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.
If you are not using
RDI:
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. The current Renaissance Place release is version 4.1, CD
release RP 2009 (March). If Renaissance Learning hosts your web site, you are already
upgraded. If the software is installed on a server within your school or
district and you have not yet upgraded, please
contact Technical Support at (800) 455-0709 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).
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.
Step 1: Making a Backup of your Database
To create a backup of
your Renaissance Place database, refer to Knowledge Base Article #3402615.
Remember to move the backup file to a location other than your server’s hard drive for safekeeping. Note:
If Renaissance Learning hosts your site, you can skip this step.
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 Manage
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. If you
need to record the number of days in the school year, click in that field and
type the number.
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. Note that
setting the new school year to be the current year will apply to Renaissance
Place district users, teachers, students, and parents. If you are using
Renaissance Place 4.0 or later, it will also apply to school-level users. (To
make sure all users are accessing the same information, we recommend the
district and all schools under the district have the same “Current School Year”
setting.)
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”.
7)
If you are using Renaissance Place 3.2 or lower, in order
for school-level users to automatically access the new school year, a school
user with the Manage School Year capability must log in at each school
to set it as the current school year. (By default, the Manage School Year
capability is assigned to members of the school admin and school staff group.)
a)
Log in to Renaissance Place as a school-level user.
b)
Click the “School Years” link on the home page.
c)
Click on “View School Year”, then click on the link for the
new school year.
d)
Click on “Set as Current School Year”.
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.
Step 3: Setting the Reporting Periods for
Consolidation 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.
Step 4: Setting up your New Classes
When you choose to make the new school year active by
clicking the “Set as Current School Year” link, all users will automatically
access the new school year the next time they log in. Although courses carry
over from year to year, classes are unique to each school year. You may
manually create new classes, use the “Copy/edit classes from a previous year”
option, or use the Renaissance Data Translator to bring in new class/enrollment
information. If your class names stay the same from year to year, you can save
time by copying classes. If your teacher assignments also stay the same, choose
the option to “Copy Classes and Teachers”. 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 and copying classes from a
previous year. 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.
Note: 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.
Step 5: Inactivate Non-returning Students
If students are
moving to another district using Renaissance Learning software, you may want to
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.
Step 6: Adding New Students/Updating Existing Students
You may manually add new students, import students from a
Renaissance Learning application export file, or use the Renaissance Data
Translator to bring in new student information, including class enrollments.
(See the appropriate software manuals for more help.) If you have students
moving to another school in the district, be sure they are enrolled in their
new school(s) before running the Data Translator. Click HERE
for step-by-step instructions on manually adding new students, and click HERE
for step-by-step instructions on editing school enrollments for existing
students.
Step 7: 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, and assign the appropriate teachers, 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.
Step 8: Making a New Backup of your Database
Make a new backup of
your database containing all changes for the new school year. Remember to move
the backup file to a
location other than your server’s hard drive for safekeeping. Note: If
Renaissance Learning hosts your site, you can skip this step.
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.
