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Internship Project

Linda Alesi EDL 651

Administrative Internship- Fall 2014

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Table of Contents
Needs Assessment......................................................................................................................................... 3
Objectives ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Project Planning ............................................................................................................................................ 6
Project Description........................................................................................................................................ 7
Project Implementation ................................................................................................................................. 9
Project Evaluation ....................................................................................................................................... 10
Project Reflection........................................................................................................................................ 12
Links to Project ........................................................................................................................................... 14

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Needs Assessment
This project began because of changes to standards in ELA and Math as well as feedback
from teachers and parents requesting changes in the report cards. Rather than make changes to
appease vocal requests during its first year of implementation, it was wisely thought out to meet
with all stakeholders and implement changes as carefully as the standards were originally
developed. Barbara Bauer and I met and discussed the need for the changes to be made before
the first trimester report card. The Jericho UFSD revised their elementary reports cards last year.
The report changed from paper to an electronic format housed through our student management
system. I was involved in some of the brainstorming sessions with the report card committee and
created the object reports in PowerSchool.
PowerSchool does not have any report cards built into it. It gives school districts the
ability to create reports using a utility within it called an object report. In the object report utility,
users must program lines, text, and data fields by the x and y coordinate where you want them to
appear on the page. Student information in PowerSchool are inserted into object reports by using
dat codes that PowerSchool has assigned. The reports cards were revised to standards based.
In order to use the standards in the PowerTeacher grade book, each one needed to be entered into
PowerSchool. The standards were entered by subject area and hierarchy into PowerSchool.

trained the teachers to use PowerTeacher grade book.

We received feedback from parents, teachers and administrators to make changes to them
to improve them. Some teachers felt the terminology in the standards was confusing and
difficult to explain to parents. They gave us suggestions for rewording them. Other teachers felt
that some standards were inappropriately placed in their grade level. Second grade teachers

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requested the most changes. At PTA meetings, several questions arose regarding what some
standards actually meant. Foreign Language standards were revised for lower grade levels.
Because of these concerns and in an effort to make our report cards a more effective tool for
student evaluation, we will revise them. The revision will involve all stakeholders. It will strive
to serve as a tool for increasing student achievement and a more effective evaluation and
communication tool for parents.

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Objectives
One objective of the report card revision is to make our report cards more accurately
reflect Common Core, New York State and Jericho School District adaptions of the standards.
Jericho School district adapted New York State standards. Another objective is to design report
cards that will communicate student accomplishments to parents in an understandable way. To
ensure that this is accomplished, the revision process will involve meeting with stakeholders,
making the technical changes to the PowerSchool object reports for each grade level, and
presenting the changes to the parents and community during the November Board of Education
meeting. The goal is that the report cards revision will be completed before the report cards are
posted on Dec 2nd.

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Project Planning
This project was planned with the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Barbara Bauer.
Barbara Bauer and I worked together on last years report cards revisions. We both received
feedback from teachers, parents and administrators regarding the report cards last year. We
began discussing the changes late summer. Meetings with teachers and parents were scheduled
in early Fall to discuss changes. Barbara Bauer and I met several times throughout the project to
discuss standards terminology, layout and programming design..

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Project Description
Report Card Revision Plan
1. Meet with Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Barbara Bauer to discuss revision
timeline and plan
2. Conduct meetings with parents and parents to obtain feedback on report cards and plan
revisions
3. Make revisions once terminology is finalize
a. Revise World Language section
i. Revise World Language standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise World Language in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara for final approval
b. Revise Math section
i. Revise Math standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Math in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara for final approval
c. Revise ELA section
i. Revise Math standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Math in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara for final approval
d. Revise Social Studies section
i. Revise Social Studies standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Social Studies in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara for final approval

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e. Revise Science section

i. Revise Science standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Science in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara Bauer for final approval
f. Revise Physical Education section
i. Revise Physical Education standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Physical Education in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara for final approval
g. Revise Art section
i. Revise Art standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Art in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara Bauer for final approval
h. Revise Music section
i. Revise Music standards in PowerSchool
ii. Revise Music in object report layout for grades 1 through 5
iii. Send revised report cards to Barbara for final approval
i. Revise report card page layout once all sections are complete to
j. Using a test student- put grades in gradebook and check the alignment
k. Edit and Finalize
l. Share with current community and parents at Board of Education meeting

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Project Implementation
This project had a strict timeline. As an Administrator, time management is a critical skill that
can only be learned through experience.
Sept/Oct: Meeting with parents, teachers and administrations to discuss feedback and determine
necessary revisions
Oct./Nov: Implementation of revision on report cards templates, layout and design; meeting with
teachers to explain revisions
Dec: Implementation of revisions to elementary report cards; evaluation of changes via parents
and teacher meetings

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Project Evaluation
This project will be evaluated by additional feedback from the teachers, administrators,
PTA members and parents. It is my intent that parents will be well informed about the new
standards and that the report card is easy for them to understand district and New York state
expectations for their children.
The projects success will rely on the technology running seamlessly for all users. In
order for that to happen for end users, several components need to be programmed, edited and
checked for accuracy. First of all, the Standard needs to be written accurately on the report card.
and be identical in the teachers gradebook. The grade the teacher puts in the gradebook needs to
appear on the report card. This requires programing of the PowerSchool object report to match
up to the x and y points on the report card. This may sound like a simple task, but it is quite
involved. The revision involves six different report cards, for grades Kindergarten to fifth.
Each report has approximately five hundred objects. Object reports contain text, lines, and
boxes. Each standard has three grades, one for each trimester. They must be identical in height
but change in width for each trimester. A change in the length of a standard will inadvertently
change the height of all the standards and lines below it on the report card. Though the process
is not a simply one, it is truly necessary for a report card to be effective, it must be able to
evolve. Object reports must be run in PowerSchool separately in each school and each grade
level. As the technology director, it means in order to have run all the elementary report cards,
it will need to be run eighteen times. We have three elementary schools and six grade levels.
Once all the report cards are run, they will need to be split by their student ID number in Adobe
Acrobat. An email needs to be composed that will be sent to parents. Links on that email need
to be checked. The first report card email sent out contains the parents username and password

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to access their students records page. My office phone number is on the email to assist any
parents that have difficulty accessing it. I created a name for how and where this report card
appears on the student records page. It is important that the latest report is on top of the page, it
is also necessary that it is uniquely named and indexed accurately.

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Project Reflection
There are many components and administrative competencies that a comprehensive
internship project such as this includes. This project has given me experience in the areas of
research, communication, and technological skills. Revising the report cards has led to the
completion of administrative competencies in administration, organization and business
management, which entails meeting with principals, teachers, parents, and other administrators.
While working on the revision, I also spent time with Nassau BOCES PowerSchool consultants
and Pearson consultants. Report cards represent district expectations for students and teachers in
a given grade level. Changing terminology in a report card is essentially a district policy change.
Preparing this guide has led to the completion of administrative competencies in the areas of
Student Personnel and Curriculum/Instruction. While establishing a professional curriculum
resource library is not directly related to classroom instruction on a local level, it is
administrative in nature by researching appropriate courses of study, deciding which programs
are best for our students, and advising them towards a direction. Ive been intimately involved in
the study of common core standards in ELA and Mathematics, NYS standards in Social Studies
and Science and my district implementation of those standards at the elementary level. This
knowledge helped me understand the revised report card standards.
This project has given me experience in the competency area of Curriculum and
Instruction. Changing the report card standards is certainly not a solo project. It involved
numerous meeting with teachers and administrators to agree to common terms. The standards
which the students are evaluated play an important role in curriculum and instruction. It is
equally important that the teachers understand the meaning of these new standards so they can

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effectively evaluate them.

This project has given me experience in the competency area of School and Community
Relations. Presenting to the community at a school
oard of education meeting has given me experience with public relations presentations.
Gathering information about parent and teacher reaction to the report card has provided me with
experience in communicating effectively with school staff and district community. The report
card is posted to Jerichos unique student portal. It is my responsibility to run a visual basic
script to post them online. It is also my responsibility to compose and email the parents
regarding the report cards.

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Links to Project
Please click on the following links to view my work: Jericho Report Cards - before and after
revision
http://lalesi.weebly.com