Create a Course Section (Includes SLDS Information)

Create a Course Section (Includes SLDS Information)

A section indicates when a class will occur. This is determined by periods. There can be multiple sections for one course. When setting up a section, you indicate the following:
  1. What period is the course offered?
  2. What term is the course offered? (Can be full year.)
  3. Who is teaching the course?
  4. What is the grade level?
  5. What is the grade scale?

Read below for instructions to create a section. Each field is explained in the table.
  1. You must first create the course.
  2. On the Start page, select the school from the school dropdown.
  3. Click School under Setup.
  4. Under the Scheduling heading, select Sections.
  5. On the left is a list of all the courses already created. Find the applicable course.
  6. Now click on the New button on the right.


Important to Know: The SLDS fields under the Vermont State Information heading are also on the section setup. SLDS reports have logic regarding which fields to use. That logice is as follows:

Sections: If these values are different for different sections, it will use the section settings.
Sections: If all sections use the same values that have been set in the course setup, the values in the section are set to "Same as Course."


Use the following table to enter information for the section. When you are finished click Submit. At that time you can then continute to create sections if need.
Note: Fields that are required for SLDS are indicated by the red SLDS text.

  1. Field

    Description

    Course Name

    The name of the course you selected appears.

    Course Number

    The number of the course you created.

    Schedule

    Select the checkboxes for the combination of days and periods in which this section meets. For example, select the checkbox for Period 1 and Day A if a section of Chemistry meets during first period on A days.
    PreK Select All Boxes

    Term

    The term selection defaults to the active term displayed in the PowerSchool header. Change the term if needed. The Start Date and End Date displays for the selected term.

    Teacher Section Lead

    Click Add to assign a Section teacher. If the teacher isn't listed then talk to Andrew, Karyn or Roger.
    SLDS File Name: Staff_Identity, POS, POS_Role, StaffSecAssignment
    SLDS Fieldname: EDUCATORID

    Teachers/Staff Additional

    Click Add to assign additional teachers or staff to this section. For more information, see Assign Additional Teachers or Staff to a Section.
    SLDS Note: Do not use the Co-Teacher role.

    Gradebook Type

    		Select PowerTeacher Pro

    Room

    Enter the room in which this course section meets. When this value is left blank the current Lead Teacher's Homeroomvalue is used.

    Section Number

    Enter the section number in this field. Do not enter special characters. This number is appended to the end of the course number.

    Note: Section numbers must be unique among sections of the same course for a given school year.
    PreK: Enter 1.

    SLDS FileName: 13_CourseSection
    SLDS Field Name: COURSESECTION

    Grade Level

    If this course is available only for a certain grade level, enter the grade level. Otherwise, leave this field blank. The grade level entered here is used to filter courses using the Grade pop-up menu on the Mass Enroll and Available Courses pages.

    Current Enrollment

    The number of students currently enrolled in this course section appears.

    Maximum Enrollment

    Enter the maximum number of students who can enroll in this course section.

    District Where Taught

    Leave Blank

    School Where Taught

    Leave Blank

    Dependent Sections

    If this course section has dependent sections, enter them in this field using the course.section, course.section format. If a student is enrolled in a class, it is not teacher-specific, but rather section-specific. Often used by elementary schools where students take a set of classes, dependent sections indicate that if a student is registered in one class, he or she must also register for the dependent class. If the dependent section conflicts with another class, you can manually drop the student from the class and add him or her to another section. This function has no implications with prerequisites or graduation requirements.

    Program

    Leave Blank

    Automated Walk-In Scheduling Program Restrictions

    		Leave Blank

    Record Attendance Using Attendance Mode

    Will say Meeting. No other option. Skip

    Record Attendance

    If the section meets more than one period in a day, you can choose to take attendance once or for every period by selecting the Once for All Meetings option or the Each Meeting Separately option. Dependent on each school's attendance procedures.

    Exclude From Attendance

    Leave Blank

    Exclude From Storing Final Grades

    Use for sections that are not graded so blank records are not stored with final grades.

    Do one of the following:

    • Select the Same as course option to use same value as the value selected for the course. See parenthesis.
    • Select the Include option to store grades for this section.
    • Select the Exclude option to skip this section when storing grades. This setting is useful in cases where storing grades may not be appropriate, such as study hall or lunch.

    Note: The Exclude From Storing Final Grades course value is noted in parenthesis.

    SLDS: SUPER Important for SLDS files. Any class that should not be reported for SLDS must be excluded from final grades.
    Check this box for all PreK classes.

    Grade Scale

    Choose the grade scale from the pop-up menu. For more information, see Grade Scales.

    Note: The grade scale assigned to the course appears in parenthesis.
    PreK: Skip

    Exclude from GPA?

    If different from the course settings, select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the GPA calculation.

    Note: The Exclude from GPA course value is noted in parenthesis.
    PreK: Skip

    Exclude from Class Rank?

    If different from the course settings, select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the class rank calculation.

    Note: The Exclude from Class Rank course value is noted in parenthesis.
    PreK: Skip

    Exclude from Honor Roll?

    If different from the course settings, select the option to either include or exclude the grade from the honor roll calculation.

    Note: The Exclude from Honor Roll course value is noted in parenthesis.
    PreK: Skip

    Section Type

    Skip

    House

    		Skip

    Team

    		Skip

    Close section at max

    Identifies whether to enroll students into the section even if the maximum enrollment has been reached. If this is selected, no students will be enrolled if the current enrollment is equal to or greater than the maximum enrollment. Select the checkbox to not accept more enrollments than the maximum number of enrolled students.

    Maximum Load Status

    Use the pop-up menu to indicate whether the section should be exempt from counting towards a teacher's maximum student load:

    • Exempt: Students enrolled in this section do not count towards a teacher's maximum student load.
    • Lab: Same as non-exempt.
    • Non-Exempt: Students enrolled in this section count towards a teacher's maximum student load.

    Note: At this time, the Non-Exempt selection is not saved on this page. Use USM to set sections as non-exempt. In the Sections table, set the Max_Load_Status field to Non-Exempt. For more information, see Teacher Maximum Load.

    Note: For existing non-exempt sections and for all new sections, no values are stored for this field unless they are set to Lab or Exempt on this page, or they set to any of the three status types using USM. Sections with no values are ignored when calculating the teacher maximum load.

    EXCLUDE FOR ALL EXCEPT BHS.

    Allow PowerTeacher entry of Variable Awarded Credit

    Use the pop-up menu to indicate whether or not to permit teachers to enter variable awarded credit, earned credit. If Yes is chosen, the Variable Awarded Credit column appears in PowerTeacher Gradebook on the Scoresheet in Final Grade mode. Teachers may enter any desired numerical value.

    Note: This pop-up menu only appears when editing a section. To set variable awarded credit for multiple sections, see Variable Credit Setup.
    PreK: Skip

    Allow PowerTeacher entry of Variable Attempted Credit

    Use the pop-up menu to indicate whether or not to allow teachers to enter variable attempted credit, potential credit. If Yes is chosen, the Variable Attempted Credit column appears in PowerTeacher Gradebook on the Scoresheet in Final Grade mode. Teachers may enter any desired numerical value.

    Note: This pop-up menu only appears when editing a section. To set variable attempted credit for multiple sections, see Variable Credit Setup.
    PreK: Skip

    Course Level
    SLDS Definition: A codeset value indicating the level of rigor at which the course section was offered. See Master Elements VR_Codesets tab for further explanation of each level.

    SLDS File Name: 13_CourseSection
    SLDS Field Name: COURSELEVEL
    PreK: Skip
    Course Level Characteristic
    SLDS Definition: A codeset value indicating the intended audience that the course section aims to serve.

    SLDS File Name: 13_CourseSection
    SLDS Field Name: COURSELEVELCHARACTERISTIC
    NOTE: Be sure to select English Language Learner for each EL Course. This is the only way the AOE identifies EL classes.
    PreK: Skip
    Course Setting
    SLDS Definition: A codeset value indicating the primary location where the course section will take place.

    SLDS File Name: 13_CourseSection
    SLDS Field Name: COURSESETTING
    PreK: Skip
    Course Term
    SLDS: These are not the same values as the term values that we use so just pick the correct one.

    SLDS File Name: 13_CourseSection
    SLDS Field Name: COURSETERM
    PreK: Skip
    Course Flexible Pathaways
    SLDS Description (from AOE KB): AOE is required to capture data for opportunities that students are provided under The Flexible Pathways Initiative (formerly known as Act 77), which states that all students will have a flexible pathway opportunity by the end of 12th grade. And...

    The current reporting guidance provides an example of capturing that data in a method that does not add additional data elements to the current system. The system will simply add a tag at the end of coursesection variable, for expanded learning opportunity course we tag with “_EO”
    Refer to this page for more information. Scroll down and you will see a section for Flexible Pathways.

    SLDS FileName: 13_ CourseSection
    SLDS Field Name: COURSESECTION
    The 2 character code you select will be appended to the end of the section number.
    PreK: Skip


Note: After you click Submit, if you need to access the section page again, click on the Sec#.


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