculation
• Be sure the Average Using Type Value is not set to Value 0

Other Considerations

• Some districts will be using a Pass/Fail instead of the standard mark for the rest of the year. In this case remember to override the Pass/Fail so future calculations do not recalculate the Pass/Fail to a standard mark.
• Before you decide to use Pass/Fail, you should test what will happen to Final averages, GPAs

April 6, 2020

How do you combine/eliminate End of Year Marking Periods?

How do we combine MP5 and MP6 to create one long marking period?

What happens if you change the marking period dates after the teacher enters Gradebook Assignments?

Would it be best to change the end date of MP5 to the end of the year so you do not lose any assignments?

Qualifiers:

• MP5 end one day before the Last Day of School
• MP6 is one day the Last Day of School
• MP3 will be the mark for semester 2
• The Average Setup for the last marking period can move the MP3 mark into the second semester mark

Consider:

• Do not change the last marking period dates
• Use a mark value that is set to exempt in the level tables for the last marking period
• Remember to set the override for the exempt mark
• The average calculations can be set to ignore exempt values
• If you already have Pass/Fail marks, create a new COVID-19 Pass and Fail so you can have different rules
• Teachers would use this new COVID-19 Pass/Fail for the last marking period with an override
• Use the Student Mark Summary to check only the COVID-19 marks are used in the last marking period
• Decide which marking period marks should be included in the final and change Average Setup for the last marking period
• You may add a Progress Run date for a mark to compare to the marking period mark and use the best mark
• Some districts are using the daily mark as the mark for the last marking period
• Consider how the GPA/Honor Roll should calculate
• Create a different mark, for example A*, then include or exclude from GPA and Honor Roll in level table
• Districts are thinking COVID-19 at home marks will be included for some students but not for all students

Is there a way to mass load marks?

Yes, you can utilize this menu option: Mark Reporting - Utilities - Mass Load Grades

April 8, 2020

How do you reclaim days that were originally spring break days? (April 8, 2020)

Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Calendar

Month View  Detail

Day Information

Membership Day: check

Set the following according to state guidelines

Value

Attendance Day

Include in Totals

Other Considerations

• Check the Cycle Flag setting and its impact on future days if you change the Cycle Flag
• E - Exclude day in cycle - to exclude the day from the cycle code pattern. If the day was previously included, the system assigns this day's cycle code to the next day, shifting the cycle ahead one for all the following days. If you use Exclude, you can also change the cycle code for the day.
• I - Include day in cycle - to include the day in the cycle code pattern. This is the usual setting. If the day was previously excluded, the system assigns the next day's cycle code to the current day, moving the cycle back one day for all the following days.
• S - Skip day in cycle - to skip the day in the cycle, but this does not shift the cycle codes for the following days. Future rebuilds of calendars will not change cycle day for this calendar day. If you use Skip, you can also change the cycle code for the day.

Does it matter what the dates are in Marking Periods if I set the Calendar to Membership Day unchecked? (April 8, 2020)

and 

If we make the Marking Period 3 End Date April 3, 2020 and set those days as Membership Day unchecked, what will happen in TAC? (April 8, 2020)

• Non-Membership Days cannot be used as Gradebook Assignment Due Dates
• Non-Membership Days cannot be set to Attendance Day checked
• Attendance Intervals need to be checked to verify the Begin Span and End Span are correct

How do you disable Attendance entry but allow TAC Assignment entry? (April 8, 2020)

• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Calendar
• Month View  Detail
• Day Information
• Membership Day: check
• Value
• Attendance Day unchecked
• Include in Totals
• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Marking Periods
• Marking Period Dates panel
• Validate Marking Period Start Date and End Date
• Other Considerations
• Follow state guidelines
• Day must be a Day Information Membership Day checked to allow TAC Assignment Due Date entry
• Membership Day Value may be set to 0 if state guidelines allow

How do I make Gradebook Assignments not count toward an average? )April 8, 2020)

• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Gradebook Setup-Gradebook Alpha Marks
• For alpha Code check Exclude

Other Considerations:

• Administration-TAC Setup-Setup-TAC Building Configuration
• Gradebook Panel
• Default Assignment Points: must be between 0.01 and 999.99
• Default Assignment Weight: must be between 0.01 and 999.99
• In Gradebook, if all Assignment Points are 0 and all Assignment Weights are 0, Category will be skipped

Can the Gradebook Alpha Marks be changed for just one marking period and not affect previous marking periods? (April 8, 2020)

• No, since Gradebook Alpha Marks are not year specific nor marking period specific

How do you change the final mark for a course from a numeric to a Pass/Fail? (April 8, 2020)

• In TAC Gradebook use numeric mark for average
• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Calculation Setup-Average Mark Substitution
• Set Low Value and High Value for each Replace Mark
• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Calculation Setup-Average Setup
• Calculation panel
• Calculation Settings
• Resulting Average for Regular Courses Is: S-Use Mark Substitution

Other Considerations:

• Create a unique COVID-19 Pass/Fail Mark to control how they are used
• Mark substitution does not work with Load from Gradebook
• Teacher may Load from Gradebook to check averages
• run Mark Reporting-Utilities-Calculations-Load Gradebook Averages
• run Mark Reporting-Utilities-Calculations-Mark Averages Calculation
• Use the Level table to determine how the marks get factored into the final average
• You might factor in the COVID-19 F but not the COVID-19 P

Will our custom report cards work? (April 8, 2020)

The custom report cards must be evaluated individually

Can our custom print report card create the HAC Upload? (April 8, 2020)

The custom report cards must be evaluated individually

Can we send a report card via email? (April 8, 2020)

No, eSchoolPLUS does not have the functionality at this time

How can we display a message on the HAC Report Card page that Spanish report cards are not available yet? (April 8, 2020)

• My eSchoolPLUS-All-Entry-HAC News
• HAC News
• Message will display on the News section of the Week View page
• Effective Date and Expiration Date are available
  
  

April 13, 2020

How do I adjust Gradebook Category Types? (April 13, 2020)

• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Gradebook Setup-Building Gradebook Category Type
• Use the Add Override to add any specific Marking Period changes to Weight/Drop Lowest/Exclude Missing
• Progress Report Average Overrides
• Select Category
• Enter Weight, Drop Lowest, and Exclude Missing value
• Report Card Average Overrides
• RC-Cycle Grade Category Overrides
• Select Calculation
• Select Category
• Select Marking Periods
• Add Weight
• Add Drop Lowest
• Select Exclude Missing
• Save
• After Save, check the log file generated by the save

Other Considerations:

• YOU CANNOT SWITCH TO USING BUILDING GRADEBOOK CATEGORY TYPES AFTER THE SCHOOL YEAR HAS STARTED
• You cannot change the Drop Lowest if you allow teachers to change the Drop Lowest on the MR Building Configuration-Teacher Access-Limit teachers to Pre-Defined Gradebook Category Types
• The General Panel applies to all marking periods
• On Save, the changes are pushed to any courses assigned to the Building Gradebook Category Type
• Categories are Marking Period Specific. Do not delete the Category record with Marking Periods Default
• In TAC-Gradebook-Setup, Assignment Weight is not affected by changes to Building Gradebook Category Types
• If you have only two Categories, you can change a Category Weight to 100 and the other Category to Weight 0

How do I use an alpha mark for the last marking period instead of the current numeric mark? (April 13, 2020)

• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Setup-Level Table
• Selection: Detail Type: • Marks
• Add a new mark that will be specifically for COVID-19 marking
• Save
• Selection: Detail Type: • Level
• Select Level Table
• Add the new mark to each level table
• Select value for each Option
• Save

Other Considerations:

• The Level Table applies to all Years
• The Level Table applies to all Marking Periods
• If you are already using P/F, create a separate mark for COVID-19 Pass and COVID-19 Fail for specific processing
• The Level Table Print Value is just for the printed Progress Run, Report Card or Transcript

How do I calculate SEM2 mark so it does not penalize the Student? (April 13, 2020)

• A Conditional rule: using MP3 and MP4: if the average of MP3 and MP4 is greater than MP3 mark, use MP3 and MP4 average; if the average of MP3 and MP4 is less than MP3 average, use MP3 for the mark.
• eSchoolPLUS does not have the functionality to conditionally average marks
• Closest to this would be to create a new Mark Type, add it to the Master Schedule, then calculate this average. However, you would need to look at each average to determine which is the better average.

Can I show Report Card Marks but no Attendance Totals or GPA information? (April 13, 2020)

• You would need to adjust your Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-View Setup-Report Card View Setup for the relevant Marking Period.
• The custom report cards must be evaluated individually.

How do I allow a print of the Report Card from HAC? (April 13, 2020)

• Administration-HAC Setup-Setup-HAC Building Configuration
• Mark Reporting panel
• Show Print Button: check
• Save

• Mark Reporting-Entry & Reports-Report Card Reports-Print Report Cards
• Prompts:
• Home Access Center Upload: check

Other Considerations:

• When the HAC Building Configuration is set to Show Print Button, the student must have a Home Access Center Upload (*.pdf file) for the Print Button to display in HAC

Can I delete the Progress Run for the last marking period? (April 13, 2020)

• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Setup-Progress Runs
• You can delete any Progress Run that does not have any student marks saved.

Can I enter Free Text Comments on the Progress reports? (April 13, 2020)

• In TAC, the teacher can enter Notes on the Grade Reporting-Interim Progress: Settings: Show/Hide Notes

Other Considerations:

• You will not see these Course Notes in HAC

Can I print Free text Comments on the Report Card? (April 13, 2020)

• Administration-Mark Reporting Setup-Setup-MR Building Configuration
• General panel
• Allow RC Course Free text: check
• Number of Free Text Characters (Max 700): enter total number of Characters

Can I export Progress Run 3 marks to Report Card Run 3 and have teachers manually enter the Mark? (April 13, 2020)

• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Marking Periods
• Change the Marking Period Start Date and End Date for the dates you want to be included
• Allow Teachers to manually enter the mark
• Administration-Registration Setup-Calendars-Marking Periods
• Change the Marking Period Start Date and End Date back to the original dates

Other Considerations:

• This will affect any future Load From Gradebook, Load gradebook Averages or Mark Averages Calculation
• Using SQL to move the marks from MR-IPR_STU_MARKS to MR_STU_MARKS involves a trigger on the MR_STU_MARKS TABLE

Can I add homeroom numbers and email to Class Roster in TAC? (April 13, 2020)

• No, eSP does not have the functionality at this time

Can I use an NA for elementary report card standards and competencies? (April 13, 2020)

• You may use anything except N/A, which is a formatting indicator for Standards and Competencies

Can I omit the mark for the last marking period from the GPA calculation? (April 13, 2020)

Ideas on handling the second term marking (April 13, 2020)

• With 6 6-week marking periods
• First semester mark is calculated normally
• MP4 is finished
• MP5 until the second last day of school
• MP6 is one day
• Marking Period mark is exempt and exam is exempt

GPA:

• Use the first semester mark
• Use the marking period 4 mark
• Prorate the GPA
• Credit awarded for second semester will be full semester credit

Round Rock wants to use MP1 through MP4 as 25% each

• Create a new GPA type by RC Run
• This will affect the first semester GPA

eSchoolPLUS has a SQL that will move the semester 1 GPA and Rank to semester 2 GPA and Rank

If you are using TAC, teachers can manually enter the second semester mark and use that to calculate the GPA

How can I mass load the exempt mark to all students? (April 13, 2020)

• Mark Reporting-Utilities-Mass Upload/Load-Mass Load Grades
• Prompts include
• Building
• Mark Type
• Marking Periods
• Value
• Only Update Blank Marks As Of Date

Other Considerations:

• Mass Load Grades does not set the mark override
• Override can be set with SQL
• If you want to use a unique mark
• Add it to the Level Table
• Add it to all Levels
• Be sure to select which Honor Roll, GPA , Average Using is Exempt
• Consider using a unique code to print on Progress Reports and Report Cards

Will the new codes affect state reporting? (April 13, 2020)

• You can mention this at your state meetings
• Ultimately, create a case for state to investigate

How do I change a course to start taking attendance after the school year begins? (April 13, 2020)

• Scheduling-Courses-Setup Mass Updates-Master Schedule Mass Update

Other Considerations:

• You can mass update 5000 records at a time

Can I email Progress Reports? (April 13, 2020)

• eSchoolPLUS does not have this functionality at this time

Other Considerations:

• Request a custom
• Use Cognos to generate the Progress Reports then Burst them into emails

When emailing Progress Reports or Report Cards, are parents concerned with FERPA information? (April 13, 2020)

• Northwest ISD send a report weekly using Cognos and bursting it to guardians. The parents can opt out by not supplying an email address
• Send guardians to HAC to see Progress and Report Card marks

What is the process to request a custom? (April 13, 2020)

• Visit Customization Link: https://support.powerschool.com/customservices/customizationPs.action
• Mention that your request is COVID-19 related.

Any chance we could get the Enrollment Online - Update Registration made available for Preregistered students? (April 13, 2020)

• Extenuating circumstances: Due to COVID-19, we're having trouble getting some documents submitted that normally folks have been able to bring to the school. We're allowing them to be submitted via EO, but the incoming students don't have that ability.
• These are already pre-reg students whose EO has been approved and the district is waiting for the documents, but the families cannot come into the buildings to show the documents
• Maria will look into this

Can I use an * (asterisk) in a Gradebook Scale? (April 13, 2020)

• Yes, you can use an * (asterisk) in a Gradebook Scale

Can I use an * (asterisk) for Gradebook Alpha Marks? (April 13, 2020)

• No, you cannot use an * (asterisk) for Gradebook Alpha Marks

Can I use an * (asterisk) in a Level Table? (April 13, 2020)

• Yes, you can use an * (asterisk) in a Level Table

Can I use an 8 (asterisk) in a Competency Grading Scale? (April 13, 2020)

• Yes, you can use an * (asterisk) in a Competency Grading Scale