Scheduling Training

NCDPI and PowerSchool will be offering virtual PowerScheduler training sessions from February 15-18, 2021.  These sessions will consist of 2 simultaneous Prep to Build sessions on February 15-17, 2021, and 2 simultaneous Load Process sessions on February 18-19, 2021. The training sessions will be held from 8:30 AM - 4 PM on the designated days. 

Descriptions of the PowerScheduler sessions being offered can be found here. PowerSchool agendas may also be found on PowerSource at the following links (note: you must have a PowerSource account to view).

• Prep to Build
• Load Process

Sessions will be open to designated scheduling leads within a PSU who need scheduling training. Due to limited seating availability, only 1 person per PSU will be permitted to register for each training (e.g., One per PSU may attend the Prep to Build, and one per PSU may attend the Load Process Training). Each training is seen as a separate event.

Third-Party Management Companies 𝑫𝑶 𝑵𝑶𝑻 𝑸𝑼𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑭𝒀 for this training. (If your company is contracted by/with a PSU to provide SIS services - e.g. ALS, Acadia Northstar, Charter Success Partners, CSUSA, etc., you will not be able to attend. Management companies may email training@powerschool.com to purchase training.)

These training sessions are not intended to be workshops with live school data. These sessions will use training data on a training server to teach the fundamentals of scheduling.

To register for a training session, please fill out the registration form.

2021-22 Course Code Apprenticeship Additions

Recently, CTE added 16 new course codes to PowerSchool to accommodate the apprenticeship courses with an honors weight option (one for each of the 16 clusters:  AGNR, ARCH, AAVC, BMA, EDUC, FINA, GOVT, HLTH, HOSP, HUMA, INFO, LAW, MANU, MRKT, STEM, and TRAN).  As a reminder, all apprenticeship courses begin with a WB sequence.  The new honors level will have a fifth digit of five, honors added to the end of the course title, and an added GPA weight of ½ credit for high school level courses.

Change:  Next Home Base Maintenance Window - January 29, 2021

Our next Home Base maintenance window is scheduled to begin Friday, January 29.  This change in date was made to avoid the end of the semester grading that will take place on the third week of January.  PowerSchool is the only application currently scheduled to undergo maintenance.  All other Home Base applications will remain available.

During this maintenance window, the NC Contacts screen in PowerSchool will be retired in favor of the new Core Contacts screen.  Please refer to the "NC Contact Page" article below for full details.

Note: Each year, a list of scheduled maintenance windows are published by NCDPI.  This is published in advance to help teachers and administrators better prepare for temporary outages and loss of access.  Please review the 2020-2021 maintenance schedule and put these dates on your calendar. In most cases, the entire maintenance window is not necessary and we can return systems to service earlier than listed. If an emergency maintenance is required in addition to these scheduled dates, all users will be notified in advance. 

If you have any questions pertaining to this maintenance, please contact the Home Base Team at home_base@dpi.nc.gov.

NCWiseOwl Site Maintenance

The NCWiseOwl site will migrate to a new server location on Jan 22, 2021, at 5:00 PM.  There will be a period of down time as services associated with the migration are restored.  Hopefully, this offline time will only be a few hours but could be up to 48 hours with restoration expected no later than 5:00 PM, Jan 24, 2021.  

Please monitor the Google groups for updates concerning restoration of services and share this information with all educators in your PSU so necessary adjustments to teaching and learning during this time period can be made.  Please direct any questions to Cynthia Sartain at cynthia.sartain@dpi.nc.gov.

OCR/CRDC Reminders

The Civil Rights Data Collection will begin in School Year 2021-2022

The Office of Civil Rights has postponed the official CRDC collection until the 2021-2022 school year.  The data that will be collected will be from school year 2020-2021.  Districts and charter schools may hide the current PowerSchool Preview Report from Schools as needed. 

Update Eddie Staff Titles/Contacts

To receive information directly from the SEA CRDC Coordinator, update the EDDIE system with one or more Civil Rights Data Coordinator and Student Information Coordinator contacts.  Remove contacts that are no longer valid.  Adjust as needed when staff member’s roles change.

Request for Pilot Testers –Volunteer Sign Up by January 29, 2021

The NC DPI is looking for CRDC veterans who may be interested in pilot testing the PowerSchool CRDC Preview report.  Discussions will begin in February. 

If you would like to participate, please make your selections by January 29, 2021 at:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfwcaziJVKvzUDSVVl42rGYdssSDxgHrMe5dcaUa-LGMleWbA/viewform?usp=sf_link.  For more detailed information, see the NC SIS Weekly Email Bulletin from January 8, 2021.

The NC DPI appreciates you considering this request.  Please contact terra.dominguez@dpi.nc.gov with questions.

XG Grade Level, Correction May Be Required

The XG grade level was implemented at the end of the 2019-2020 school year specifically to Promote students who fit the following criteria: 

• The student has a disability that requires special education and related services.
• The student has completed grade 12 and still has not yet met graduation requirements or reached the age of 22.

The XG grade level should be used for any student with an IEP who meets all of the above criteria. These students often remain in high school beyond four years and typically fall between the age range of 17-22.  They are likely following the Extended Content Standards and participating in the Alternate Assessment or following the Occupational Course of Study.  

Most users are using the XG correctly; however, correction may be required.  Below are examples of inappropriate uses of the Extra Grade (XG) grade level. 

• Students who were in grades 9-11 last school year and were moved to XG this school year.
• Students identified as XG whose age does not fall into an acceptable range to be considered a potential grade 12 student. 
• Schools that have added the XG grade level that do not also contain grade 12.  For example, if you are an elementary or middle school, the XG grade level is not for your campus. 
• Students who are not receiving EC Services but are being shown as XG. 

To find and correct these student records in PowerSchool, you can: 

• Click on -9 on the Start Page of PowerSchool 
• Search for Grade_Level = -9 on the start page

Once you have the list of students, you can export out their information and review it for accuracy.

Remember to also review the program schools (Homeless, Migrant, EC) for the appropriate age-grade and EC combination. 
 

Note:  It is important that these students show as promoted and not retained or demoted in PowerSchool.
  

Questions about -9(XG) may be addressed to home_base@dpi.nc.gov.

Reminder:  New Student Learning Preference Page and Student Transfer

The NCDPI Home Base Team has learned that the data on the new Student Learning Preferences page transfers with the student records when a student moves to another district. All PSU staff responsible for transferring students out should clear the data from that page prior to releasing the student.

We are updating our QRDs with this reminder, but until we move to PowerSchool version 20.4 or higher, these records will continue to be included in the transfer process.

Reminder:  NC Contact Page

The Home Base Team would like to remind PSUs that the NC Contacts screen in PowerSchool will be retired in favor of the new Core Contacts screen.

On January 29, 2021, the NC Contacts page will be disabled, and the data will no longer be visible to PSUs.  All NCDPI integrations (see below) that rely upon the NC Contacts page will instead rely on core Contacts. Please also be reminded that third-party integrations installed by PSUs should be reviewed to ensure they are not pulling data from the NC Contacts page any longer — for example, many SchoolMessenger customers are currently pulling data from this custom page. PSUs will need to reach out to their vendors to initiate any changes to their data integration configurations.

The following NCDPI Integrations are affected by this change:

ECATS

*TIMS

*There is an update to the TIMS extract using the core contacts. Further information and documentation will be provided early next week to explain how PSUs will set up the extract via Data Export Manager to pull the necessary transportation data.  

In the 2019-2020 school year, a PowerSchool upgrade deployed the new Core Contacts page into NC PowerSchool instances and migrated data from core Demographics (mother and father) into the new Contacts page. Data from the custom NC Contacts page was not automatically migrated into the new Core Contacts page and must be moved manually.  Information on Core Contacts was provided during the September 2019 Home Base Meet-Ups, and many PSUs have finished manually moving data from NC Contacts to the new Core Contacts page.

Navigation Paths

NC Student Contact Screen

Start Page > Student Selection > NC Information: NC Student Contacts

New Core Contact Screen

Start Page > Student Selection > Information: Contacts

For PSUs who have not completed data migration from NC Contacts to Core Contacts, the resources below from PowerSchool Support may assist in this process. A PowerSchool Community account is required to access the linked resources. 

• Getting started with Contacts Guide: (Includes Importing/Exporting and field mapping information) https://help.powerschool.com/t5/PowerSchool-SIS-Administrator/Getting-Started-with-Student-Contacts/ta-p/79724 

PSUs requiring additional assistance with this data migration process should log a ticket with PowerSchool Support by calling the NC-specific support number 1-855-339-4790 or by visiting https://help.powerschool.com.

Reminder:  PowerSchool IPT Certification in February 2021

The Home Base Team will be offering a virtual IPT certification training from February 1-5, 2021.  This training will span five full days. Participants will have 90 days to take and pass the certification test after training. Each PSU is allowed a certain number of technical contacts based on their ADM. If you are unsure of your current technical contacts, please contact PowerSchool Support at 1-855-339-4790. 

NCDPI has created an IPT FAQ document  to help answer questions you may have. Please review this document for frequently asked questions about the training and certification.

Those who can attend the DPI offered IPT Training include: 

• Anyone replacing a previous technical contact from their allotted number.
• A local charter school employee who is not employed by a data management company. 

Those who cannot attend this training are: 

• Charter school data management company employees
• PSUs wanting additional technical contacts above their desired allocation
• Anyone who has attended training previously and failed the certification test. 

Note: Anyone who is not eligible for this training will need to arrange training and/or certification directly through the vendor, PowerSchool, and cover the cost incurred. To do so, please reach out to the PowerSchool training team, training@powerschool.com.   

Those who are eligible for this training session, please fill out the registration form.

1) Cultivating a love of reading: Dare Librarians are doing an assortment of programs to reach readers through the screen: 

• virtual Battle of the Books in each school
• storytime with K-2
• providing remediation with small groups
• hosting Dual Language Immersion reader groups
• developing a virtual library collection through grant awarded for diverse titles (Dare Education Foundation) and gifts from local booksellers (Downtown Books & Buxton Village Books)
• 20 book challenge 
• Flipgrid Book talks created by students 
• Contactless, curbside-pick up of library books available at all 10 campuses

2) Social activities - because students need opportunities to connect peer-to-peer, librarians are hosting:

• lunchtime Jeopardy! and trivia
• Collaborative escape rooms
• Community treasure hunts across Hatteras Island and another photo hunt in Manteo
• Family Gimkit trivia events and lip sync karaoke challenges
• Virtual help sessions & nightly homework help hotline

3) One thing students really miss are engaging author visits:

• In September, NYT-best selling  author Alan Gratz talked about his popular historical fiction novels & kicked off our local, online book fair through the Crowdcast platform
• Cape Hatteras Elementary readers participated in a virtual visit with two beloved authors, RJ Palacio and Meg Medina
• In February, NC author Scott Reintgen will be talking to readers about his SciFi & Fantasy series, and giving his best writing advice for our budding authors via Google Meets

5) Modeling Global Collaboration: One example of how Dare Librarians are using this time to connect with educators and experts beyond our county is from First Flight Middle School 

• CTE coordinator Ashley Basnight participated in an adopt-a-cow program for Ag/Science curriculum
• Librarian Elaine Marrion teamed up with the CTE coordinator and students to make connections with, and beyond, the Charlotte-based bovine
• A former librarian in Maine, now working in agriculture, is raising two Scottish Highland calves, is a friend of Mrs. Marrion, and is now fielding questions from the CTE class via virtual communication
• Students’ learning is inquiry-driven; they participate in relevant STEM activities & are engaged in authentic research over the course of the year!

January Schoolnet Mini-Course Now Available

We’re excited to announce the first Schoolnet mini-course in NCEES is now available! Like the mini-courses for Canvas and #GoOpenNC, this is designed to replace the monthly Schoolnet webinars and can be completed in about an hour. Within 48 hours of course completion, 0.1 CEU of DLC Credit will be applied to your transcript.

The January 2021 course topic is Keeping It Simple in Schoolnet. In this course, participants will learn to build and analyze a simple quiz in Schoolnet.

Click the link below to register and launch the course via NCEES. If you do not have a NCEES account, the course content can be viewed on YouTube as well; however, you will only receive the 0.1 CEUs if you complete the course via NCEES.

Join the Course on NCEES: http://bit.ly/kisSNr21

View the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkLjJihMm-w

Canvas PD Mini-Course - Crafting High Quality Feedback in Canvas

Our next Canvas mini-course is now open for self-registration in NCEES. Learn all about the different ways you can give high quality feedback in Canvas.

This course is designed to be completed in one hour, and upon course completion, 0.1 CEU of Digital Learning Competency Credit will be applied to your transcript in NCEES (within 48 hours).

Register here (must login to NCEdCloud): https://bit.ly/3nxtogw

New Self-Paced Course on Curating Content in #GoOpenNC

We are so excited to try something new with our monthly webinars for #GoOpenNC. The webinar is now available on-demand in a mini Canvas course (you will need to login to NCEES via NCEdCloud to register).

The course is designed to be completed in one hour and NCEES will apply 0.1 CEU of Digital Learning Competency Credit to your transcript within 48 hours of completing the course.  The course is available until May 31, 2021

New Mini-Course: Remix and Add Your Own Content to #GoOpenNC!

Our next #GoOpenNC mini-course is now available for self-registration on NCEES. Learn how to remix and add your own resources to #GoOpenNC.

Each mini-course is designed to take one hour to complete and within 48 hours of course completion, 0.1 CEU of Digital Learning Competency Credit will be applied to your transcript!

Register here (must login to NCEdCloud): https://bit.ly/3amydp9

NCWiseOwl EBSCO Webinars 2020-2021 

PSUs, please share this message with your teachers.

Want to love and utilize NCWiseOwl even more?  Attend the upcoming webinars available from our database vendors! 

Britannica School: REGISTRATION and RECORDINGS

• Britannica School for Remote Learning 
• Britannica School for Parents 
• Britannica Basics for Elementary Educators 
• Britannica Basics for Secondary Educators 
• Sharing Britannica Content on Google Platforms 
• Preparing Digital Content Sets for Instruction 
• Britannica Tools to Support Reluctant Readers 
• Britannica School - STEAM in Focus 
• Britannica School - Arts & Humanities in Focus 
• Britannica Tools to Support English Language Learners 
  
  

EBSCO: REGISTRATION and RECORDINGS

• EBSCO Reference Center Exploration 
• EBSCO Online Classroom Tools and Integration Tips 
• EBSCO Accessibility and Usability Features within EBSCO Resources
• EBSCO Working with EBSCO eBooks
  
  

Please visit the NCWiseOwl  Toolkit  professional learning section for detailed descriptions and registration links.  www.ncwiseowl.org

Follow Us on Social Media!

Follow us on Facebook and begin receiving "Did You Know" tips featuring each Home Base product. 

These messages will include upcoming changes, tips and even hidden treasures within each product to make your job easier.  If you are not following us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, click on the links below and begin today!  Make sure you share this information with other staff within your school.

Instagram:  @nchomebase         Facebook:  @nchomebase       Twitter:  @nchomebase

NCDPI Technology Support Center

NCDPI's Technology Support Center continues to meet your support needs for:

• Schoolnet 
• NCEES/Unified Talent
• IAM/SSO (NCEdCloud) 
• Staff & Student UID (eScholar)

Support availability:

Web (NEW URL):  https://ncgov.servicenowservices.com/sp_dpi   -  24/7

Phone:  919-716-1840, Monday - Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (excluding state holidays)

Technical support for SIS needs is handled directly by PowerSchool support using chat, phone, or by opening a case ticket.