As the school year is quickly coming to an end, it's time to begin planning for summer school setup in both FastBridge (the assessment system) and Student Success (the MTSS data system). Each system handles summer data differently, so we've outlined a bit about each below, as well as summer school progress monitoring preparations below.
FastBridge Summer Overview
Rosters
Until the FastBridge system is rolled over to the new school year for your district, roster data will continue to add new students, courses, and teachers from the current school year but will not remove any of the previous enrollments or roster data in place on the last day of school.
After your district’s selected FastBridge roll over date, it will take a few weeks for rosters to load. The district must have their JMC/Infinite Campus/Powerschool/Alma SIF agent set to send the new year’s data.
Progress Monitoring
Progress monitoring plans that have been dated to end after summer school is completed will remain accessible until the date your district has selected for FastBridge to roll over to the new school year. The latest recommended FastBridge roll over dates are July 25-27. If you will continue monitoring throughout summer school that extends after July 25, please have your FAST District Manager contact the Iowa Support team to discuss roll over options.
Preparing for Summer School Progress Monitoring
Progress Monitoring Plan Setup
FastBridge defines summer as the time between May 31 and July 31. Plans used for PM during the summer (after May 31) must have been initially created with the correct end date in order for probes to be released during the summer. For example, editing a plan that initially ended on May 20 to end on July 20 instead will not work. No probes will be automatically released after May 31.
Summer school PM needed after July 31st?
If your summer school progress monitoring needs to end after July 31, the plan must be created (NOT edited) to have the end date after July 31 and the “include summer” toggle button that will appear must be selected. Without that, probes will not be released after July 31 and the goal line will be flat.
Summer School Staff Access to Students
Teachers will need access to the students they serve for summer school in FastBridge, which can be handled in a few different ways, depending on the summer school location and the level of access the district chooses for the teachers. Outlined below are a few of the most common setups used for staff access during summer school and what is entered in your student information system (SIS) for them. If you have any questions about options or have another idea and want to see if it will work, please contact FastBridge Support and we’ll be happy to think it through with you!
The easiest way to handle summer school access is to assign a Specialist role to the summer school teacher for the building(s) where the students normally attend. The teacher may then navigate to the student in their home building, access data and administer progress monitoring.
Pros: This requires the least amount of data entry in your SIS and doesn’t require any changes to student information.
Cons: The teacher may need to navigate to different buildings for students (if multiple sites are combined for summer school) and will have access to ALL students in the building, not just those served in summer school.
The next easiest way is to assign the teacher a Classroom User role in the building(s) where the students normally attend, then create a summer school course assigned to the teacher in the building(s) and schedule the students into the course(s).
Pros: This doesn’t require changing the student’s school enrollment, only the student’s schedule. It also gives the teacher access to the appropriate students but not ALL students in the building.
Cons: The teacher may need to navigate to different buildings for students (for combined summer school). It also requires course setup and student schedule changes in your SIS which would need to be removed in the portal at the end of the summer.
The last option is for districts that combine students from multiple schools into one summer school location. Please note that this is the least recommended option for handling due to the extra work and possible future problems caused by the data entry. In order to view summer school students from multiple school buildings on one list, you would need to do the following in your SIS:
- Create a school enrollment record for the students in the building where summer school will be held (or at least where the teacher will access it from).
- Create a summer school course in that building, ideally assigned to the summer school teacher(s).
- Schedule students into the summer school course.
- Assign the teacher a Specialist or Classroom User role in that building.
Pros: All students can be on one student list, in the same building.
Cons: It’s quite a bit of extra data entry work in your student information system for multiple buildings and with that, there’s an opportunity for mistakes in entry and exiting of the enrollments/courses.
Reviewing Summer School Data
Data collected after the school year has ended will ONLY be available in the FastBridge system. It will not be transferred to the Student Success system nightly and will not be batch-uploaded later.
Student Success Summer Overview
Rosters
Student school enrollments and rosters will be static as of the last day of your school year. Changes made to student data, enrollment or schedule in your student information system will not be reflected in Student Success. Staff user roles may still be assigned in your student information system.
Reports and data
All reports and data will remain available but static effective the last day of your school year until the system rollover is completed. More information will be provided, as it’s available.
Data collected after the end of the school year will not be transferred or displayed in Student Success. This includes progress monitoring data collected throughout summer school.
Interventions
Interventions will be visible on the student’s profile but will not show progress monitoring collected after the end of your school year.
Completing interventions and leaving notes about how a student progressed during summer school, even if a goal was not met, is a good way to ensure that the student’s future teachers will have the information necessary to support them. This should be completed before Panorama Student Success is rolled forward to the new school year.
Static and smart groups
Groups you’ve created or that are shared with you remain available indefinitely. They do not get wiped from the system with summer rollover, they’re visible until you (or the original creator of the group) delete them.