eSchool Plus – TeacherAccessCenter

OVERVIEW & LOGGING IN

Starting with the 2006-2007 school year, the Leyden High Schools will begin using the eSchool Plus student information system to take attendance and maintain grades for all students. Being a completely web-based application, access to eSchool Plus only requires a viable connection to the Internet and Internet Explorer 6.0 (or newer).

Each teacher will have one login id that will access all classes in which the teacher will take attendance and maintain grades. To log into eSchool Plus…

  1. Access the Leyden homepage
  2. Choose the eSchool Plus option from the Technology menu
  3. When prompted, enter your account information:
  4. Win 2000 users
  5. Username
  6. Password
  7. Domain (lhs212)
  8. Windows XP users
  9. Username@lhs212
  10. Password
  11. Click OK
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Upon successfully logging in, the teacher will be on the My Classes – Attendance page (see Image 1).

Image 1

Button Definitions/Functions:

  • Take Attendance - this is your “home” attendance screen
  • Morning Bulletin – this screen shows all students marked absent during the day (can be viewed for only the teacher’s students or for all students)
  • Define Assessments – this screen allows the teacher to define the grading categories and individual assessments for each class
  • Score Assessments – this screen allows the teacher to enter/manage the scores for each assessment (think of this as the actual gradebook)
  • Enter Interim Progress – this screen allows the teacher to enter progress report grades and comments (there will be specific windows of time each year when progress report info can be entered)
  • Enter Report Cards - this screen allows the teacher to enter report card grades and comments (there will be specific windows of time each year when report card info can be entered)
  • Enter Competencies – this screen will not be used
  • Customize Colors – this screen allows the teacher to customize the colors of the working environment
  • Set Environment – this screen allows the teacher to access other databases in the system

TAKING ATTENDANCE

To take attendance:

  1. Teacher logs into system.
  2. To indicate that all students are present for a class, click on the All Present buttonfor the class (see Image 1).
  3. To enter attendance for selected students in a class, click on the class linkto view the roster (see Image 3 on the next page).
  • To mark students absent with the default absent code, check the checkbox next to thestudent’s name in the A column (NOTE: If the attendance office has already entered an attendance code, the teacher will see that information listed but MUST still mark the student absent).
  • To mark the student tardy with the default tardy code, check in the checkbox next to thestudent’s name in the T column. Entering a time in the Arrive Time column is optional.
  • To change an absence to present, check in the checkbox next to the student’sname in the P column (typically done after attendance has already been submitted).
  • To mark all students absent or tardy using the default absent and tardy code, click theCheck All Abs or Check All Tar buttons at the top or bottom of the page.
  • To clear all absences or tardies, click the Clear All Abs or Clear All Tar buttons.
  1. When all entries have been made, click Save.
  2. Once the attendance has been recorded and saved, a green check mark will appear on the My Classes – Attendance page for the completed class (see Image 4 on the next page).

NOTES:

  • Attendance should be taken every period.
  • If the attendance office enters an attendance code prior to a teacher taking attendance, the office’s code will appear on the teacher’s roster (see Image 2). The teacher MUST still mark any student not in attendance accordingly.
    Image 2
  • Corrections to attendance can be made anytime during the same day (i.e. going back and marking a student present instead of absent). This should reduce the number of corrections that need to be made the following day. The attendance information for each class can be re-saved multiple times during the day.
  • Teachers can only modify attendance for the current day. Any corrections to prior days must be made through the attendance office.
  • Missing attendance reports will be run after 5th period and after 11th period each day.

Image 3

Image 4

THE MORNING BULLETIN

The Morning Bulletin is actually an ongoing list of all students absent on a particular day. A student that has an absence code entered by either the attendance office or a teacher will appear on the list. A teacher can choose to view only his/her students and classes or all students and classes. There are two main functions for this feature: 1) early in the morning a teacher can view a list of students that are coded as being absent for all or part of the current day and 2) at the end of a day a teacher could review all the absences he/she enteredand then go back and make any necessary changes. By using the Show Only My Students option (see Image 5), a teacher can view only his/her students and his/her classes. Changing the option to All Students will show all attendance info for every student in the building (see Image 6).

Image 5 (Only My Students version)

Image 6 (All Students version – note the extra attendance info for Yazan Alaraj)

THE GRADEBOOK BASICS

Maintaining the online gradebook can be broken down into three processes for each class:

  1. Choosing the categories used for grading (each course should be predefined within your department)
  2. Defining assessments
  3. Entering grades or scoring assessments

Step 1 is usually done once per semester and can be copied from one course to another within your gradebook. Step 2 can be accomplished either as on ongoing process throughout the semester or assessments can be setup in advance. In addition, common assessments can be copied from one course to another to save time.

STEP 1 – Choosing Your Categories

  1. Click the Define Assessments button
  2. Choose the Report Card Run(this will be the same as the marking period/quarter) and then the Marking Period for the class you would like to work with
  3. There are two tabs under the course information section, Category and Assessment. Click on the Category tab if it is not already selected (see Image 7).
  4. You will see a list of all the predefined categories that the district allows. Place checks in the boxes next to those categories you would like to use (see Image 7).
  5. Enter the percentages for each category into the Weight field for each category you chose.
  6. By default, the Drop Lowest field is set to ‘0’ for each category. If you would like the system to automatically drop one or more of the lowest scores in a particular category, enter the appropriate number into the Drop Lowest field (see Image 7).
  7. Choose the appropriate Exclude Missing option for each category, either exclude missing scores from the average or count them as zeros (see Image 7).
  8. When you are finished, click the Save button.

Image 7

STEP 2 – Defining Assessments

  1. Click the Define Assessments button
  2. Choose the Report Card Run and then the Marking Period for the class you would like to work with
  3. There are two tabs under the course information section, Category and Assessment. Click on the Assessment tab if it is not already selected (see Image 8).
  4. In the blank row, enter the assessment information (see Image 8):
  • Date Assigned – optional
  • Date Due – required
  • Category – choose the appropriate category from the drop-down menu (NOTE: only those categories you defined in Step 1 above will appear in your list)
  • Extra Credit – choose from the following list: Not Extra Credit; Add to Total Points (this adds in the extra credit before calculating the category average); or Add to Average (this adds the value to the calculated average for the category)
  • Description – required information about the assessment
  • Points – required value of the assessment
  • Weight – entering anything other than the default ‘1’ will result in the multiplication of the points by the weight before calculating the total category average
  • Publish Item – optional for posting assessment on the Web
  • Publish Scores - optional for posting assessment scores on the Web
  • Delete – if this box is checked, the assessment will be deleted upon the next save
  1. Click the Save button

(NOTE: Assessments will only be included in a student’s grade calculation if the “Date Due” of the assessment is on or before the current day. For example, if today is Tuesday, April 18 and you enter an assessment that is due on Friday, April 21, it will not be included in the students’ grade calculations, even if you enter any scores, until Friday, April 21. This allows teachers to enter assessments that occur in the future without the missing grades in the grade book affecting the current grade calculations).

Image 8

STEP 3 – Scoring Assessments

  1. Click the Score Assessments button
  2. Choose the Report Card Run and then the Marking Period for the class you would like to work with
  3. Enter the student scores into the appropriate assessment column(s) (see Image 9)
  4. Click the Save button when finished

Image 9

THE GRADEBOOK REPORTS

There are two types of reports that can be generated from the grade book. The first is the typical complete grade book report that prints out all the students and all their assessments (see Image 10).

Image 10

The second report is a student detail report that includes a chronological list of all assessments, a summary of how the final grade is calculated, and a parent signature line (see Image 11).

Image 11

To generate the complete grade book report:

  1. Click the Score Assessments button
  2. Choose the Report Card Run and then the Marking Period for the class you would like to work with
  3. Click the Printable button near the top of the window (see Image 12)
    Image 12

  4. Choose the options that you would like (see Image 13)
    Image 13

  5. Click the Print button

To generate the student detail report:

  1. Click the Score Assessments button
  2. Choose the Report Card Run and then the Marking Period for the class you would like to work with
  3. Click the Student Detail button near the top of the window (see Image 14)
    Image 14
  4. Check the box to indicate if you want to show class averages
  5. Click the Print button

NOTE: It is possible to print either report for a single student instead of every student in the class. While on the scores screen click on any assessment for the student you’d like to print a report for, check the Show Only Selected Row box, and then follow the directions above for the report you want to run.

A RECAP OF HOW GRADES ARE CALCULATED

For each category, the sum of the points earned by a student is divided by the total/maximum points possible to generate a category percentage. Each category percentage is multiplied by its category weight to produce category points. The sum of all category points is divided by the sum of all category weights to generate the student’s overall grade (see Image 15).

Image 15

The sum of all category weights should always be 100 unless a particular category has not been used through a particular time in the course. Below (see Image 16) is an example of the same student as used in Image 15 but without any assessments in the “Tests” category. Note how the current grade is being calculated. The sum of all category points is still divided by the sum of all category weights, but since the “tests” category is not used, the sum (or maximum possible) of the category weights is only 50.

Image 16

PROGRESS REPORTS

To submit progress reports grades:

  1. Click the Enter Interim Progress button
  2. Leave the option for Existing IPR Run Dates selected (see image 17)
  3. Choose the correct date from the IPR Run Date pull-down menu (see image 17)
  4. Click the link for the class you want to enter grades for
    Image 17

  5. Enter the grades and comments appropriate for each student by using one of the following methods or a combination of methods (see Image 18):
  6. Type the grades into the PRG grade column and the number of the comments into the CMT1 and/or CMT2 columns
  7. Choose the grades and comments from the pull-down menus in each column
  8. Click the Load From Gradebook button at the top of the window to automatically load the grades from your gradebook into the grade fields for each student (Note: you will have the option for changing the grades of individual students after you complete this process)
    Image 18

  9. Click the Save button

REPORT CARDS

To submit report card grades:

  1. Click the Enter Report Cards button
  2. Choose the Report Card Run and then the Marking Period for the class you would like to work with
  3. Enter the quarter grades and comments appropriate for each student by using one of the following methods or a combination of methods (see Image 19):
  4. Type the grades into the QTR grade column and the number of the comments into the CMT1 and/or CMT2 columns
  5. Choose the grades and comments from the pull-down menus in each column
  6. Click the Load From Gradebook button at the top of the window to automatically load the grades from your gradebook into the grade fields for each student (Note: you will have the option for changing the grades of individual students after you complete this process)
  7. For quarters 2 and 4, you will also need to enter the final exam grades for each student by either typing them into the appropriate field or by using the pull-down menu. The semester grades will be calculated by the system based upon the district standard of a 40% weight for each quarter and a 20% weight for the exam. (Note: if you need to change or modify the semester grade it must be done by adjusting either one of the quarter grades or the exam grade).
    Image 19

  8. Click the Save button

STUDENT INFORMATION

From either the attendance screen or the grade book, teachers can get access to the following student information: registration info; contact information; emergency information, schedule information, and attendance information. By clicking on a student’s linked name from any available screen, a student summarywindow will pop up (see Image 20). If a special alert has been turned on for a particular student, it will pop up in its own window.

Image 20

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