NC K-3 FAP Online Platform Access and PS Data Integration ... · facilitates!the!collection!and!analysis!of!evidence!to!supportthe!determination!of!learning!statuses!and!the!

NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process Online Platform

Data and Account Integration and Access Guide

2016 – 17 Academic Year

NC K-‐3 FAP ONLINE PLATFORM DATA AND ACCOUNT INTEGRATION AND ACCESS GUIDE

2 Last updated: 6/1/2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. NC K-‐3 FAP Online Platform Introduction ....................................................................... page 3

2. PowerSchool Data Integration ..................................................................................... page 4-‐6

3. Online Platform and Evidence Collection App Access ................................................. page 7-‐8

4. Data and User Account Processing ............................................................................. page 9-‐10

5. Support and Resources ................................................................................................. page 11

6. Glossary ........................................................................................................................ page 12



1 NC K-‐3 FAP Online Platform Introduction

The NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process (NC K-‐3 FAP) online platform, https://nc.teachingstrategies.com, is designed to support daily formative assessment practices. The online platform provides teachers a single, web-‐based location to document evidences of learning, identify students’ learning statuses, observe progress, and create reports.

The use of the online platform is integral to the NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process. The online platform facilitates the collection and analysis of evidence to support the determination of learning statuses and the selection of learning targets, which inform instruction and student learning. To meet the Kindergarten Entry Assessment (KEA) requirements, the documentation of student learning collected within the platform provides the evidence to substantiate the status summaries. This guide is intended to assist educators using the online platform by describing how it is integrated with data from PowerSchool; how to access the online platform and evidence collection app; how data and user accounts are processed between academic years; and where to locate additional support and resources.



2 PowerSchool Data Integration

The NC K-‐3 FAP online platform is designed for use by educational professionals in support of the NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process. This section provides key information about how principals of elementary schools and teachers’ accounts are created via the data extracted from PowerSchool and uploaded nightly to the platform. The school’s PowerSchool Data Manager may be an excellent resource for interpreting and understanding the data integration. This section helps to answer the questions:

• Should I have an account? • How is my account created? • How do my students get into the online platform? • Why are my students not in the platform?

The English Language Arts (ELA) 1050 PowerSchool class code is used to identify kindergarten teachers and students who should be in the platform. Please note the following:

• An ELA 1050 class with at least one kindergarten student enrolled is included in the PowerSchool export and uploaded nightly to the platform.

• PowerSchool class codes for self-‐contained and homeroom classes are not used to identify kindergarten teachers and students because these classes may include non-‐kindergarten students and the use of these class codes varies greatly among LEAs.

Teachers with at least one kindergarten student enrolled in an ELA 1050 class will be included in the PowerSchool export and uploaded to the platform with the teacher role. Please note the following:

• Teachers are defined as the teacher of record in PowerSchool for the class and section.

• Teacher records in PowerSchool must contain email addresses. Teacher accounts will not be created in the online platform if the PowerSchool export does not contain an email address.

• Teacher records in PowerSchool must reflect “active” for the current Home School. The teacher record will be associated with the school for which they are marked “active.”

• The platform will allow a student to be associated with only one teacher. Therefore;

- If a teacher has more than one ELA 1050 class and with the same students in each class, then only one of the class rosters will be uploaded to the online platform.



- If a teacher has more than one ELA 1050 class and with different students in each class, then both class rosters will be uploaded to the online platform. The teacher will toggle between the two classes.

- If two teachers share the same class roster, then the class roster will be uploaded to the

online platform for only one of the teachers. The other teacher may be added by a LEA/site administrator as a co-‐teacher.

Students enrolled in an ELA 1050 class will be included in the PowerSchool export and will be uploaded to the online platform. Please note the following:

• Students must be “enrolled” by the school in an ELA 1050 class.

• Students “assigned” to a teacher’s homeroom but not “enrolled” in the teacher’s ELA 1050 class will not be uploaded to the online platform.

• Student records must contain dates of birth (DOB) younger than 15 years old. A DOB older than 15 years old will prevent the student account from being uploaded.

• Individual student evidence and other data in the system will remain with the student in the platform even if they move/transfer or become associated with another ELA 1050 class or another LEA or if they become unassociated with a teacher.

• Exceptional Children (EC) and students enrolled in Dual Language/Immersion (DLI) classes are included in the PowerSchool data integration if they are enrolled in an ELA 1050 class.

Principals of elementary schools with kindergarten teachers and students are included in the PowerSchool export to the platform, with administrator rights to add other administrators, teachers and educational professionals at the school. Please note the following:

• Principal records in PowerSchool must contain email addresses. Principal accounts will not be created in the platform if the PowerSchool export does not contain an email address.

• Principal records in PowerSchool must reflect “active” for the current Home School.

• Principal records must be coded for the principal staff role in PowerSchool.

• Assistant principals are not currently included in the PowerSchool export but may be added to the online platform by those persons at the school with administrative access to the K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process online platform.



All 115 Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are currently included in the data integration from PowerSchool. Charter Schools, Regional Schools, and other Educational Entities currently are not required to complete the Kindergarten Entry Assessment; therefore, their principals, teachers, classes, and students are not currently included in the data integration from PowerSchool. If a Charter School, Regional School, or other Educational Entity is interested in learning more about the NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process, they should contact their NC DPI regional consultant or email: [email protected].

Key Takeaways from section:

1. The school’s PowerSchool Data Manager is an excellent resource.

2. ELA 1050 is the classs roster which will appear in the platform. 3. Teacher records in PowerSchool must have an email address entered. 4. Students must be enrolled in ELA 1050.

5. Students must have accurate DOBs. 6. Principal records in PowerSchool must have an email address entered. 7. Principal records in PowerSchool must reflect “active” for the Home School.



3 Online Platform and Evidence Collection App Access

This section provides instructions on how to access your account in the online platform.

This section helps to answer the questions: • How do I access my online platform account? • How do I access the evidence app? • Who do I call if I have difficulty accessing the platform or application? 1-‐844-‐852-‐4653 (Teaching

Strategies Help Desk)

Online Platform Access

The NC K-‐3 FAP online platform may be accessed via: https://nc.teachingstrategies.com.

• Users with existing online platform accounts may use their current usernames and passwords. • First-‐time users, please follow the directions outlined below:

o Username: Your username is your current Unique Statewide Identifier (UID). Please see your school’s data manager/administrator if you do not know your UID.

o Password: Please set your password by clicking the “Forgot Password” option. An email will be sent to your email address as listed in PowerSchool from [email protected] with a temporary password and instructions for creating your permanent password. The temporary password is valid for 12 hours. Please check your email for the temporary password.

Evidence Collection App Access To facilitate the collection and uploading of evidence, a free NC K-‐3 FAP Evidence Collection App is available. This user-‐friendly app allows for you to easily capture evidence – including photos, audio and videos-‐ using an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Android device.

The Evidence Collection App is not a mobile version of the online platform, but it saves time without compromising security, quality, or accuracy. The app also enables users to set Learning Statuses directly from the app, allowing for a convenient evidence collection process. This section provides information about how to download the evidence app.



To download the NC-‐specific Evidence App, please follow the instructions below:

Evidence App Download Instructions: • Open the App Store or the Google Play Store on your mobile device and search for “NC K-‐3 Evidence.”

• Download the NC K-‐3 Evidence App (not the EAG K-‐3 Evidence app with the red icon) onto your mobile device. Apple users will need an Apple ID and password to download the app from the App Store.

• Log into the app using your NC K-‐3 FAP online username and password.

Please call 1-‐844-‐852-‐4653 (Teaching Strategies Help Desk) if you have difficulty accessing the platform or evidence app.

If you need additional support accessing your account, please reference the support and resources section at the end of this guide.


1. My account from last year is valid and I may use my existing username and password. 2. I am a new user and I need to click on the “Forgot Password” option to create my permanent password. 3. An evidence collection app is available to collect evidence and upload to the online platform.

4. The evidence collection app is not a mobile version of the online platform.



4 Data and User Account Processing

This section explains how data and accounts are processed during the transition from one academic year to the next. This section helps to answer the questions:

• May I use my existing user name and password to access the online platform? • What happens to my class roster and student evidence at the conclusion of the academic year? • Will I have access to my students from last year? • What is the date when my students matriclulate to the next grade?

At the end of the current academic year, kindergarten teachers’ classes and class rosters will be archived within the online platform, and teachers will not be associated with any classes or class rosters. No teacher accounts or student data will be deleted, but teachers will no longer have access to the student data previously associated with their account. At the beginning of the subsequent academic year, principals of an elementary schools, teachers, classes, and student data will be extracted from PowerSchool and uploaded to the online platform. Please note the following:

• Principals of elementary schools and teachers WITH existing accounts in the online platform will log in with their existing credentials.

o However, no students will be associated with teacher accounts until students are enrolled in ELA classes within PowerSchool and uploaded to the platform via the automated PowerSchool uploads on a nightly basis.

• Students with existing portfolios will remain in the online platform, and all of their collected evidence and status summaries will remain associated with them as they become assigned to other teachers.

o If there is no teacher for the student to become associated with, then the student portfolio, associated status summaries, and evidence will be archived in the online platform. Once the student is archived, no one will have access to their record as the student’s record is hidden.

o The student will remain unassigned until associated with another teacher.

• Principals of elementary schools and teachers WITHOUT existing accounts will be created via the automated and nightly PowerSchool uploads provided they meet the criteria as described in Powerschool Data Integration section (2).

There are a myriad of changes and switching of teacher and class roster assignments during the beginning of the academic year. Please keep in mind that elementary school principal, teacher, class, and student data in the online platform emanates from PowerSchool and are uploaded nightly. Therefore, any assignment updates accurately made in PowerSchool should appear in the online platform the following day.



Listed below are several important dates related to the transition from the end of the current 2015-‐16 academic year to the beginning of the 2016-‐17 academic year. Date Event Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 5:00 PM

PowerSchool will be OFFLINE for the end of academic year processing

Friday, July 1, 2016 Kindergarten teachers’ classes and class rosters will be archived in the NC K-‐3 FAP online platform

Monday, July 11, 2016 at 6:00 AM

PowerSchool will be ONLINE for the beginning of academic year processing

Monday, July 11, 2016 Year-‐round Schools Earliest Start Date Monday, August 29, 2016 Traditional Schools Earliest Start Date


1. Principals of elementary schools and teachers will access the online platform using their existing credentials.

2. On July 1st, kindergarten teachers’ classes and class rosters will be archived in the NC K-‐3 FAP online platform.

3. On July 11th, the data transfer from PowerSchool to the NC K-‐3 FAP online platform will begin for the new academic year.



5 Support and Resources

This section provides information about accessing additional support and resources.

For an introduction to the NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process, with an overview of the platform and how to get started, please view the recorded platform orientations located in the Support & Resources section. There is a Support & Resources link in each tab within the platform that contains helpful orientations and guides, which are uniquely tailored to each tab.

The NC K-‐3 FAP Online Platform is a cloud-‐based Software as a Service application developed in collaboration with our technology partner, Teaching Strategies, Inc. For additional questions and information, please see the following contact information:

For PowerSchool Data Integration Inquiries:

Please contact your school’s PowerSchool Data Manager.

For NC K-‐3 FAP Online Platform Inquiries:

• Teaching Strategies, Inc. Help Desk email: [email protected] • Teaching Strategies, Inc. Help Desk phone: 844-‐852-‐4653 • NC Teaching Strategies, Inc. field associate: Mia Sherard, [email protected]

For Content Related Inquiries:

• Please contact your regional consultant or email: [email protected]

For Hardware Inquiries:

• Please contact your school or district instructional technology department. For NC K-‐3 Formative Assessment Process Information:

• Please access: http://rtt-‐elc-‐k3assessment.ncdpi.wikispaces.net



6 Glossary

Term Definition

AY Academic year

DLI Dual language immersion

NC DPI North Carolina Department of Public Instruction

EC Exceptional children

Educational Professionals

Education Professionals provided access by the LEA to the online platform. These may include, but not limited to, co-‐teachers, teacher assistants, instructional coaches, reading specialist, and assistant principals.

ELA English Language Arts

Evidence Child assessment data entered by teachers

Evidence App A downloadable app used to upload evidence into the online platform. Portable devices supported include Apple and Android.

FAP Formative Assessment Process

K-‐3 Kindergarten – Grade 3

KEA Kindergarten Entry Assessment

LEA Local Education Agency

OEL Office of Early Learning (Pre-‐K – Grade 3)

Online platform administrator

A person with standard administrator privileges within the online platform.

PowerSchool The NC DPI Statewide Student Information Student Information System

Sandbox A test area within the online platform, which provides a safe area to learn and practice platform features without affecting actual student data in production.

Teaching Strategies, Inc.

Teaching Strategies, Inc. is the software as a service (SaaS) provider for the NC K-‐3 FAP Online Platform.

UID Unique Statewide Identifier

Documents

NC K-3 FAP Online Platform Access and PS Data Integration ... · facilitates!the!collection!and!analysis!of!evidence!to!supportthe!determination!of!learning!statuses!and!the!