September 2018 Newsletter
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Fall MAP Assessment Window Opens Tuesday
Fall MAP testing is open from September 4 through October 1. Second through tenth grade students will take both the math and reading assessments. Guidance for the 2018-2019 MAP administration is located here. Infinite Campus Gradebooks
We currently working with Infinite Campus to recover assignments and grades that disappeared from gradebooks at East, North, and Roosevelt. We have also isolated the cause of issues with grade calc options and topic scores and are working with Infinite Campus on a resolution. If teachers encounter any issues with their SRG gradebooks, they can fill out a support ticket located here. Reminder: No Gallup Student Poll This Fall
DMPS will NOT administer the Gallup Student Poll this fall. We are hoping to utilize the Iowa Department of Education's Conditions for Learning Survey in it's place. (We have not yet received data back from the spring 2018 survey.) We WILL administer the Gallup Q12 employee engagement survey from October 23 - November 6. State Assessment Update
The Iowa Department of Education released a new name for the Spring 2019 state accountability test -- Iowa Statewide Assessment of Student Progress (ISASP). We expect information about the new assessment to slowly trickle from the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Testing Programs throughout the fall and winter. A website for the ISASP has been created, but it does not contain much information yet (most of the links say "coming soon"). Staff Conducting Research
If you have staff members conducting research in your school for a graduate program, their research proposal must be approved by the district. Applications for research are located here. |
Dashboard Highlight: Current Enrollments
The Current Enrollments dashboard displays counts and demographics of students currently enrolled. Students are included in their primary enrollment school only, secondary enrollments are not included. However, students with secondary enrollments at Central Academy or Central Campus can be displayed via a filter. This dashboard also include lists of students by school and grade and elementary homeroom counts and demographics. 
Continuous Improvement Update
Welcome to a new school year! Many of us have our new supplies, new planners and already full to do lists and meeting calendars. The Continuous Improvement newsletter offers a couple strategies to manage your time and your meetings. |
UPCOMING DATES
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August 27 - September 7: Staff: Alignment Survey
September 4 - October 1: Grades 6-10: Fall MAP testing September 4 - 14: Grades 2-5: Fall MAP testing (make-ups 9/17-9/21) September 17 – 28: DOWNTOWN ONLY: Grades K-3 FAST testing |
September 24 - October 5: Grades K-3: FAST testing
October: Certified Staff: LSI School Culture Survey October 10: Grade 9: PSAT (Optional) |
WAIT. WHAT?
Dear Data Diva,
Last year Infinite Campus was set up to log all messages sent by teachers through the classroom messenger. It was a great addition to the system and kept my teachers from having to spend tons of time logging everything sent out student by student. This new process has my teachers thinking outside the box.
Here are some of their latest questions:
Sincerely,
The Unboxed Superhero
Dear Superhero,
Start shining your cape and get ready for good news!
Data Diva
Last year Infinite Campus was set up to log all messages sent by teachers through the classroom messenger. It was a great addition to the system and kept my teachers from having to spend tons of time logging everything sent out student by student. This new process has my teachers thinking outside the box.
Here are some of their latest questions:
- Can it log the emails I send from Outlook so I have a true log of all messages?
- Can we send out phone calls to parents since many do not have an email address?
- Is there any other way we can contact parents and/or students?
Sincerely,
The Unboxed Superhero
Dear Superhero,
Start shining your cape and get ready for good news!
- The system will not log emails sent through their Outlook account, BUT teachers can use the class messenger to send out individual messages to parents and students. When they are setting up the message, the system lets them choose individual people as recipients and the message will be logged as soon as it is sent.
- We do understand that many parents either do not have an email account or hardly ever access their account, so sending out messages to their email and portal account may not get their attention when it is needed. Unfortunately phone calls are not available to be used through classroom messenger. (Good news for this situation is in the next answer!)
- Because of this and feedback given by teachers, we have set the system up to allow teachers to send out text messages to parents. These messages will also be logged automatically in the Teacher > Contact Log.
Data Diva
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