3. The Cross Reference list of our courses to the states courses must be done by 1/14/10, right? 4. Are middle schools included this year?

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1 1. Are Charter schools supposed to take part in this? Yes, charter schools are to provide individual student transcript information. 2. Will CTE courses be included as well? 3. The Cross Reference list of our courses to the states courses must be done by 1/14/10, right? 4. Are middle schools included this year? 5. Do we need to upload any data by July 31, 2011? Yes. The crosswalk or Cross Reference list should be completed by school guidance/curriculum personnel by 1/14/11 to then be used by the school technology and/or SIS personnel to prepare for the school year upload. No, middle schools are NOT included for Are there any plans at present to collect Middle School (grades 6-8) course information? 7. Is there more Transcript Coding Project Workshop in the near future? Yes. The individual student transcript data for should be uploaded by July 31, Yes, the Middle School portion of the project is part of Phase II. ISBE is anticipating that work to commence in the school year. None are planned at this time. The powerpoints, webinars, and project resources are available at

2 8. As a principal, I foresee this project adding costs to our school. Costs for purchasing packages that are compatible with our SIS program, and costs for personnel to complete this process each year. So I will have to be making a recommendation to spend more money to our BOE...so what benefits will our school receive as a result of this state mandate? 9. Are there state dollars available to purchase needed software/hardware and personnel that may have to be purchased in order to be compliant with this state mandate? 10. Do we need to assign course numbers for all courses a student receives credit for? For instance, we sometimes give credit for courses taken at the local community college or through a correspondence program. Do we need to assign course numbers for those courses? As the Illinois Longitudinal Data System is built out and completed, the information from this part of the project could be useful in streamlining student transfers from one school to another, course taking patterns of students could be more closely analyzed to predict academic achievement results, universities and community colleges could use this information (at a county, regional, or state level) to target dual credit opportunities, and offer additional services, and state legislators and policy makers can use aggregate information to make program decisions. No. Yes. If you place the course on your local transcript, the course information will need to be reported in SIS. 11. Do you want us to submit course information for 8th grade students who come up to the high school to take high school courses for high school credit? 12. Does a term equal a semester? If your district functions on a semester basis, yes. 13. Does this apply to elementary and middle schools or high school only? 14. Does this apply to middle school classes? No. 15. EFE aligned courses weeks ago. Is it true there are new state courses added recently? Student course assignment data will only be collected for grades 9-12 for the 2011 school year This is only high schools at this time. No new courses were added. The Illinois Course Catalog available on will always have a information regarding the day and year of the most recent update. 16. When do EFE s have to have the updated information completed? EFEs were to have completed the information by October You should have received it from them already.

3 17. Is there a short list of what new courses were added to assist in this update? 18. Will EFE and Area Career Centers have access to student enrollment to check for accuracy? 19. For quarter courses, what should the Term's be? Looks like only 3 terms are allowed. 20. If a student drops out of a course and received a grade, is it to be reported? 21. For those students whom are 5th year seniors this year, they should have graduated at the end of the 2010 school year but did not, these students should also be included? What about those students that are going to age out when they reach 22 years of age as they do not receive high school credit? 22. Is this to be done for CTE students only or for all students? All students 23. I also have questions regarding how to code the classes our students have been enrolled in from various serving schools? We currently do not have any course information for these students and we do not track their schedules or grades. No new courses were added in the most recent update. If additional courses are added in future updates, there will be a Supplemental list of the courses available in the opening pages of the Course Catalog to assist in locating those additions. No. The home school maintains the student schedule and transcript. However, EFEs and ACCs will have access to reports to check the accuracy of student enrollment. For a quarter course, you would include it in the Term (or semester) it was taken. You would have a quarter course end date and a reduced credit amount which would indicate to SIS that it was a quarter course. For example: If you offer a quarter course in a traditional semester schedule, it would be uploaded with.25 credit rather than the.5 credit you generally award to a full semester-length course. The grade would be reported in SIS only if the grade is recorded on your local transcript. Yes, 5 th year seniors would be included. Any student who has a local high school transcript should be included in the SIS upload of data. If your school maintains a local transcript or issues a local diploma to students educated in serving schools, then the course taking information of those students must be reported to SIS.

4 24. How is partial period attendance to be considered? For instance, if a student is scheduled in 1st period and the period is 45 minutes long and the student is present for 20 minutes...what does the state consider to be full period attendance? 25. How do we classify Dual Enrollment/Credit courses, classes taken by our high school students through the local community college? Their professors come to our campus to teach college-level courses, but how do we list this for SIS Student Course Setting? 26. If a student comes from another school, how are we going to know attendance days for that class they were enrolled in there? What if we don't offer the same class, what do we do with his days? 27. Our 8th graders are eligible to be given high school credit for Algebra I. We enter these grades at the end of the school year. When would these grades/credits be submitted to SIS? 28. If a student transfers from another state, do we enter courses from the previous school? 29. If a student attends an alternative school, does the alternative school upload the data or is that the home school responsibility? 30. If I understand correctly, if a student transfers in from another school in the middle of the year, is the new school only responsible for submitting the courses the student takes at their school or does the school have to submit courses from the previous school as well? 31. In line with other Districts who have other types of passing grades, we have 'Repeat', 'Audit' and 'Passing' grades not included on your list. I would expect our vendor to build a validation table to hand these grades off as 'S' passing grades - but in the event they don't, how will these records be translated? I think this is possibly just a follow up/faq question. i.e. our 'P', 'AR', 'AU',' DX' grades are all passing grades may/may not receive credit. SIS does not collect or track attendance information and shoud be reported seperatly to the ISBE. You can still use the Traditional Setting option (01). There is a Dual Credit data elements to capture that the course is Dual Credit. Your transcript information on that student will begin with your Course Start date. You do not have responsibility to capture the student s attendance information from his/her previous school. These courses would be added as Transfer courses in the first term the student is enrolled in the high school. Yes The data upload is the home school responsibility. The home school will have responsibility for uploading course information from the first term, IF the student is a transfer from a non-illinois public school or any private school. If the student completes the first term in another Illinois public high school, that school will have responsibility for uploading the first term information into SIS. The data elements have been modified to include Audit as an option. Your other, more refined options of your questions, would need to be mapped to S for data upload.

5 32. Is the only actual product we will produce for this project the student data file? When will the Excel template become available for the 2/1/2011 beginning entry date? Will there be just one Excel template for this project? 33. Is the state going to make their own student system that is required state-wide so we don t' have to upload all this information all the time, but it would just be there for the state? 34. Are we supposed to be enrolling the students in IWAS for summer school dates? 35. Is the updated file format for course assignment batch file upload posted on the website? Yes, a Student Course Assignments data file by semester/term will be the only product of this initiative. Templates for the Student Course Assignment data can be found at ISBE continues to explore avenues to create student information systems and learning performance management systems as a statewide resource for all schools. In addition, efforts are beginning on a national level to build and support such electronic systems for all public schools. These efforts are in the beginning stages. Yes Templates for the Student Course Assignment data can be found at Is this For all Grade Levels? For , transcript information will be collected for students 37. Is this similar to SIS enrollment in that you would start uploading 2/1/2011 and then update that throughout the year or more along the lines of one upload prior to 7/31/2011? 38. May we assume that this project will be eventually extended to middle and elementary schools? 39. On slide 24 you have the "U" grade receiving credit. Is that just a typo? in grades 9-12 only. Student Course Assignment data will be submitted by Term (Semester) for the 2011 school year. The Student Course Assignment data collection will begin February 1, All 2011 School Year records including first, second and third Terms must be submitted no later than July 31, Additions and updates for these records can be uploaded after the close of the year if an enrollment exists for the student. Yes. Middle schools are explicitly listed in current state law. Discussion is beginning on the elementary student data collection. No. Unsatisfactory is set as a receiving credit option.

6 40. What grades are covered in this report? Is it kindergarten through 8th? We require clarification on middle school. Are you referring only to 7th and 8th grade? Is 6th grade needed? 41. Please explain when Single Parent and Displaced Homemaker are mandatory. 42. Some of the special ed out of district schools that serve our students run until July 31st and we will not have their grades until after July 31st, can this data be entered after the July 31st deadline for the 2011 school year. 43. Is the transcript coding process taking the place ISIS reporting for this school year? 44. Step 5 says Submit CTE Courses and Submit All secondary No Courses - should this be in separate files? 45. This topic currently only deals with grades 9-12 correct? Yes 46. Summer School - Term 3. When should we upload summer school data -- before 7/31 or after? Our students are attending summer school for credit at high school. Some incoming 8th grade students earn credit for their 9th grade year. 47. Data Element: Student Course Start Date: Verification... is this the date the student began the course? Not necessarily the first date of school. This data collection is only for grades 9-12 for Middle school data will be identified and collected in Phase Two of the project. No determinations have yet been made as to what specific grades will be included in the middle school data collection. Single Parent and Displace Homemaker are NOT mandatory data collections. As long as the student has an existing enrollment in SIS at the time of the student course assignment, you will be able to add or update the records after the close of the school year. Yes Student Course assignments can be sub mitted after the close of the school year as long as the student has an enrollment in SIS at the time of the Course Assignment. Yes. This is the first data the student began the course.

7 48. Some of our courses are Quarter courses. How will this impact reporting? For a quarter course, you would include it in the Term (or semester) it was taken. You would have a quarter course end date and a reduced credit amount which would indicate to SIS that it was a quarter course. 49. Frequent Upload -- One data element is "Attendance Actual We upload frequently, so is this a field that will/can be updated with each upload? 50. We do not record course enrollment or grades for students that attend an out-of-district schools (mainly Special Education) - is the home school required to update this? 51. What if a student transfers out of your district mid-term? Do you enter the grade the student earned up to the point of transfer? 52. We enter Medical grades M for students on a medical and can't take physical education. How would we enter a medical grade? 53. Can we get examples of how to align our courses with students taking courses at a special placement facility? Are the "outplacement schools" required to send their grades (aka Ombudsmen) via this program? 54. We have about 20 ELL courses. There is only one ELL course listed in the crosswalk tool. How should we label those courses? For example: If you offer a quarter course in a traditional semester schedule, it would be uploaded with.25 credit rather than the.5 credit you generally award to a full semester-length course. Yes If the home school awards diplomas or maintains transcripts on students attending other serving schools, the home school must provide transcript information to SIS. The upload does not capture this information. If the student is enrolled in the course on the last data of the term and the school is reporting the physical education, the best choice for grade would be code 16 or I. This choice indicates incomplete, student in course on last date, no credit awarded. There is no M. The local transcript could continue to use M to satisfy your usual procedures. ISBE has recruited some private day schools to provide examples of how they would match their courses. Serving schools should provide course information to the home schools. It is acceptable to crosswalk multiple local courses to one state course code. You would continue to label the course titles on your local transcript as you always have.

8 55. Our term 3 for the current year ends after July 31st. Can we submit term 3 data at a later date? 56. We will need to link our courses to the state code to submit our course & grade data. If a student transfers in from another state or country, their transcript may have courses that we do not offer in our school. 57. So, from what was said in the webinar, we only submit courses and grades that we gave to the student here at our school? If we enter transcript info on a student who moves in from out of state after sem 1 into our student demographic system, despite that we entered their transcript info into our system, we do not report the courses/grades that were not taken at our school. Correct? 58. If we do not offer the course in our school, do we need to create all the courses we don't normally offer to accommodate out of country/state schools? 59. We have an NC grade, for students whose attendance renders their class participation not adequate to receive credit. How would that be handled? As an F? 60. What about students who are placed into a section (like Biology) but due to teacher recommendation after the 1st month of the school year are moved to a lower class more suited to their abilities? What data do you need? 61. What are we uploading by July 31, 2011? Is it student schedules or just the crosswalk? 62. What do we do about a teacher who goes on maternity leave during the school year? Yes Yes. In completing the entry of the transfer courses, the home school would match to a state course code based upon available course title and content information from the student s previous school. In your example given, you would supply the first term information for the transferring student through the online entry option. You will need to speak with your management software vendor regarding the best way to have transfer courses both included on your local transcript and provided to ISBE for the SIS transcript project. It would be reported as an F in SIS. You would keep the NC option for your local transcript. You will provide the course start and end date information. In your example, the course start date would not align to the beginning of the term because of the change in class schedule. This is fine. You would report the course and grade from the end of the term. The upload on July 31, 2011 include individual student level transcript data. Information is available at Also, SIS training in 2011 will include additional information regarding the data requirements. You are not required to enter teacher information at this time.

9 63. What about medical grades? We currently issue an "E" grade for medicals. E = excused, no credit (PE courses) If the student is enrolled in the course on the last data of the term and the school is reporting the physical education, the best choice for grade would be code 16 or I. This choice indicates incomplete, student in course on last date, no credit awarded. There is no E. The local transcript could continue to use E to satisfy your usual procedures. 64. What grade levels does this apply to? This project currently covers grades What happens if students change schedule after we have sent up? You will provide the course start and end date information for each course. If a student changes classes, the course start date would not align to the beginning of the term because of the change in class schedule. This is fine. You would report the course and grade from the end of the term. 66. What do you do if you have two terms instead of 3? The terms equate to traditional semesters. Term 1 would match to the first semester of the school year, Term 2 to the second semester and Term 3 to a summer school session in a traditional 67. What makes up the state course code? Where is more information on that? school calendar. The Illinois Secondary Course Catalog located at has a brief introduction regarding the project. Generally, the first two characters indicate the subject area, the next three characters indicate the course title/content, and the last 4 characters are Illinois specific and are used to link the funded CTE courses to federal reporting requirements, CTE funding formula and the Transcript Coding Project. 68. When will the Rigor level chart be available? We were told at the training that it was in draft form. Is it available on the website? A much longer definition and explanation of the development of the federal Secondary School Course Classification System: School Codes for the Exchange of Data (SCED) may be located at The Rigor level chart is available at

10 69. When will this be in effect for Middle School, what are the grades for Middle School? 70. When you say submit data for school year 2011 initially, do you mean this current school year or next school year (beginning in Aug. 2011). 71. Which data elements are static after records are uploaded? Are these data elements mandatory before Exits can be performed by 7/31/11? Middle school will be included in Phase 2 of the project with anticipated implementation during the school year. The included grades have yet to be determined. The data collection is for courses taken during by students. The template will be available Feb. 1, Term (Semester), State Course Code, Section Number cannot be updated once submitted. Course assignments are not required before exiting 72. Which grade levels apply for Middle School? The specific grade levels for middle school have not yet been determined. 73. There was a question during the webinar regarding students taking summer school classes between grade 08 and grade 09. Summer school is indeed our 3rd semester (for example the 3rd term in the 2010/11 school year). When a student who will be in grade 09 in 2011/12 takes a summer school course in 2010/11 that student is coded as grade 08 for summer school 2010/11. These courses would be added as Transfer courses in the first term the student is enrolled in the high school. 74. Will slides be made available for later study and use? Yes, the webinars were recorded and are available at Will the students be loaded by the high school or the career center? Courses will be uploaded by the home high school. 76. Will there be an option for indicating that a class is both CTE and a core class like Science so that the student record reflects a science credit for that class, but the CTE funding requirements are met. 77. Will Summer school grades for summer 2011 be submitted with 2011 or 2012 data? Sometimes our summer school extends into August. 78. Will there be an option to utilize a "p" for pass/fail in lieu of a "s"? No. There is no need to enter both CTE and science credit in the SIS upload. The state course code will convey there is science content contained within the course. These courses would be added as Transfer courses in the first term the student is enrolled in the high school. No. The data collection asks for S. Your local transcript may continue to reflect the P of your usual practice.

11 79. If a student comes from out of state and a college is requesting a transcript. If we do not give this information to the state then how would we have a complete transcript for this child? 80. Will there be the ability to batch file several students at once or do student updates have to be entered individually. If the Batch file will be available, how will multiple courses be batch filed? 81. With the element Student Course Setting - for distance learning, would this include something like American School, where our students are making up credits for graduation via mail? Also, will we have to do the crosswalk for those courses on our own? 82. Right now attendance is an optional field. Do you foresee this being mandatory in the future? Because there are variables as to what you will want (excused, unexcused, etc) 83. I have always given all of our students an FTE of 1.0. Now with the transcript coding, will I need to change the FTE for students who are taking classes on IVHS, or at our local college, since those would be different 'serving schools'? If so, is there a set percentage that we should use? I am on a traditional 8 period day. 84. Working in youth corrections our school year started in We enter new students every week and exit students every month. There are no problems matching our courses to state courses. However, where do we fall in to the mix? Our students are here anywhere from 2 months to 9 months, sometimes longer. We are in school all year long, therefore isn't a traditional start or end to our school semester/year. 85. Where is this Power Point located online? Transfer student information must be entered by the home school beginning with courses. A batch file is already available on isbe.net and you will be able to submit all of a student s courses on the same file. Preliminary discussions have begun regarding the collection of attendance data. At this time, no final decisions or timelines for such a data collection have been made. Yes, you will need to show the serving schools in SIS. There is no Set FTE s for these schools, you will need to figure out what percentage of the day the student spends at each school and set the FTE accordingly. If a student has completed a course and earned credit, you will upload that course information in SIS in the corresponding term. If the coursework is not complete and no credit is awarded, you would not enter the coursework through SIS, but rather you would provide transfer course information to the receiving school following your established procedures. The powerpoint is included in the Webinar link located at

12 86. You say the home school can always go back to change transcript data. What if the student has changed schools since that time? So, for example, the student attended School A and received transcript information in SIS. The student then moves to School B. Will School A still have access to edit the transcript data even though they are no longer the home school? Will school B be able to edit transcript information that the other school entered? 87. When will the upload tool for the alignment of students to courses will be available? Yes, even if there is a new Home school, you will still be able to update your information, so long as you have a current or past enrollment in SIS. The upload tool will be available February 1, 2011.