About tinySIS

In Spring of 2006, we undertook an effort to understand Nova's status reporting requirements under Washington WAC 392-121-182 / Public School Alternative Learning Experience Programs (ALE for short). We sought to transition Nova from a paper-based status reporting process to one that would better serve the Nova community. Our first step was to determine how Nova might use Seattle School District information systems to improve its processes. During our investigation, we concluded that critical aspects of Nova's pedagogy were not supported by District systems. Working together, we built tinySIS. The system has evolved since its initial deployment in November 2006 and continues to evolve as we work together to improve our process and practice.

First, some statistics:

• 864 classes and learning contracts tracked
• 466 students and staff members served
• 2,122 assignments with 20,966 turnins
• 38,736 status reports
• 21,904 qualitative notes recorded about student progress and work

tinySIS is a web application developed using Ruby on Rails. Nova status data is stored in a mySQL database and presented to Nova staff members through the screens of this website. The current version of tinySIS supports the following features:

• Contracts and classroom courses, and contract/class enrollment
• Class/contract status reports
• COOR/homeroom status reports
• Student status pages
• Student learning plans / schedules
• Flexible tracking and awarding of credits
• School-wide status reports and administrative functions

Contracts

Staff members can create educational contracts as classes or as independent study activities. Each contract has a staff facilitator, one or more students, and associated lists of assignments and absence records. Both classes and independents use the same setup screens and data; the main difference is that independents are not shown in the course catalog.

There are several categories of contracts. The category determines things like the visibility of a contract (whether it appears in the course catalog) and the status reporting requirements (monthly, once per term, or none).

Staff members set up the contract with syllabus information such as the instructional purpose, materials, methods of evaluation, base credits, and a list of EALRs (Essential Academic Learning Requirements). The contract is assigned to a school term. Staff members can record absences and assignment turn-ins using screens in the contract area.

Status Reporting

There are two main areas of status reporting:

• Contract reports
• COOR reports

Contract facilitators report status on a schedule determined by the contract category. Generally, facilitators report monthly about each student enrolled in a contract. The system keeps track of which status reports are required for a given type of contract and provides reminder pages for staff members. Staff members can log three academic flags for a status report - Acceptable, Participating, and Unacceptable - and two attendance flags - Acceptable and Unacceptable. Staff members can also log free-form notes on status reports.

COOR reports provide an overall picture of student academic progress according to ALE regulations. Each Nova student has an assigned coordinator who monitors monthly progress against a learning plan. Coordinators review the monthly contract reports and create an overall report indicating academic progress and attendance hours.

Student Information

Nova staff members can view student progress in three ways:

• A status page, which lists COOR reports for the full year, and contract reports for the active term.
• Student learning plan, which summarizes learning goals for the student.
• Credits, which lists credits earned from previous terms.

There is also an overall ALE report listing Nova students, their COOR progress ratings, and their FTE hours month-by-month.

Security

We circumvent some of the most difficult security issues by omitting personal data such as student contact information, health records, and disciplinary procedures. Data is protected under a secure login. Design goals were to provide the right level of security: open data access for trusted staff members, with protection of ownership rights of data creators. Contract facilitators have access to edit their contract and enrollment settings, while other staff members can view but not edit this information. COOR reports are viewable by all staff members, but editable only by the individual student's coordinator.

Credits in tinySIS

Nova employs a unique approach to credits. Nova learning experiences are structured around competencies, but these learning experiences need to map to transcript credits understood by the district. For example, students enrolled in a beginning poetry writing class might earn varying levels of credit depending on their grade level and performance. Also, Nova subscribes to the concept that small, focused, topical, and individualized learning activities are just as valuable (and creditable) as term-long group classes.

Nova learning contracts begin with a base set of credits that map to district course IDs. Students enrolled in contracts subscribe to the base credits, but can earn more or less credit depending on their specific activities within the contract. Contract facilitators can adjust credit awards for individual students up until the end of the contract.

Coordinators, working as the student's academic counselor and mentor, can map earned credits into needed credits for graduation. Finally, Nova administrators transfer earned credits to district systems at agreed-upon points. The system supports this process at all points, allowing flexibility but also ensuring that credits are transferred accurately and with accountability at each step.