MISTAR Teacher Grade Book Upgrades and New Features

“Old” or Legacy Grade book and the “New” or Q Grade book District can choose to use the “old” legacy grade book for the school year or move to the “new” Q Grade Book. Legacy grade book is no longer supported by the vendor. Legacy grade book will be retired by the school year.

New Look and Feel for Grade Book Roster view now includes the nickname field. Nicknames can be set by the teacher for his/her rosters only. Nicknames entered in the student enrollment module can be visible and edited by teacher. New statistics box is visible, summarizing the class performance. Most features are in the same place, with the same functionality. The tabs for using different views in the grade book are in the same order.

Banner Application

Time out has been improved! Time out message has been improved. Message over- rides other programs the user is working on with a 300 second (5 minutes) timer to select I’m Here or Logout.

Finding Classes Use the Find button or the arrow keys to select the class. This is the way that users will begin looking for a class or student in all areas of the application. The “4 people” icon shows if the user is currently applying a filter. Grayscale = not filtered, red/green/yellow/blue = filtered. Banner – contains user customizable information. Click on the tools icon to adjust.

Saving changes to database When a change is made, the user will need to submit the changes to the database. In the user interface, the Cancel / Reset / Submit buttons are located in the same place. User will see red font as a reminder that changes have not yet been made.

Spreadsheet Calculations are separated by category. Final Exam can now be a category and will not affect the “running” total. Quick toggle for graded/not graded. May be useful when it is several days until all of the scores for the tasks can be entered. Can use a separate mark set for different students. Can exclude a student from a task and the task will not be visible on Parent or Student Portals.

New features in Spreadsheet

Student Tab New student selection view. Black tab moves in and out to select individual student.

Work with an individual student Red “Ghostbusters” sign indicates student is not enrolled on the day the assignment was due. Shows attendance as of the task due date.

Individual Student views by category All Categories – grade used in calculation is the academic grade in this sample. Participation category with the cumulative term grade mark type. Grading Period category with the cumulative term grade mark type. Final Exam category with a separate exam mark type.

Work with Tasks Clicking the Task Detail button presents a “window shade” screen with read-only details of the assignment/task. Click the Task Detail button again to “roll up” the window, click the Edit Task button to edit this task. Add task rolls up the window and opens a new task.

Standards Entry Can have standards integrated into the Grade Book. Automatic calculation is a district choice. If automatic calculation is turned on, when scores are entered, the standard will be automatically calculated. Scores Update Standards Standards Update Scores Edited scores Update Standards Magnifying glass will show previous standard scores.

Calc/Post Calc/Post has been improved to streamline grade posting. Grades are now calculated based on the defined value of the posted mark, not the re-calculated tasks (legacy grade book). Marking period grade showing the category breakdown. Final Exam is not included. Final Exam is included at the credit granting term (Semester/Trimester) Credit granting term – shows marking period grade, final exam, weight of each element. Preview button shows calculation. Post button saves to database.

Setup New, quick-look screen to help see if all elements of the Grade Book are configured. Configure button will allow for an “express” setup. If district has made choice to use this tool, teachers can select the configure button. Grade Book will be configured with standard choices, selected at the district level. If a Grade Book has not been configured, the first time a teacher selects the class, they will be directed to this screen and asked to configure/setup the specific class.

Preferences Functions are the same, but the on/off radio buttons have been replaced with checkboxes.

Options (Class Level) Similar to legacy grade book.

Categories (Class Level) NEW! Each category will have a mark type. Mark types are defined by the system administrators. Mark types can have more than one category associated with each mark type. Recommendation: create a final exam category, associated with an exam mark type.

Grading Scale (Class Level) New functionality has been added to allow for multiple grading scales/cut points to be defined and selected students to be assessed with a different grading scale.

Grading Scale Variation and Student Assignment (Class Level) Using the Alt Student Scales button on the previous screen, the roster for the selected class is viewable. Click on the student name to assign to the alternate scale. Use the broom icon to un- assign the scale and return the student scores to the default scale.

Scoring Options (Class Level) Works in same manner as legacy grade book, however teachers now define the scoring options appropriate for their class. Legacy grade book only allowed scoring options to be defined for entire district.

Groups (Class Level) A new feature allowing teachers to define groups and assign students to groups. Groups can be used to include/exclude students when setting up assignments/tasks. Each student may only be in one group per class.

Asssignments (Class Level) Accessible from the By Task tab or from the Setup/Assignments tab. Changes in this screen: 1.Three dates are available for each assignment: Assigned On, Display On, and Due On. Use the calendar to select the date or directly type. 2.Assignment Graded, Hidden and Extra Credit – Assignment Graded can be used to toggle the task to include/exclude from calculation 3.Instructions – viewable on Parent/Student Portals. 4.Teacher Note – for teacher view only 5.Standards – if using standards with this course, select the standard. May multi-select as needed. 6.Students – which students should have this assignment. Exclude from assignment using the groups, or single select student names.

Copy Setup No changes to this screen. Reminder that if the teacher is assigned to the same class as a previous year, the assignments are available to copy only if the categories are identical between the preivous year and current year.

Nice presentation, I’m ready to start working. Districts have new tools to assist teachers in the setup process, but the tool (Grade Book Manager) MUST be configured before teachers begin setting up individual grade books.

I am a teacher trainer. What training materials do you have? Use this presentation – adapt to your own style and situation as needed until the Grade Book Manager is completed. Access complete help files – under the Help icon, click the Grade Book link. Our partners in Ventura County California have uploaded their documentation. Access training materials/job aids – at the Oakland Schools MISTAR documentation site Access training videos – at the Wayne RESA video site. Videos are short clips featuring a single topic for reference and training.

Where are the training guides and videos? Job Aides and training guides: chnologyServices/StudentInformationManagem entSystem/MISTAR/tabid/2637/Default.aspx Video clips Search for MISTAR, password is “lovelyday”.

Will there be any other updates? Yes. We will have a Grade Book report update the last week of August.