Mapping of content areas to grade and attendance data in Student Success displays is dependent upon the coding of courses in the district’s student information system (SIS). This coding tells the system whether the course is science, math, etc. Without proper coding that aligns with the department’s course coding, all courses will be classified as “Other” and the system cannot display attendance and grade data by content area.
There are two different sets of SCED codes, one for grades 9-12 and a similar set for grades K-8. For High Schools, this is already a part of the normal data entry processes but the same may not be true for elementary, junior high or middle schools. Below is a link to information about course coding on the department’s Student Reporting in Iowa page that explains how these codes work.
SRI: Course Coding and Supplementary Weighting
The K-8 and 9-12 SCED codes are very similar. The first two digits of 9-12th grade codes will be between 01-24, whereas the first two digits for K-8 will be in the 51-73 range. These examples illustrate how the code is built:
The first 5 digit code defines the Subject Area and Course Title. The next character is ‘X’ for general non-secondary classes or ‘S’ for specially funded classes (Title 1, ELL, etc.)Then there is a filler – always use ‘000’. Finally, two digits indicate the course’s intended grade span for the course. See the examples above for illustrations of how to code a single grade course and a grade span course.
This course content code mapping is optional. If these codes are not used, all courses will be categorized as "Other" on the overview page reports. When the course codes have been entered in the course setup in your student information system the overview report academics column can be opened out to view courses categorized by content area (Literacy, Mathematics, etc.).
Training Videos
SCED Coding 101 (18:18) - Introduces the user to SCED codes for secondary level courses. Examples of SCED codes are given, and the user has the opportunity to practice creating SCED codes.
Coding Non Secondary Level Courses (13:57) - Describes how to link students to teachers at the non-secondary level. If courses are not scheduled, this webcast will instruct the user how to make the linkage in the SIS. For scheduled courses, the webcast will take the user through creating the SCED code for the course. Here is a link to the Presentation Slides. Note: This presentation may not align with exactly what is shown in your district student information system, as Infinite Campus, JMC, and Powerschool have all had user interface changes since the original creation of the training video.