Issue:
What do I need to do
to get my Renaissance Place program(s) ready for the next school year?
Resolution:
Attention, Renaissance Data Integrator (RDI) users:
If you have arranged for this service, our Technical Service
Consultants have set up RDI on your
Renaissance Place database server to automatically
link your student information system (SIS) data to the Renaissance Place
database. Contact a consultant to set up RDI for the new school year, or to
discuss how to set up your Renaissance Place database for summer school. Do not
follow the steps in this article since most of them are not necessary.
Table of Contents
Click a link to jump to the section you are looking for.
Tips
for Summer School
Step 1: Making a
Backup of your Database
Step 2: Setting
the Dates for the New School Year
Step 3: Setting
the Reporting Periods for Renaissance Place Consolidated Reports
Step 4: Adding
New Teachers
Step 5: Setting up
your New Classes
Step 6: Inactivate
Non-returning Students
Step 7: Updating
Existing Students/Adding New Students
Step 8: Enrolling
Students and Assigning Personnel
Step 9: Making a
New Backup of your Database
To
View Records from a Previous School Year
Tips for Summer School
If students will be using the program during the summer, you
should wait until summer school is over to complete the steps in this article.
Check KB article #7901571 for
recommendations on using the software during summer school.
**************************************************
When summer school is
over and you are preparing for the new school year, there are a few tasks you
will need to complete. If Renaissance Learning hosts your web site, you are
running the latest version of Renaissance Place Real Time. If the software is
installed on a server within your school or district, the latest release is
version 4.1, CD release RP 2009 (March). If you are still running an older
version, please contact Technical Support at (800) 338-4204 or support@renlearn.com to schedule a
remote upgrade. When the upgrade is
complete you may proceed with setting up the software for the new school
year. If you need to wait to
finish all of the steps below because you don't have the student list yet or
aren't sure of the new school year dates, at least complete Step 1 (you may
want to check off each step as you finish it).
For Additional
Support…
If you’d like a bit
more help setting up Renaissance Place for the new school year, feel free to
choose one of these options rather than going through this article.
- To register for a live
Web Seminar where a guide will take you through each step, click this link
or paste it into your browser’s address bar -http://www.renlearn.com/training/app/webinar.aspx?p=RP.
Web Seminars on this topic will be available in August and September, and
you can sign up as much as 30 days in advance.
- To
review our on-demand session where a recorded voice takes you through each
step along with a visual presentation, click this link or paste it into your
browser’s address bar - http://www.renlearn.com/training/app/ondemand.aspx?p=RP.
Then click on one of the “School Year Set Up…” sessions.
Step 1: Making a Backup of your Database
To create a backup of
your Renaissance Place database, refer to Knowledge Base Article #3402615. Be
sure to move the backup file
to a location other than your server’s hard drive for safekeeping. Note:
Skip this step if Renaissance Learning hosts your site.
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Step 2: Setting the Dates for the
New School Year
When you set the new school year in Renaissance Place,
students are automatically promoted to their new grade. If any students will
not be moving ahead to the next grade, you will need to manually edit these
students and set their grade back after changing the school year. To add the
new school year and set it as the current school year:
1) After logging in to Renaissance Place as a
district user, click the “School Years” link on the home page.
2) On the
School Years page, click on “Add School Year.”
3) On the Add
School Year page, click in the fields to enter the school year name
(Description), the start date, and the end date. The dates for the new school
year cannot overlap the dates for any of the existing school years. Be sure the
dates are correct; school years cannot
be inactivated or deleted once they are added, and when you have reached the
start date, only the school year end date can be edited.
4)
Click the [Save] button.
5)
If you are ready to
move to the new school year, click the “Set as Current School Year” link.
6)
Marking periods are used for setting goals in Accelerated
Reader and Accelerated Math, and also when running reports. You can use the
“Edit Marking Periods by School” or “Add Marking Periods to Multiple Schools”
links to add your marking periods now, or add them at a later time. If a
marking period has already been added at a school, that school will not appear
in the list when clicking on “Add Marking Periods to Multiple Schools”.
TIP: If you use the Accelerated Reader Date and Time
Restriction preference to restrict student quizzing before and after specified
dates, you should edit this preference for each school and set your new school
year dates. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions.
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Step 3: Setting the Reporting Periods for
Renaissance Place Consolidated Reports
District Administrators and School Administrators can add reporting
periods that are used for all Renaissance Place reports. Each reporting period that is added will be
available to every teacher, staff member, and administrator that uses the
Renaissance Place software on this server, after the next data
consolidation. To add new reporting
periods:
1) After logging in to Renaissance Place as a
district user, click the “Consolidated Reports” link on the home page.
2) On the Consolidated Reports page, click on
“View Reporting Periods.”
3) On the Reporting Periods page, click on “Add
Reporting Period.”
4) On the Add Reporting Period page, click in
the fields to enter the reporting period name (Description), the short name
(displayed on reports), the start date, and the end date.
5) Click the [Save] button.
6) You should consider removing your reporting
periods for previous years, since data will only be gathered for students with
current enrollments.
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Step 4: Adding New Teachers
1)
Click “Personnel, Students, and Parents” in the list of
Renaissance Place tasks on your Home page.
2)
If you are a district administrator or district staff
member, click “Add School Personnel”. If you are a school administrator, click
“Add Personnel”.
3)
Enter the information for the person you are adding.
Information marked with an asterisk is required; other information is not.
First and last names are limited to 35 characters.
4)
If you want to add more teachers, click [Save and Add] and
add the next person’s information. If you want to add only this person, click
[Save].
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Step 5: Setting up your New
Classes
Although courses carry over from year to year, classes are
unique to each school year. If you don’t set up your new classes and assign
students and teachers to those classes, your students and teachers will not
have access to any tasks in Renaissance Place when you move ahead to the new
school year. There are several ways to create new classes
- Use
the “Copy/edit classes from a previous year” option. If your class names
stay the same from year to year, this option will save time. If your
teacher assignments also stay the same, choose the option to “Copy Classes
and Teachers”. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions on copying classes from a previous year.
- Manually
create new classes. If you create new classes and are assigning teachers
to their classes now, be sure to set the roles based on which programs
they will be using. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions on adding new classes.
- Use
the Renaissance Data Translator to bring in new class/enrollment
information. See KB article #5508275
for more information on setting up your text file.
Note: Accelerated Math teachers must assign an objective
list to their new classes before assignments can be printed; the latest release
of the software provides additional assistance in choosing an appropriate list.
Accelerated Reader teachers will need to add Other Reading Series to their
classes before students can take those types of quizzes.
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Step 6: Inactivate Non-returning Students
If students are
moving to another district using Renaissance Learning software, you should
export their records before inactivating them. Click the “Personnel, Students,
and Parents” link on the Home page, and choose “Export Information” under
Related Student Tasks. Drill down to the student, click the “Export” link next
to the student’s name, and choose the type of export you want to create.
- Renaissance Place
Export – Choose this option if you are exporting student information that
will be imported into the database of a Renaissance Place program. When
you choose this option, “Export student data only” means that you will
export only the students’ personal data, but no quiz, test, or
assessment data. If you choose one of the products listed, the students’
quiz, test, and assessment data will also be exported. All of the data
will be in one export file.
- Desktop Export –
Choose this option if you are exporting student information that will be
imported into one of Renaissance Learning’s desktop software programs,
such as STAR Reading 2.x or STAR Math 2.x. When you choose this option,
you receive a separate export file for each program you choose.
If you have students
that are leaving the district or moving to another school within the district,
unenroll them from their current schools. You may also choose to delete
non-returning students but if there are records associated with the students
and you choose the “Erase Permanently” option you will receive an alert stating
they cannot be deleted because of dependencies on other data, but they have
been inactivated. To locate inactive/unenrolled students, use the “Show
Unenrolled Students” option on the search page. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions on inactivating students.
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Step 7: Updating Existing Students/Adding New Students
If you have students moving to another school, edit their
enrollments at this time. Keep in mind if you first unenroll the students from
their old school (before enrolling them in the new school), they will be
automatically unenrolled from all classes at that school. This may impact
whether their data appears on reports. See the last section of this article on
viewing records from a previous year. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions on editing school enrollments for existing
students.
Next, add your new students using one of these methods:
- Manually
add new students. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions.
- Import
students from a Renaissance Learning application export file. See the
Renaissance Place software manual for more help on importing students.
- Use
the Renaissance Data Translator (RDT) to bring in new student information,
including class enrollments. If you have students moving to another school
in the district, be sure they are enrolled in their new school before
running the Data Translator. See KB article #5508275
for more information on setting up your text file.
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Step 8: Enrolling Students and Assigning Personnel
If you didn’t use
the Renaissance Data Translator to
enroll students and assign teachers to their classes, you must manually edit
each of the classes in the new school year. Enroll the students into each of
their classes, then assign the appropriate teachers as needed, making sure to
set the roles based on which programs they will be using. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions.
TIP: Before students can use an application, they must be enrolled in a class that has a
lead teacher assigned for that Renaissance Place program. If you are using STAR
Math or STAR Reading, keep in mind the Student Settings (Math Instructional
Level, Estimated IRL, and Extended Question Time Limit) carry over from
whatever was set for students in their previous classes. Let your teachers know
to check these settings to be sure they are set appropriately for their
students.
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Step 9: Making a New Backup of your Database
Make a new backup of
your database containing all changes for the new school year, and move the
backup file to a
location other than your server’s hard drive for safekeeping. Note: Skip
this step if Renaissance Learning hosts your site.
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To View
Records from a Previous School Year:
In most Renaissance Place programs, records are not
dependent on the active school year. An Accelerated Reader teacher can view all
quizzes taken by current students, including those from other schools and
previous years. Fluent Reader and English in a Flash teachers can view all
previous work completed by their current students. STAR teachers can view test
results from previous classes/school years if the “View Student’s Historical
STAR Reading Assessments” capability is added to their assigned capabilities.
In all of these programs, customize your reports and set the start date to
include data from a previous year.
If an old Accelerated Math class was using the same
objectives as the current class, the current Accelerated Math teacher can view
a student’s previous status (e.g., Intervene, Mastered, Complete, etc.) on
objectives in the Assignment Book. The student’s previous work will not be
included on reports generated for the current school year. To include work from
other years on Accelerated Math reports, the students must still be enrolled in
the old classes, and the classes must have a
teacher assigned with lead roles for Accelerated Math and Renaissance Place. You must
log in as a district or school user, or the previous teacher, then choose one
of the following:
- To
report on data at the student level (for example, if you are running a
Student Record report for one student), customize your reports and set the
reporting period dates to include the dates for which you want data.
- To
report on data at the school or class level, change the active school year
to the year for which you want data.
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