cohort - alsde home support services/cohort...cohort last modified: 2/7/2018 3:48:00 pm application...

DEPARTMENT OF

EDUCATION

PREVENTION AND SUPPORT

SERVICES

Cohort ______________________

Administration Guide

Cohort Last Modified: 2/7/2018 3:48:00 PM

Application Administration Guide

2

Contents

Revision History ......................................................................................................................... 3

Revision History Chart ............................................................................................................... 3

1. Application Overview .......................................................................................................... 4

2. Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations ............................................................................ 5

3. How do I get started? .......................................................................................................... 7

4. Administrative Features ...................................................................................................... 9

Administration – Manage Year/Access ........................................................................... 9

Administration – Year End Processing...........................................................................17

Administration – Manage Settings .................................................................................18

Administration – Manage Systems – Setting Up (Adding) A New Year ..........................19

Administration – Manage Systems – Editing A Year ......................................................22

Administration – Manage Systems – Accepting an LEA Submittal (Certified) ................24

Administration – Manage Systems – Returning an LEA Submittal (Uncertifying) ...........27

Administration – Manage Systems – Returning an LEA Submittal (Uncertifying) That Has

Been Accepted ..............................................................................................................31

Administration – App Membership .................................................................................35

5. How Do View Cohort Records? ..........................................................................................36

6. How Do I Generate CSPR Reports? ..................................................................................39

7. Cohort Reports- Grad Rate Summary ................................................................................41

8. Cohort Reports- Grad Rate Internal ...................................................................................42

9. Cohort Reports- ACHE Student Reports ............................................................................43



3

Revision History

Every change to this document, subsequent to initial sign-off, must be recorded in the Revision History Chart below. There are no exceptions. Note that the Project Manager must sign off on any changes to this document.

Revision History Chart

Date Version Description Owner

02/05/2014 1.0 Original Version Marilyn Lewis

08/11/2015 1.1 Added IS Document Standards Marilyn Lewis

02/23/2017 2.0 Updated to Current IS Standards and

added information on Cohort Reports,

ADEN Data Files and Administration

menu items

Marilyn Lewis

09/28/2017 3.0 Updated doc to include information on

the new Cohort processes which begin

with the 2017 graduating class. The

new process only allows for student

updates from the LEA student

management system (SMS) INOW.

Marilyn Lewis

11/01/2017 4.0 Added section: 5.How Do View Cohort

Records? With references to the newly

added history button.

Marilyn Lewis

11/07/2017 5.0 Updated screenshots related to the No

Show, Summer School and early

graduate changes

Marilyn Lewis

02/07/2018 6.0 Updates to the How do I get started

section

Marilyn Lewis



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1. Application Overview

2008 Federal Regulations issued by ED in October 2008 represent a substantial

improvement over previous federal policy. Beginning in School Year (SY) 2010–11,

states are required to report a uniform, comparable, and accurate graduation rate

known as a “four-year adjusted cohort rate,” which measures the percent of students in

a ninth grade cohort that graduate with a regular diploma in four years or less. This rate

also must be used for determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) beginning in SY

2011–12. The formula is similar to the NGA Compact, but the regulations clarify many of

the details that the Compact left undefined.



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2. Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations

LEA – Local Education Agency

InformationNOW (INOW) – Student Management System (SMS) owned and supported

by PowerSchool/Chalkable that is used to manage students and day to day operations

in each LEA.

4 Year Cohort - Measures the percent of students in a ninth grade cohort that graduate

with a regular diploma in four years or less.

5 Year Cohort - Measures the percent of students in a ninth grade cohort that graduate

with a regular diploma in five less.

Federal Graduation Rate – Calculated graduation rate that only includes students who

have graduated for the selected school year without receiving credit for special

education courses during their high school career.

Federal Graduates – Total count of students who have graduated for the selected

school year without receiving credit for special education courses during their high

school career.

Federal Completers – Total count of students who were marked as a Completer for the

selected school year that did not receive credit for special education courses during

their high school career.

Federal Record Type - Lists all record types including Completers, Still Enrolled,

Dropouts, Withdrawn, etc. as well as Graduates based in the federal graduate criteria.

To be classified as a federal graduate the student must have graduated without

receiving credit for special education courses during their high school career.

ALSDE Graduation Rate - Calculated graduation rate that includes all students marked

as a graduate for the selected graduation year. This rate includes students who

received credit for special education courses.

ALSDE Graduates - Total count of students who have graduated for the selected

graduation year. This count includes students who received credit for special education

courses.

ALSDE Completers - Total count of students who were marked as a Completer for the

selected graduation year. This count includes students who received credit for special

education courses.

ALSDE Record Type - Lists all record types including Completers, Still Enrolled,

Dropouts, Withdrawn, etc. as well as Graduates based in the ALSDE graduate criteria.



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To be classified as an ALSDE graduate, a student may be a graduate who received

credit for special education courses during their high school career.

Certifying Cohort Data – The process by which each LEA reviews their Cohort data for the selected graduating year and submits the data to the ALSDE. Once the data is certified by the LEA, no updates will be applied to the data. All student level changes will now be made in the INOW application by the LEA and in 24 to 48 hours the changes will be visible in the Cohort application. The LEA is responsible for ensuring that all changes are visible in the Cohort application before certifying their data. Accepting Cohort Data - The process by which ALSDE receives the Cohort data

submitted by the LEA for inclusion into grad rate calculations and state and federal

reporting. The ALSDE does not have the ability to edit student level information. If the

LEA needs changes to their data, their submittal must be uncertified and returned to

them for update.

Uncertifying Cohort Data – The process by which ALSDE returns a certified and/or

accepted Cohort submittal to the LEA for updates. As outlined in the Certifying Cohort

explanation, all changes must be made in INOW and confirmed in the Cohort

application. Once the LEA is content with the updates, they are responsible for re-

certifying the data and the ALSDE must then accept the data again to complete the

process.

Certification Start and End Dates: The time period that LEAs are allowed to certify the

data that they see in the Cohort application. No LEA certifications are allowed outside of

this time period.

Decision Start and End Dates: The time period that the Prevention and Support staff

is allowed to accept submittals from the LEAs. ALSDE decisions cannot be performed

outside of this time period.



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3. How do I get started?

Go to the main ALSDE website (www.alsde.edu) and click the “Application Login” link.

A page will display the available application portals. Select the “ALSDE Identity

Management (AIM)” option.

The AIM Login page will be displayed. In order to access the Cohort application you must first have an AIM account.

http://www.alsde.edu/



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Once you have an AIM account you must make sure that you are in an Active Directory

group that has access to the application. After the AIM account has been created and

permissions have been assigned in Active Directory, you will be able to log in to the

portal. After you have successfully logged into the portal you will see the Cohort

application in your application list on the main home page. Your application home page

may look something like this. Click the Cohort tile on this page to open the application.

Upon entering the application, at the top of the screen you will find the menu bar and

just below the menu to the left you will see the Cohort Selection area. After selections

are made in the Cohort Selection area, summary tables will display on the right and just

below the Cohort Selection area and at the bottom of the page you will find the student

level detail grid.



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1. Administrative Features Administration – Manage Year/Access

1. From the Cohort Application toolbar, hover over the Administration link and select

the Mange Years/Access option.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below. Select a base year

from the Year dropdown.



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Functions available:

A. Create A New Base Year Record Click “New” in the top-left of the “Year:” drop down, enter the Base Year and click “Update” to add a new Base Year record. Nothing will happen until you input individual control records.

The screen will refresh and the new base year will be added to the Year dropdown along with the corresponding data for the 4 and 5 year grad year columns.



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B. Display Control Records From the “Year” dropdown, click the row (not the “Edit” or “Delete” links) of the base year that you wish to view.

The control records attached to that base year will be displayed.

C. Create A New Control Record

Click “New” at the top-left of the control record grid. Fill out the required fields and click “Update”. This will add a control record to the selected base cohort.



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D. Edit An Existing Control Record After selecting a Base Cohort, click “Edit” link for the record you wish to update.

The screen will expand revealing the fields that are eligible for update. Modify the appropriate fields and click “Update” to save the changes

E. Delete An Existing Control Record Always check the Information Systems section before deleting a control record. The general rule of thumb is to never delete a record because deleting a record could also remove valuable historical data.



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Available Control Record Functionality

The “Cohort Years and Access Administration” under the Manage Years and Access

menu item controls online access to the Cohort application for ALSDE and State Users

as well as the processes that run daily each evening.

The “Build” Action is used to create a new Cohort or to add new Students to an existing

Cohort.

The “View” Action allows designated ALSDE and LEA personnel to view Cohort

information.

Function Cohort

Type

Access

Level

Action Description

Update Cohort

Using the

Accumulator

4-Year & 5-

Year

Scheduled

Activity

Update Update student data from

current Accumulator data

Create 5-Year Cohort from

4-Year if it doesn’t already

exist.

Add New

Students to

Cohort

4-Year Scheduled

Activity

Build Add new students from

Accumulator if not already

added.

Allow LEA View

access

4-Year & 5-

Year

LEA View Allows LEA’s to view

Cohort data.

Allow ALSDE

View access

4-Year & 5-

Year

ALSDE Staff View Allows Prevention &

Support Personnel to View

Cohort data.



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Action Column – 5 Year Cohort

The Five Year Cohort is dependent upon the Four Year Cohort in both the loading and

updating of data. One of the main items needed for the updating of 5 Year Cohort

students is the Action column.

To ensure that the Action column is available by default, make sure the following entries

are present in the 4 Year and 5 Year years and Access screens.

Step 1: Login to the AIM portal (https://aim.alsde.edu) and click the Cohort Tile

Step 2: Hover over the Administration link and click the Years and Access

Administration link

Step 3: In the Year dropdown box, select the correct Base Year, 4 Year and 5 Year

combination

https://aim.alsde.edu/



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Step 4: Filter the Cohort Type for 4 Year by selecting the option from the Cohort Type

dropdown

Step 5: In the grid filtered for the 4 Year Cohort type, make sure there are entries for

LEA Update and ALSDE Staff Update. Both records must be present for both the LEAs

and ALSDE staff to see the Action column on the grid. If either of these is missing the

column will not be there by default and will have to be added by the user manually.

Additionally, make sure that the start stop dates have not expired

* If the records do not appear, see the Create New Control Record section of this

document for directions on creating a new record.



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Step 6: Filter the Cohort Type for 5 Year by selecting the option from the Cohort Type

dropdown

Step 7: In the grid filtered for the 5 Year Cohort type, make sure there are entries for

LEA Update and ALSDE Staff Update. Both records must be present for both the LEAs

and ALSDE staff to see the Action column on the grid. If either of these is missing the

column will not be there by default and will have to be added by the user manually.

Additionally, make sure that the start stop dates have not expired

* If the records do not appear, see the Create New Control Record section of this

document for directions on creating a new record



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Administration – Year End Processing

From the Cohort Application toolbar, hover over the Administration link and select the

Year End Processing option.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below. To create a new

Snapshot at the end of year end processing, click the Add New Snapshot button.



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Administration – Manage Settings


Manage Settings option.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below. To change the messages

displayed by the app to the LEA users, click the Edit link next to SpecialMessage1 or

SpecialMessage2.

Enter your message and click the Update link to lock in the changes.



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Administration – Manage Systems – Adding Certification and Decision Dates From the Cohort Application toolbar, hover over the Administration link and select the

Manage Systems option.

Note: With the latest update to the Cohort process (effective with the 2017 graduating Cohort) LEAs are no longer required to submit student level changes to the Prevention and Support staff through the Cohort application. Now ALL student level changes will now be made in the INOW application by the LEA and in 24 to 48 hours the changes will be visible in the Cohort application. In the screen that appears, select a graduation Cohort from the Graduation Year dropdown in the Cohort Certification Settings area.

The screen will refresh and an Add link will appear in the bottom right corner of the Cohort Certification Settings area.



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Click the Add link. You will be presented with a Cohort Certification and Decision

Settings popup that allows you to set the certification and decision periods.

Enter the Certification Start and End and the Decision Start and End dates and click the

Save button to lock in the selections. The Decision and Certification dates can overlap.

Certification Start and End Dates: The time period that LEAs are allowed to certify the

data that they see in the Cohort application. No LEA certifications are allowed outside of

this time period.

Note: Once an LEA certifies their Cohort data it is locked and no further updates can be

made by the LEA and no updates will be allowed from INOW.

Decision Start and End Dates: The time period that the Prevention and Support staff

is allowed to accept submittals from the LEAs. ALSDE decisions cannot be performed

outside of this time period.

Note: This information can be edited but cannot be deleted. See the Administration –

Manage Systems – Editing Certification and Decision Dates section of this

document for more information on editing the dates.



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After clicking the Save button a popup will appear stating that changes have been

saved. Click OK to continue. The screen will refresh and you will see the Certification

and Decisions Dates that you entered in the table. Additionally, you will see a data grid

at the bottom of the page containing grad rate data on the LEAs. Since you have just

open the application for certification and decisions, all certification and decision columns

in the grid will be blank.

All data in the grid can be sorted and filtered but cannot be exported.



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Administration – Manage Systems – Editing Certification and Decision Dates From the Cohort Application toolbar, hover over the Administration link and select the


In the screen that appears, select a graduation Cohort from the Graduation Year

dropdown in the Cohort Certification Settings area.

The screen will refresh and an Edit link will appear in the bottom right corner of the

Cohort Certifications Settings area.

Click the Edit link. You will be presented with a Cohort Certification and Decision

Settings popup that allows you to adjust the certification and decision periods.



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Adjust any of the Certification and/or Decision dates and click the Save button to lock in

the selections. The Decision and Certification dates can overlap.

After clicking the Save button a popup will appear stating that changes have been

saved. Click OK to continue. The screen will refresh and you will see the Certification

and Decisions Dates that you entered in the table. And a message will display noting

that the information has been saved.



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Administration – Manage Systems – Accepting an LEA Submittal (Certified)





The screen will refresh and you will be presented with a data grid at the bottom of the

page containing grad rate data on the LEAs. LEAs that have certified their data but

have not yet had their data accepted by ALSDE:

Will have their system code and system name information shaded in a pale yellow color

The Is Certified checkbox will be checked and the Cert By and Cert Date columns will

contain data

The corresponding decision columns will be blank



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To filter for a list of these LEAs, select Checked in the Is Certified column. The screen

will refresh and the list will be filtered for those LEAs that have certified. Conversely,

select the Unchecked option from the dropdown to see a list of LEAs that have not

certified their Cohort data.

Click the Details button to view a details page of the LEAs submittal and to make your

decision.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below that presents Cohort and

certification data for the selected LEA.



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Click the Accept Certification button to accept the LEAs submittal. A popup box will

appear confirming the action, click OK to continue.

Note: Only ALSDE accepted data will appear on the CSPR reports.

The screen will refresh and you will be returned to the Manage Systems screen for the

school year in which you are working. The accepted LEA:

Will have their system code and system name information shaded green

The Decided checkbox will be checked and decisions columns will contain data

A message will display above the grid stating that the LEA certification has been

accepted.

If you click the Details button for any accepted LEA, the details screen will appear with

additional information including the decision status, decision date and the name of the

ALSDE user that made the decision as well as a certification and decision history at the

bottom.



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Administration – Manage Systems – Returning an LEA Submittal (Uncertifying) From the Cohort Application toolbar, hover over the Administration link and select the





page containing grad rate data on the LEAs. LEAs that have certified their data but

have not yet had their data accepted by ALSDE:

Will have their system code and system name information shaded in a pale yellow color

The Is Certified checkbox will be checked and the Cert By and Cert Date columns will

contain data

The corresponding decision columns will be blank



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To filter for a list of these LEAs, select Checked in the Is Certified column. The screen

will refresh and the list will be filtered for those LEAs that have certified. Conversely,

select the Unchecked option from the dropdown to see a list of LEAs that have not

certified their Cohort data.

Click the Details button to view a details page of the LEAs submittal and to make your

decision.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below that presents Cohort and

certification data for the selected LEA.



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Click UnCertify button to return the submittal to the LEA. You must enter comments before clicking the UnCertify button in order to complete the process. If no comments are entered a popup box like the one below will appear reminding you to enter comments.

After entering comments and clicking the Uncertify button a popup message will appear

asking you to confirm the action. Click OK to continue.

Another popup will appear letting you know that the submission has been successfully

uncertified. Click OK to continue.



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Note: Uncertifying returns the submittal to the LEA and allows for the Cohort data for

the LEA to be updated during the nightly process (if it is open). Once ALSDE has

uncertified the submittal, the LEA is then responsible for making necessary student

updates in the INOW software and monitoring the Cohort application to ensure that the

changes are reflected there. Once the updates are confirmed in the Cohort application,

the LEA must certify the data once again and ALSDE must accept the submittal to

complete the process.


school year in which you are working. The uncertified LEA:

Will have their system code and system name information shaded pink

The certification columns will be blank

Decided checkbox will be checked, the Decision checkbox will read Un-certified

and remaining decision columns will contain data


uncertified.

If you click the Details button for any uncertified LEA, the details screen will appear with



bottom.



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Administration – Manage Systems – Returning an LEA Submittal (Uncertifying) That Has Been Accepted From the Cohort Application toolbar, hover over the Administration link and select the


In the screen that appears, select a graduation Cohort from the Graduation Year dropdown in the Cohort Certification Settings area.


page containing grad rate data on the LEAs. LEAs that have has their data accepted by

ALSDE:

Will have their system code and system name information shaded green

The Decided checkbox will be checked and decisions columns will contain data


accepted.



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To filter for a list of these LEAs, select Checked in the Is Certified column. The screen will refresh and the list will be filtered for those LEAs that have certified. Conversely, select the Unchecked option from the dropdown to see a list of LEAs that have not certified their Cohort data.

Click the Details button to view a details page of the LEAs submittal and to make your decision.

You will be presented with a screen similar to the one below that presents Cohort and certification data for the selected LEA.



33

Click the UnCertify button to return the submittal to the LEA. You must enter comments before clicking the UnCertify button in order to complete the process. If no comments are entered a popup box like the one below will appear reminding you to enter comments.

After entering comments and clicking the Uncertify button, a popup message will appear

asking you to confirm the action. Click OK to continue.

Another popup will appear letting you know that the submission has been successfully

uncertified. Click OK to continue.



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school year in which you are working. The uncertified LEA:

Will have their system code and system name information shaded pink

The certification columns will be blank

Decided checkbox will be checked, the Decision checkbox will read Un-certified

and remaining decision columns will contain data


uncertified.

If you click the Details button for any uncertified LEA, the details screen will appear with



bottom.



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Administration – App Membership

The application groups will show all the authorized users of the application with names,

email addresses and the type of view the user will have such as (Admin user,

School/LEA user, and Program Key Contacts user).

From the menu bar at the top of the screen, select the Administration option and choose

App Membership from the dropdown box.

A new tab will open with a list of groups that have access to the application. Click one

of the groups to view the members of the group.



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2. How Do I View Cohort Records? After you have clicked on the Cohort tile on the main application list page, you will be taken into Cohort application. From here, hover over the View Cohorts menu option and choose the View Cohorts – LEA View option.

From the Cohort Selection area, select from the dropdown boxes a Cohort, System School and Subpopulation.

Once your selections have been made, the screen will refresh and in the top half of the screen you will be presented with a series of charts and graphs that provide summary information on the students who belong to the selected Cohort.



37

The bottom half of the screen has a data grid that contains detailed information on the

students belonging to the selected Cohort.

The grid allows you to sort data displayed within an unlimited number of columns. Click

a column header to initiate the sort process. The column's current sort order is indicated

by a sort glyph (▼) displayed at the column header's right edge. If the column isn't

sorted, the sort glyph is hidden. Click the column's header to sort data against a data

column or change the column's sort order. To sort data against multiple columns, click

column headers with the SHIFT key pressed down.

The Filter Row allows users to filter data by entering text within its cells.



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Click the History button (Student Level Data grid) to view a student’s enrollment records

for each school year* the student was enrolled in the Alabama Public School System.

(*Records begin with the 2012 school year). All data displayed in the Student History

popup comes from data replicated to the state each night from the LEAs via the

Accumulator process and is untouched by the ALSDE.

From the Student History screen, you will be able to determine the districts/schools

attended by the student as well as other demographic and subpopulation information for

the selected student. As students transition from year to year and school to school

some of their demographic information may change. The Student History popup can

give insight into those changes.

To close the history screen, click the X in the top right corner of the popup or click in the

shaded area behind the popup.



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3. How Do I Generate CSPR Reports? After you have clicked on the Cohort tile on the main application list page, you will be taken into Cohort application. From here, hover over the ADEN-Data Files menu option and choose the CSPR report you want to generate.

You will be presented with a page that looks like this

In this example CSPR Report C032 has been chosen from the menu. Select the school year of the data needed for the report and click the “Generate Report” button.

After the “Generate Report” button has been click the report will display. You can switch between the different levels of the report that are available from the tabs. In the example below there are State and System level reports. If you are satisfied with your report click “Save Report” to save the report to the ADEN system for approval.



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*Note 1: Generating the report is not the final step of the CSPR process. To complete the CSPR process you must go to the ADEN application (located in AIM) and approve the report for submittal to the USDOE. **Note 2: The CSPR reports will only display information on LEAs that have had their data accepted by the ALSDE. This means that an LEA must certify their data and the state must mark it as accepted before that LEA’s data appears on any of the CSPR reports.



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4. Cohort Reports- Grad Rate Summary To generate the Grad Rate Summary report, hover over the Cohort Reports menu

option and choose the Grad Rate Summary report.

In the screen that appears, select a graduating Cohort and subpopulation from the

dropdowns and click the Get graduation rate button

Based on your selections, you will be presented with a data grid displaying state and

federal graduation rate data by state, system, school and subpopulation.

Additional fields can be added to the grid by clicking the Choose Fields option above the

grid. After clicking the button a list of available fields will be displayed in a Column

Chooser box. To add a column to the grid, click and hold the column with your mouse

and drag it to the location you would like to place it on the grid and release the mouse

button. You may remove a column from the grid by clicking and holding the column

name with your mouse, dragging the column name to the Column Chooser box and

releasing the mouse button. Additionally, the grid can be sorted, filtered and exported

for further manipulation by the user.



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5. Cohort Reports- Grad Rate Internal To generate the Grad Rate Internal report, hover over the Cohort Reports menu

option and choose the Grad Rate Internal report.

In the screen that appears, select a graduating Cohort, School System (options

include the State of Alabama), school and subpopulation from the dropdowns and

click the Show Results button

Based on your selections, you will be presented with a data grid displaying state and

federal graduation rates and counts by state, system, school and subpopulation.

Additional fields can be added to the grid by clicking the Choose Fields option above

the grid. After clicking the button a list of available fields will be displayed in a

Column Chooser box. To add a column to the grid, click and hold the column with

your mouse and drag it to the location you would like to place it on the grid and

release the mouse button. You may remove a column from the grid by clicking and

holding the column name with your mouse, dragging the column name to the

Column Chooser box and releasing the mouse button. Additionally, the grid can be

sorted, filtered and exported for further manipulation by the user.



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6. Cohort Reports- ACHE Student Reports To generate the any of the ACHE reports, hover over the Cohort Reports menu

option and choose one of the ACHE Student reports.

After making a report and school year selection you will be presented with a data grid

similar to the one below that lists the ACHE requested data in their preferred format.

The report can be sorted, filtered and exported to Excel.

Repeat these steps for any of the ACHE reports you wish to see.

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