Who can do this with default user permissions?
District Level Administrators (some tasks can be done by other users)
What you need to do to get ready for a new school year depends on how you typically bring user and class information into Renaissance software. See the section below that applies to your setup:
- Renaissance Custom Data Integration (CDI) service school-year preparation
- Clever integration school-year preparation
- School year preparation using import or manual entry
If you use Renaissance during summer school, you may need to adjust your school year dates.
Since Star predicted/projected scores are based on the school year end date, the end date in the software should be as close as possible to the actual end of your school year. If students are using the software during summer school, you may extend the end date for the school year after you have run reports with projected scores.
Renaissance Custom Data Integration Service School-Year Preparation
When your district uses Renaissance's Custom Data Integration service (CDI), much of the preparation for a new school year happens in your district's Student Information System (SIS). That is where you enter or update the following:
- Student information
- Personnel information (may be teachers only or teachers and other personnel - check with your district Renaissance contact)
- Class information and enrollment
If you have questions about updating student, personnel, and class information for the start of the new school year, contact your Renaissance representative.
There are some things, however, that you will still want to do in your Renaissance software. See the table below:
Tasks | How to Do It |
---|---|
Enter marking periods (used for class duration, goals, and reports) if they are not added using CDI. If your marking periods have been added, review the school year and marking period dates. |
Steps for adding marking periods if they have not been added through CDI
For detailed steps, see Adding/Editing Marking Periods. Steps for verifying marking periods if they have been added for you
|
Add days off (used to calculate the number of school days and for some report calculations). |
Steps for adding days off
For detailed steps, see Adding/Editing Days Off. |
Check Star screening windows for testing and scoring (if you use Star assessments). |
Steps for viewing screening windows
|
Add school and district administrators and staff who aren't teachers if your non-teacher personnel aren't added through CDI. Check with your Renaissance district contact to find out if CDI adds these users. |
Steps for adding non-teacher personnel
|
Assign products to your classes (the products that each class will use). |
Steps for assigning products to classes
For detailed steps, see Assigning Products to Multiple Classes. Notes: For Freckle, you'll see a box for each subject; check the subjects that the class will use Freckle for. If you see a Lalilo check box, checking it will cause the class to be created in Lalilo as well - see the link above for details. |
Set Data Editing Restrictions to prevent changes to information in Renaissance that should come from your SIS |
Steps for setting Data Editing Restrictions
For detailed steps, see Set Data Editing Restrictions. |
Set the Learning Standards used for assignments and reports. |
Steps for setting Learning Standards Note: Learning Standards should only be set once a year at the beginning of the school year to avoid interfering with students' assignments and assessments.
For detailed steps, see Set Learning Standards. |
Check IP addresses and product access if you want to identify Star assessments taken outside school or if you want to restrict student work in Star and Accelerated Reader to school computers. |
Steps for entering IP addresses and setting restrictions Note: If you simply want to restrict the days and times when students can take quizzes and assessments, use the Dates and Times preferences instead.
For detailed steps, see IP Restrictions and Product Access. |
Check preferences (district, school, class, and student), especially those that restrict quizzing or testing. When a new school year starts, the settings in your District, School, and Individual Student preferences will carry over to the new year. Class preferences do not carry over because classes are new every year. All preference settings should be reviewed at the beginning of each new school year so that they can be updated as needed. |
On the Home page, select your initials, then Edit Preferences to go to the Preferences page. Select each district and school preference to check the settings. Teachers can set the class and student preferences for their classes. For more information, see Preferences. |
Check Star benchmarks (if you use Star assessments). |
Steps for checking Star benchmarks
For more information, see the following: |
Check browser settings on school computers. |
|
Get student passwords. |
Steps for getting student passwords
For detailed steps, see User Names and Passwords. |
Print Send Home Letters if you plan to use Renaissance Home Connect (for Accelerated Reader or Star). |
Steps for printing Send Home Letters
For detailed steps, see Send Home Letter. |
Clever Integration School Year Preparation
Clever integration is currently available to districts that have all schools on one Renaissance site and whose Renaissance schools are all active in their Clever district; contact Renaissance if you are interested in Clever integration.
If your Renaissance site has been integrated with Clever, much of the preparation for a new school year happens in Clever. That is where you enter or update the following:
- Student information
- Teachers (but not administrators or other staff)
- Class information and enrollment
- School year dates, including marking periods
There are some things, however, that you still need to do in your Renaissance software. See the table below:
Tasks | How to Do It |
---|---|
Add days off (used to calculate the number of school days and for some report calculations). |
Steps for adding days off
For detailed steps, see Adding/Editing Days Off. |
Add school and district administrators and staff who aren't teachers (non-teacher personnel aren't added through Clever). |
Steps for adding non-teacher personnel
|
Check Star screening windows for testing and scoring (if you use Star assessments). |
Steps for viewing screening windows
|
Assign products to your classes (the products that each class will use). |
Steps for assigning products to classes
For detailed steps, see Assigning Products to Multiple Classes. |
Set the Learning Standards used for assignments and reports. |
Steps for setting Learning Standards Note: Learning Standards should only be set once a year at the beginning of the school year to avoid interfering with students' assignments and assessments.
For detailed steps, see Set Learning Standards. |
Check IP addresses and product access if you want to identify Star assessments taken outside school or if you want to restrict student work in Star and Accelerated Reader to school computers. |
Steps for entering IP addresses and setting restrictions Note: If you simply want to restrict the days and times when students can take quizzes and assessments, use the Dates and Times preferences instead.
For detailed steps, see IP Restrictions and Product Access. |
Check preferences (district, school, class, and student). When a new school year starts, the settings in your District, School, and Individual Student preferences will carry over to the new year. Class preferences do not carry over because classes are new every year. All preference settings should be reviewed at the beginning of each new school year so that they can be updated as needed. |
On the Home page, select your initials, then Edit Preferences to go to the Preferences page. Select each district and school preference to check the settings. Teachers can set the class and student preferences for their classes. For more information, see Preferences. |
Check Star benchmarks (if you use Star assessments). |
Steps for checking Star benchmarks
For more information, see the following: |
Check browser settings on school computers. |
|
Print Send Home Letters if you plan to use Renaissance Home Connect (for Accelerated Reader or Star). |
Steps for printing Send Home Letters
For detailed steps, see Send Home Letter. |
School Year Preparation Using Import or Manual Entry
If your Renaissance site is not integrated with your School Information System, you can import or enter information to prepare for a new school year. You do not need to wait for the old school year to end to perform some of these steps. For videos, see Videos for New School Year Setup.
Tasks | How to Do It |
---|---|
Use the Set Up School Year page to set up your new school year (you can also copy classes, marking periods, days off, and other information from the previous school year). | See Set Up School Year page; these instructions will guide you through the setup and the options that are available. Note: If you have already started entering days off, marking periods, or classes in your new school year, you cannot copy them from the previous school year. |
If possible, import your students, classes, courses, and teachers. | See How to Import a Single-School Import File; import a file for each of your schools. |
Add marking periods, or check them if you have copied them from the previous school year (used for class duration, goals, and reports). |
Steps for adding or editing marking periods
For detailed steps, see Adding/Editing Marking Periods. |
Add days off, or check them if you have copied them from the previous school year (used to calculate the number of school days and for some report calculations). |
Steps for adding or editing days off
For detailed steps, see Adding/Editing Days Off. |
Update students and personnel (if you did not already do so through import). |
Steps for reviewing personnel and students
For more information about updating student and personnel information, see the following:
|
Add classes if you did not either copy them from the previous school year or import them. If you copied or imported classes, review them. |
Steps for reviewing and adding classes
For more information about updating classes and courses, see the following: |
Check Star screening windows for testing and scoring (if you use Star assessments). |
Steps for viewing screening windows
|
Set the Learning Standards used for assignments and reports. |
Steps for setting Learning Standards Note: Learning Standards should only be set once a year at the beginning of the school year to avoid interfering with students' assignments and assessments.
For detailed steps, see Set Learning Standards. |
Check IP addresses and product access if you want to identify Star assessments taken outside school or if you want to restrict student work in Star and Accelerated Reader to school computers. |
Steps for entering IP addresses and setting restrictions Note: If you simply want to restrict the days and times when students can take quizzes and assessments, use the Dates and Times preferences instead.
For detailed steps, see IP Restrictions and Product Access. |
Check preferences (district, school, class, and student). When a new school year starts, the settings in your District, School, and Individual Student preferences will carry over to the new year. Class preferences do not carry over because classes are new every year. All preference settings should be reviewed at the beginning of each new school year so that they can be updated as needed. |
On the Home page, select your initials, then Edit Preferences to go to the Preferences page. Select each district and school preference to check the settings. Teachers can set the class and student preferences for their classes. For more information, see Preferences. |
Check Star benchmarks (if you use Star assessments). |
Steps for checking Star benchmarks
For more information, see the following: |
Check browser settings on school computers. |
|
Get student passwords. |
Steps for getting student passwords
For detailed steps, see User Names and Passwords. |
Print Send Home Letters if you plan to use Renaissance Home Connect (for Accelerated Reader or Star). |
Steps for printing Send Home Letters
For detailed steps, see Send Home Letter. |