Main Menu

SIS 2000+ Student Loader

Step 1, Prerequisites to Scheduling 

Before the Loader can be run, the Master Schedule must be defined for the target track and course requests must be entered into the SIS 2000+ system as students register for classes. The following steps will outline the processes to accomplish these goals.
 

1.1 Evaluate and Set Curriculum

This is a pre-planning phase and requires no interaction with the SIS 2000+ system. It is a departmental procedure that is done to determine what courses will be offered in the next school year. Also, at this time the school determines the basic structure of the Master Schedule, such as how many periods in a day and how many cycle days. This normally takes place in January or February.
 
 

Use the Track Editor program to define or update the tracks to be scheduled for the target school. This will include the important parameters of:
 
• Periods Per Day
• Days Per Cycle
• Terms Per Year
• Term Description Codes
• Cycle Days Calendar

See Track Editor for more information on this procedure.
 
 

1.2.1 Update District Course Directory
Make sure that all courses to be offered by the district exist as active records in the District Courses directory. It is also important that courses not intended to be offered are set to "Inactive". This file is used by the scheduling programs, the grade report programs, and the grade history file. Do not delete a course from this file or change course names as it will effect the grade history file.

See District Courses for more information on this procedure.

1.2.2 Build a Course Table for the individual School Site
All courses to be scheduled at a specific school site must be selected from the District Courses directory and "assigned" to the target site via the Course Selection Editor.

1.2.3 Print Course Directory Report
This report will print a master list of all courses in the district or all courses assigned to a specific school site. This list will be useful during the creation of the master schedule in Step 1.9.

For more details, see Course Directory Report.
 
 

The Career Plan Editor is a means to define required and suggested courses for a specific group of students sharing similar achievements or goals. For example, college bound and honor students will require more advanced courses than students who will not be continuing their education. By defining specific courses or groups of courses for these students to take, the scheduling system can help counselors keep their students on track by generating and approving the appropriate courses for each grade level. Course requests can be generated from within the Career Plan Editor and used to build the course requests files in the Course requests Editor.

This is not a required step. It is normally done in middle schools.

See Career Plan Editor for more information on this procedure.
 
 

It is necessary to be sure that the Faculty database is updated to reflect additions of any new teachers for the new year. Any faculty member that will be teaching courses in the track to be scheduled must have a record in the Faculty Editor. If you know you must add a teacher but do not know who that teacher will be, you must still create a record for that position by using a pseudonym.

See Faculty Editor for more information on this procedure.
 
 

Once course offerings are set, the students can start making their course selections. This is done in several ways, but normally, in high schools, a student will meet with a counselor to insure the student has the correct classes in order to meet school and student requirements. This is when graduation requirements and grade history are checked. In advising a student, a counselor may utilize a career plan, the transcript, his/her current grades and schedule and credit earned. A student may enter their course requests at this time but normally they are given a report to review with parents. This normally takes place in March or April.
 
 

1.7.1 Input
This is the process where the students formally request the courses they wish to take in the next school year. Course requests are the heart of the student scheduling system. Both mass scheduling and individual scheduling systems are based on students' requests. Course requests may be entered in a variety of ways: they may be imported, scanned, entered manually, generated from career plans, or a combination of methods. The Course Request Editor works on a per student basis and is used to consolidate request data for various reports that are used for designing in the master schedule.

See Course Request Editor for more information on this procedure.

1.7.2 Analysis
Once course requests have been entered, a series of reports are printed to summarize scheduling data and to look for potential problems. These reports contain essential information that is used as an aid or road map for designing a Master Schedule.

Go to the Reports menu within the Schedule Menu and run the following reports:
 

• Course Directory Report

Lists all course attributes as defined in the District Courses application.
• Potential Conflict Matrix Report

This is a road map that shows what courses students are requesting in conjunction with other courses, that is, it will show potential scheduling conflicts based on students' course requests.
• Course Request List & Tally Report

A tally list of the number of requests per course within a track.
• Student Course Request List

Retrieves a list of course requests per student.
• Loader Checklist & Validation Report

This report provides checklist information that can be used for detecting inconsistencies in course request data.
 
 
For further information on previewing and printing reports, see General Reporting Procedures. For documentation on a specific report, follow its link or go to Reports & Reporting - Table of Contents, Scheduling Reports.

The person who is responsible for building the Master Schedule, usually an administrator, will review the completed registration by reading the above reports. They need to look at the number of students registered in each course and the demographics of the requests per grade and gender. Errors need to be identified, like girls signed up for boys P.E. or 9th graders signed up for courses designed for upper grades, etc.

The number of sections needed for a course must be determined by weighing the amount of requests vs. school resources. If classes are over subscribed the counselors must reduce the registration. The Potential Conflict Matrix Report an essential tool for designing the Master Schedule. It shows what courses students are requesting in conjunction with other courses, i.e., the Matrix will show potential conflicts based on students' course requests. For example, if there are 30 students requesting Calculus and the same students are requesting French IV and both courses are singletons (only one section offered), the courses will have to be scheduled in different periods in order to prevent conflicts. If there were 200 students requesting the same two courses in this example, additional sections in different periods would need to be offered as well. The Potential Conflict Matrix Report can be run as many times as necessary during the process of analyzing and minimizing potential conflicts.

As this registration analysis process progresses, adjustments to individual requests may be necessary. This is done by adding or dropping courses in the Course Request Editor program. As the registration is refined the school will know what sections need to be taught, how many student in each section, and the staffing they will need, the structure of the master schedule, desired restrictions from the staff, and basic room needs.
 
 

Prior to creating a Master Schedule, define classroom descriptions, room numbers, and seating capacity using the Classroom Editor program.
 
 

The Master Schedule Editor program (formerly named "Schedule Assistant") provides a grid type interface of faculty vs. period and period vs. cycle per single faculty member for creating the master schedule. Using this program, a pre-built schedule can be manually entered into the SIS 2000+ database by placing classes (course sections) into their assigned periods based on students' course requests. This program allows the scheduling of cycle days. A Master Schedule must be entered into the SIS 2000+ system before students can be scheduled by the Student Loader program or the Student Schedule Editor program.
 
1.9.1 Run Loader Checklist & Validation Report
This report should be used periodically during the Master Schedule construction cycle to check for possible inconsistencies. See Loader Checklist & Validation Report.

1.9.2 Print the Master Schedule
See Master Schedule Report.

See Master Schedule Editor for more information.
 
 

Open the Loader Rules application from the Scheduling Menu. This a program for constructing course scheduling and balancing restrictions for the Student Loader. Once these rules have been defined for a school site, they can be turned On or Off  by selecting Standard Options in the Student Loader before running the Loader.

See Loader Rules for more information on this procedure.
 
 

Courses can be linked in such a way that any student who is scheduled for a "root" course section will also be automatically scheduled in related "child" course sections. Section linking will allow for a group of students to remain together as they move from class to class, period to period, and so forth.

See Section Link Editor for more information on this procedure.
 
 

A "team" is a group of course sections defined for scheduling purposes. Typically, team scheduling will cause a group of teachers to share the same group of students. This is useful for collaborative teaching, cross curriculum assignments, and student evaluations.

See Team Editor for more information on this procedure.
 
 

Loader Checklist & Validation Report
This report provides checklist information that is used prior to running the Student Loader.  It should be used periodically during the Master Schedule construction cycle to check for possible inconsistencies but MUST be run and verified prior to running the Student Loader application. It will include information on Term Data, Master Schedule Data, Course Request Data, Team Data, Section Linking Data, and Loader Rules.

With the above prerequisites fulfilled, you are ready to run the Student Loader. Continue with Step 2.