Tool Search: Graduation Program
Graduation programs can be created for a particular school or all schools in the District. Additionally, options are available to limit programs to groups of students based on their Graduation Cohort Year and to define whether programs are available for selection on the Student/Parent Portal.
Graduation Program Detail Editor
Best Practices and Things to Know
Use the following list as a guideline when creating and managing graduation programs for your district and/or school.
- Create one graduation program for each diploma type offered in your district.
- Since graduation programs contain a set of requirements (credit requirements, course requirements, test requirements, etc.), each time any of these requirements change, a new Graduation Program should be created. This ensures those students assigned to a program at any given time have the requirements for that time period.
- Editing an existing Graduation program once it has been assigned to student(s) could adversely affect students assigned to the program.
- Create a basic, general program against which all students can be measured. This program contains the minimum requirements for graduation using the minimum District requirements.
- Create one middle school program that covers all middle school credit requirements. All students would be assigned to this program. Middle schools can use the Course Planner to make multiple year selections and to choose electives. Cohorts would be assigned to students when they get their first high school (9th grade) enrollment.
- Graduation programs can contain recommended courses to pursue as part of a focus area or career path. If available in your state, Academic Programs can also be created for this purpose.
- Graduation programs that are no longer needed should be inactivated instead of deleted, especially if students are assigned to the program.
Graduation Program Detail
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Name Required | Describes the name of the program. This name can be up to 50 characters in length. |
| Active | Indicates the program is active and can be assigned or chosen by students. When a new program is created, this checkbox is automatically marked. |
| Code | Identifies the program using a State Code or a Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code. This code can be a district-defined code or a state-defined code. This field may also be the Program name, the Pathway Name, the State Standard, or Instructional Area Code. For some states, this is a text field to enter the CIP code. In other states, this is a searchable field that includes the Ed-Fi codes for the Program. |
Category Required | Indicates the classification of the program. For Graduation programs, the only available option is Graduation. |
| DPSA Tier | Only used in Minnesota & Wisconsin. Select the tier associated with the Graduation program being set up. |
| Flagged/Flag Image/Flag Color/Flag Preview | When marked, the program displays with an icon next to the student's name in the student header and section Roster. The default selection for a Graduation Program is the Graduate image in orange, but this can be changed to any of the other 30 available images and 12 available colors. Images and colors only display when this checkbox is marked.
|
| State Reported | Indicates the program is reported in state extracts as a means of tracking student progress. In order for this sort of flag to display next to the student's name, the Flagged checkbox must also be selected. |
| Cohort/Graduation Active Start Year | The selected year narrows down the students who are eligible for the program based on the NCLB Cohort End Year fields on their graduation tab. Students who have an NCLB Cohort End Year greater or equal to the Cohort/Graduation Active Start Year have the ability to select this program. If left blank, all students are able to select the program. When assigning programs to students using the Batch Assignment Tool, students who have a Graduation NCLB Cohort Start Year field the same as or later than the year entered in this field can be assigned to the program. |
| Cohort/Graduation Active End Year | The selected year narrows down the students who are eligible for the program based on the NCLB Cohort End Year fields on their graduation tab. Students who have an NCLB Cohort End Year less than or equal to the Cohort/Graduation Active End Year have the ability to select this program. If left blank, all students are able to select the program. When assigning programs to students using the Batch Assignment Tool, students who have a Graduation NCLB Cohort End Year field the same as or prior to the year entered in this field can be assigned to the program. |
| School | If populated, this program is only available to students whose most future enrollment is at the selected school. If not populated, this program is available to students across the district. See the District Programs vs. School Programs section for more information. |
| Available for selection on portal | When marked, the program can be selected on the Portal graduation Planning tool. |
Credit Group Required | This selection controls the display of the Credit Types available when setting and evaluating Credit and Course Requirements. |
| Allow Planning of Alternates | When marked, students and counselors can add alternate courses to the course plan that are scheduled in the event planned courses cannot be placed. This adds an additional section the Course Plan that does not display if this checkbox is not marked. If a counselor removes this selection from a program and students assigned to that program have alternate courses planned, those alternate courses are removed from the student's course plan. See the Course Plan article for more information on planning alternates. |
| Minimum number of Alternate credits next year | Indicates the lowest number of alternate credits a student can add to their course plan. This is required when the Allow Planning of Alternates checkbox is marked. This is a numeric value between 0 (zero) and 999.999. |
| Diploma Type | This selection indicates which diploma type an on-track student receives on the Course Plan Admin tool. |
| HTML Description | Provides information about the program on the Portal graduation Planning. Use the WYSIWYG editor to modify fonts, add graphics, etc. |
Create a Graduation Program
- Select the New icon. A Graduation Program Detail editor displays.
- Enter the Name of the Graduation Program.
- Verify the Active checkbox on the far right is marked. This is automatically marked; if the program should not be available for selection immediately, remove this selection.
- Enter a Code for the Graduation Program. This code may be used in state reports.
- Select a Category for the program.
- (MN Only) Select a DPSA Tier for the program.
- If the program should be flagged (an image displays next to the student's name in Student Information), mark the Flagged checkbox.
- If the program reports to the state (the school receives funding for the program), mark the State Reported checkbox.
- If the program has been marked as Flagged, select an image for the flag and a color to appear next to a student's name when this program is assigned.
- Select the Cohort/Graduation Active Start Year and Cohort/Graduation Active End Year from the dropdown list.
- Select the School to which this program is available.
- Mark the Available for selection on portal checkbox.
- Select the appropriate Credit Group.
- Mark the Allow Planning of Alternates checkbox.
- If Allow Planning of Alternates is marked (step 12), enter the Minimum number of Alternate Credits Next Year value that students can plan.
- Select a Diploma Type from the dropdown list.
- Enter an HTML Description of the Graduation Program.
- Click the Save icon when finished.
The new program appears in the Graduation Program tree with additional options that also need to be set up before the graduation Program is assigned to a student. After creating a program, enter Credit Requirements, Course Requirements, Test Requirements and GPA Requirements.
Copy a Graduation Program
Copying a Graduation Program creates an exact copy of the chosen program with a different name. All pieces of the program are copied - Credit Requirements, Course Requirements, Test Requirements and GPA Requirements.
- Select the program to copy from the Graduation Programs tree.
- Click the Copy Program icon in the action bar.
- An alert message displays, indicating the program is about to be copied. Acknowledge this by choosing OK to continue or Cancel to not copy the program.
- Upon accepting the warning message, the Graduation Program Detail editor updates with the same information that was entered in the original program, plus an indication that it is a copy of another program in the Name field. This naming convention is the same name that the previous program was called with the words Copy(1) at the end of the field.
- Modify this Name to reflect the desired name of the program.
- Review the entered information and make any adjustments needed for this copied program, following the procedures described in the Create a Graduation Program section.
- Click the Save icon when finished. The new program is listed in the Program Administration tree with additional options that also need to be reviewed for accuracy before the graduation Program is assigned to a student.
After copying the program, review the Credit Requirements, Course Requirements, Test Requirements and GPA Requirements.
Copy a Graduation Program
Delete a Program
If a program needs to be deleted, select the program and click the Delete Program icon. An alert message displays asking if the program should really be deleted. Continue with this process by choosing OK or cancel the deletion process by clicking Cancel. If OK is chosen, the program is deleted and is removed from the graduation Programs tree.
Deleting a program completely removes all history of the program, including any record of students being assigned to it.
- If a program was created in error or it was never assigned to students, continue with the deletion.
- If a program is no longer being used, but student have been assigned to it, consider inactivating the program instead of deleting it.
Delete a Program
Deactivate a Graduation Program
Programs can be made inactive by removing the checkmark from the Active checkbox in the Program Detail. Inactive programs display in red text at the bottom of the graduation programs tree and cannot be selected for assignment to a student or chosen on the Portal.
Deactivated Program Display
