Courses¶

Topics here cover the files 12_Course, 13_CourseSection, 14a_StuSectionEnrollment, 14b_StaffSectionAssignment.

This section also deals with questions related to Flexible Pathways Courses.

Courses

Early College - Does anyone submit classes/courses for Early College students in DC#04?¶

It is not necessary to submit for Early College courses

There are course errors in our last batch because of a coursecode that is not in the Master Elements coursecode list. These codes are all SCED codes. There are some that do not have an appropriate code in the Master Elements doc. How would you like to proceed?¶

Example list:

LOCALCOURSEID	COURSECODE		COURSENAME
522801	24752	SCED Code	ARABIC 1
522811	24999	SCED Code	BOSNIAN 1
522821	24999	SCED Code	NEPALI 1
524162	2205	SCED Code	STATISTICS

All courses submitted must use the course codes in master data elements or the system will not accept it and give an error. These courses must be recoded into the options available in the master data element list.

For instance, Nepali 1 could be recoded to: |COURSECODE | COURSENAME | |--|--| |06581 |Southeast Asian Language I |

and Statistics could be recoded:

COURSECODE	COURSENAME
02201	Probability and Statistics

Bottom line is we need to use the codeset that is programmed in edfusion. Hopefully in the future it will become easier to update these codesets, but at this time it is actually quite costly.

Any suggestions if the "course" includes multiple grades?¶

23012	Prior-to-Secondary Education

I have several of these errors on my 12-Course and the first one I dug into¶

SU	PS	14	10019	AP COMP SCIENCE PRINC--VHS	2021
##and this is from the NCES Course Code

Not all NCES codes are Vermont course codes. To check what is a valid Vermont code you need to look in Masterdata elements spreadsheet.

The closest course that I see, to the one you are looking for is:

10157	AP Computer Science A

What is best practice for multi-grade level courses/classes? Example: We have one music class covering grades 3 and 4. The SCED course codes for music grades 3 and 4 are 05133 and 05134. There is also an 05139 for Music - General. Which one would fit that scenario best?¶

Music general might describe the course better; we will see that it is grades 3 and 4 from the student records of who is taking the course.

The RoleID helps define if there should be any grade level restrictions on what we are looking at for endorsements. For example, elementary teachers for RoleID 103 only need elementary level endorsements, there can be a deeper dive in the calculation, but it is part of what is used for the calculation.

The Addit_COURSECAT is used if a course has a second course category. SCED codes that Vt. State uses have, for example, a History course category History 101 for high school. Any History course could have an additional category of English Language arts because students do a lot of writing. In this example, the first check is if the teacher is endorsed in Secondary Social Studies. Then a review if the teacher of record or any co-teacher are endorsed in Secondary ELA.

The RoleID in POS role table and the role associated with courses are different and the concepts should be kept separate though they sometimes are used in endorsement work. The teacher of record should be endorsed in the category associated with SCED code. The RoleID is more associated with what grades a teacher is eligible to teach.

We use Virtual High School for classes. How would I know where their teachers are from or should I use 9999300 for Educator ID?¶

When you say Virtual High school, I assume you mean a different program than VTVLC (Vermont Virtual Learning Cooperative)? Yes, you use 9999300 for virtual educators that you are not sure of the identity of.

I am struggling with 06_5A PreK _students. I do not know which students should be listed here, those in our schools (public Prek) or the private PreK students, or both? Where do I find a list of the PK ID numbers? Should these Prek kids be on 06_0 Student Identity and 06_4_PS Enroll?¶

You include students attending both public and private Prek programs in your area. The students are enrolled at either the public Prek elementary school or the future public elementary school they will attend (if they are in a private program). These students are included in PS enroll and student identity files. The org list is in the shared files areas of the EFT folder. A good way to filter for the id’s that you need is by provider town.

The Early Childhood Programs Coordinator in one of my districts asked whether we should be including children (in DC#06) who are in preschool special ed but are not attending a state approved PK program?¶

Yes, they are included, but they will not have a record in table 5a.

If a student takes a course at a college - online or in person - do we need to put it on the state report? What are the circumstances under which we do and do not report them? Some students take courses at UVM and CCV, and we give them HS credit for those courses. We have some courses that are taught by our faculty that give college credit as well. One of our problems is that we sometimes don't receive the transcripts for spring work until after we have submitted our year-end data.¶

How do I capture AP or other enriched courses in the reporting system?¶

At this time the course codes that are available to use can be selected from the Knowledge Base. I understand that at times this requires curriculum coordinators and other administrators to make “best fit” judgements about which course description and attributes capture their work. Nonetheless, even though we may not be able to implement a particular new course code say for this year end of school year collection, it would be worthwhile to add them to the official course catalogue. One value in adopting the SCED system for course transcription and catalogues is that it allows course and content area comparisons across state and territories

What Other Attributes should I look at beyond course codes when coding AP courses?¶

There are other variables that you should be using as flags for AP courses or other types of course enrichment opportunities. Course Level is one that can flag any description, in many cases a Non AP and AP course may have very similar course description, the difference is the academic rigor and student expectations in the course. COURSELEVEL - Data Collection and Reporting Knowledge Base (aoedataknowledgebase.azurewebsites.net). Similar to the level variable COURSELEVELCHARACTERISTIC can be applied to AP courses. COURSELEVELCHARACTERISTIC - Data Collection and Reporting Knowledge Base (aoedataknowledgebase.azurewebsites.net). Increasingly important we should also be paying attention to Course setting (virtual, off campus, on campus, Postsecondary setting).

There are always some basic consideration to capture for courses like credits available, credits earned , and a variety of ways that can parsed out in course terms across the school year. All of our code sets and specifications for file submissions are on our website, all of which is accessible through the Knowledge wave links that I have provide elsewhere in this response. Please let me know if you have further questions. Also if you are looking at adding say a handful of course codes that would be more immediately useful, I would be happy to continue that conversation, especially if we could consider how this course taking might affect the AP exam data and other postsecondary outcomes. Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns.

How Do i report Dual Enrollment and Fast Forward Postsecondary courses?¶

We want you to report secondary courses for Dual enrollment courses and fast forward courses (like dual enrollment but take place at the technical center). There are a few differences regarding how those courses are reported. The teacher of record is the guidance counselor or principle from your school that is supervising the coursework and is ultimately “awarding” the credit (in most cases this means they accept the grade given by the instructor and give a high school credit). The college instructor will be a role 40, Instructor, not credit awarding. The college instructor will not have a permnumber (state assigned educator id) so you need to use one option of the generic permnumbers. Below is a sample of how those educators look in the staff identity file:

EDUCATORID	FNAME	MNAME	DOB	GENDER	SY
9999100	Postsecondary	Vermont Educator	1/1/1911	F	SY21
9999150	Postsecondary	Educator out of state	1/1/1911	F	SY21
9999200	Educator	Out of State/Country	1/1/1911	F	SY21
9999300	Virtual	Vermont Educator	1/1/1911	F	SY21
9999350	Virtual	Educator out of state	1/1/1911	F	SY21

You will be using one of the first two rows.

The type of postsecondary course that we have not been reporting on, is the early college students as they are exited for most of the year and only brought in one day at the end of the year. Postsecondary course also needs an appropriate course level of “P” to further designate them.

Do grade level specific SCED codes matter at all or would general courses in most places be fine?¶

The SCED course grade levels are the grade levels the National center for education statistics thinks are the most likely for the students to be in for those courses. You can use one that is k-8 for a 10th grade class, we will be looking at the actual grade of the students and the specific endorsements of the teachers.

Reporting Flexible Pathway Courses¶

AOE is required to capture data for opportunities that students are provided under The Flexible Pathways Initiative (formerly known as Act 77), which states that all students will have a flexible pathway opportunity by the end of 12th grade.
The annual snapshot tool used by the Agency of education will display this information.
The current reporting guidance provides an example of capturing that data in a method that does not add additional data elements to the current system. The system will simply add a tag at the end of coursesection variable, for expanded learning opportunity course we tag with “_EO”

Identifying LOCALCOURSEID AND CourseSection coding for flexible Pathway courses¶

Below are some examples

12_Course¶

ADMINID	POSID	LOCALCOURSEID	COURSECODE	COURSENAME	Addit_COURSECAT	SY
SU002	PS312	SERVICELEARNING1	20104	CAREER EXPLORATIONS		2019

13_CourseSection¶

ADMINID	POSID	LOCALCOURSEID	COURSESECTION	COURSETERM	COURSELEVEL	COURSELEVELCHARACTERISTIC	COURSECREDITAVAIL	COURSESETTING	SY
SU002	PS312	SERVICELEARNING1	CAR_EXP_EO	FULL	G	73044	6	TC	2019

14a_StuSectionEnrollment¶

ADMINID	ENRORGID	PERMNUMBER	LOCALCOURSEID	COURSESECTION	COURSEENROLLSTATUS	SY
SU002	PS312	12xxxxx	SERVICELEARNING1		CAR_EXP_EO	01

14b_StaffSectionAssignment¶

ADMINID	POSID	LOCALCOURSEID	COURSESECTION	EDUCATORID	ROLE	SY
SU002	PS312	SERVICELEARNING1	CAR_EXP_EO	8000000	10	2019

Important concepts for reporting flexible pathway courses¶

These terms are taken from the SCED codes [Workplace Experience] [Aide] are identified as in the SCED code book https://nces.ed.gov/forum/SCED.asp. Be aware that Vermont course codes are a combination of Version 1 ad Version 3 please refer to 3_MasterDataElementsBySubmission_v6.xlsx for complete list of those course codes.
Coding of coursesection and other course variables that describe the course must be carried across all parent/child datasets- table 12_course.csv, 13_CourseSection.csv, 14a_StuSectionEnrollment.csv, 14b_StaffSectionAssignment.csv, & 04_15_StudentSecResults.csv
We advise schools that use SCED codes to describe and classify courses that include Field Experience and/or Independent Study to report [EO] in the course section.
We advise schools that use SCED codes to describe and classify courses that include Workplace Experience and/or Aide to report [WB] in the course section.
Course section should include a Tag for each type of flexible pathway course (ex: tag at the end of coursesection "_EO" for expanding learning opportunities course). Below is the complete list of tags to use for flexible pathway measures
EO = Expanded Learning Opportunities
DE = Dual Enrollment Course
VB = Virtual/Online/Blended Course
CT = Career and technical Education course
WB = Work Based Learning Course
CP = High School Completion Program

Examples of flexible pathway courses¶

EO = Expanded learning Opportunities¶

High quality programs within communities and schools designed to serve learners on a regular basis by providing unique opportunities for academic growth, hands-on learning, and personal development. Often these programs are provided by schools in collaboration with non-profit organizations, museums, and other local entities. These opportunities can occur beyond traditional school hours and outside of the school building.

E.g., Independent Study
After-school/Summer (inclusive of 21C)
Service Learning
Community-based Learning
Capstone
Locally-developed and not defined in state statute

WB = Work Based Learning Course¶

An educational program or experience involving student interactions with industry or community professionals in real, virtual, online, or simulated work environments that exposes learners to postsecondary options, provides opportunities for skill development and proficiency attainment, and allows students to reinforce and deepen their school-based learning.

Career Awareness: Worksite Visits/Tours, Career Speakers/Career in the Classroom Days, Career Fairs, Interest Inventories, Aptitude Assessments
Career Exploration: Informational Interviews, Job Shadows, Unpaid Work Experience, Career Work Experience
Career Preparation: Internships, Paid Work Experience, Transition Services
Career Training: Student Apprenticeship, Pre-Apprenticeship and Cooperative Education through CTE programs

CP = High School Completion Program¶

Designed to offer a flexible pathway to those at least 16 years of age and at risk of disengaging from school, the HSCP provides learners with educational services of the scope and rigor needed for the attainment of a high school diploma.

DE = Dual Enrollment¶

Enrollment by an 11th or 12th grade student in a credit-bearing course offered by an accredited postsecondary institution and for which, upon successful completion of the course, the student will receive credit toward graduation from the secondary school in which the student is enrolled and postsecondary credit from the institution that offered the course.

VB = Virtual/Online/Blended Course¶

Learning delivered in part or in sum through a Web-based platform that employs a variety of digital tools, content, and supports and allows for student choice around time, place, path, and/or pace. Virtual learning can facilitate both individual and collective learning, and can occur synchronously and asynchronously. Blended Learning: An education program in which content and instruction are delivered both in a traditional classroom setting and through virtual learning that allows for student choice around time, place, path, and/or pace

CT = Career and technical Education course¶

An educational program that supports attainment of a high school diploma, designed to provide students with technical knowledge, skills and aptitudes that will prepare them for further education and enhance their employment options or lead to an industry-recognized credential. CTE in Vermont is available to high school students through 17 regional CTE centers.