Now that the winter window is closed, we wanted to get several pieces of information out to everyone. Please take a few moments to skim the following and read in detail where necessary. Also, please pass this information on to others in your district.
Potential risks with PM setup
Over the last few months we’ve learned how some of the processes and practices we use to set up Progress Monitoring goals may actually create a problem. To illustrate, the default graph on the left looks like the child is doing extremely well, but when the start and goal settings are corrected as shown in the second graph, it is clear that the student is not doing well at all. We’ve also discovered some issues with the practice of using off-level progress monitoring measures. If it is important to you to have good information to help children improve, please take the time to read the attached article for more information and directions on effective goal setting and progress monitoring. This article can also be found in the Iowa section of the FastBridge knowledge base.
Clarification on FastBridge memo about purchases/budget for 18-19
FastBridge recently sent an email referring to a need to plan and budget for next year’s FAST purchase. The Iowa Department of Education will continue to pay for K-6 literacy assessment. The email is really only applicable for districts purchasing additional grades and/or content areas directly from FastBridge, and is not relevant to other Iowa users.
Hold the dates for 18-19 screening windows
Tentative dates for the 18-19 screening windows have been set. Windows are six weeks to allow additional time for districts purchasing math and behavior measures. We recommend planning a two week window within each six week window to complete the majority of your literacy screening. Final confirmation of these dates as well as more details and guidance will be communicated at a later date.
- Fall: Sept. 3-Oct. 12
- Winter: Jan. 7-Feb. 15
- Spring: April 22-May 31
Enrollment cleanup
We are making good progress on refining the processes to clean up rosters and the underlying logic that builds and maintains them. Remember that students are made visible in FAST by their setup in your SIS. DO NOT add edit or delete students, rosters, or classroom users directly in the FAST interface. Make the changes in your SIS. If you have students not showing up or not going away, make sure to check the following before submitting a ticket.
- For a student to become visible in FAST,
- Enrolled in the correct school with a start date prior to the current date, with a grade assigned
- Has a State ID assigned and entered in your SIS
- Is scheduled into at least one class, assigned to a teacher, with a start date prior to the current date (For JMC, this means in the scheduler module with the class scheduled to a period. The homeroom list will not create roster entries)
- To remove a student
- End enrollment in the school with an end date entered
- Do not delete enrollment records in your SIS. If an enrollment is created in error, enter an end date corresponding to the start date
- To remove a student from a section, place an end date on the relevant class enrollment in your SIS.
- Roster loads are nightly
- Updates made in the student information system will take 24 hours to show up in FAST
If you do submit a ticket, please confirm that you’ve checked each of these in the ticket or we’ll ask you about them. (It doesn’t help when the confirmation in the ticket is: “the SIS guy says Bubba looks good”). Tell us the student’s first and last name (copy/paste to avoid typos), the grade and the building. If class rosters are part of the issue, we need the teacher’s name, too.
Misc. FYI notes:
- Infinite Campus has had a bug that causes students to disappear whenever their enrollment record is edited in the SIS. There is a bug fix available to install in Infinite Campus to fix this. Check with your local SIS manager to ensure the fix has been installed (Campus.1801.4 )
- FBL vs Iowa DE and Iowa laws – please remember that the FastBrige Learning team does not write content in the knowledge base with Iowa’s laws in mind. For questions related to ELI requirements, consult the Iowa section of the knowledge base and ELI guidance on the DE website, and submit a ticket for further clarification. The chat function in FAST connects to the FastBridge team, who cannot answer questions relate to Iowa’s early literacy requirements.
- If you have not already read it, check out ELI in the FAST Lane – an article in the Iowa section of the knowledge base. This article addresses issues related ELI requirements as they relate to the FAST system.