FAQ
Question 1: Will we have to upload that data to our SIS to be able to see it in Adviser?
Answer
Assessment data provided to NDE, such as NeSA results, will be loaded for availability in the dashboard by NDE.
Local assessments, such as NWEA MAP, will need to be loaded to the dashboard by each district. Once the district receives the result file(s) from the vendor, they will need to be transferred to the ADVISER data center for processing. The ADVISER data center utilizes a two step process which consists of initially process the vendor data files and converting them to Ed-Fi XML format. Once the file is successfully converted to Ed-Fi XML, it is loaded by the console bulk loader into the Operational Data Store to be displayed by the dashboard. At this time, it is not required that local assessment files be loaded into the SIS in order to be displayed by the dashboard. For the initial release of the ADVISER dashboard, NWEA MAP is the only local assessment supported. Support for assessments such as Dibles, Terra Nova, and other similar assessments is planned for future dashboard enhancements.
The process for loading assessment results, via Ed-Fi, for accountability reporting will be covered in more detail
as part of the onboarding process for districts.
Question 2: How is the intervention catalog loaded for a district?
Answer
For the initial dashboard release, districts are required to manually enter interventions. The dashboard provides and interface to allow the creation of district specific interventions. It is also possible for districts to share interventions between multiple districts.
Question 3: Do students also see dashboard information?
Answer
There is no parent or student access to the dashboards planned for the initial release.
There is a print feature on the dashboard that allows teachers and staff to share dashboard information with students using printouts. For example, a teacher can set student goals and use dashboard printouts during a meeting with the student to discuss his/her progress throughout the year.
Question 4: When a teacher signs in to Adviser, what subgroups will they have access to?
Answer
The teacher's landing page has a pre-defined drop-down list of his/her students by section. A teacher can also view students by demographic subgroups such as gender and race or program subgroups such as high ability learner, special education, and English language learners. Additionally, a teacher can create their own subgroups based on student metrics such as students with attendance or grade concerns.
5. Question 5: How will we handle free/reduced lunch students given the new guidelines for access?
Answer
Access to information about free/reduced lunch students is restricted to superintendents, principals and dashboard administrators (i.e. data stewards). This information is removed from teacher views of student data.
6. Question 6: Will there be district and/or school trend data?
Answer
There is no trend information at the district level. However, trend information at the student and school level can be viewed for attendance, discipline, assessments, grades and credits. For example, the dashboard displays whether or not the school's daily attendance rate is improving, declining or the same from the previous four weeks. This same trend information is displayed for other metrics such as class period absence rate, discipline incidents, and grades below C.
7. Question 7: Will you have a survey or other tool to gather feedback from teachers in the district?
Answer
The dashboard provides an interface to the statewide support system. One of the categories a user can select is suggestion/enhancements. ADVISER users will be able to provide feedback using this method.
8. Question 8: When would you expect to have information regarding the sessions at the AQuESTT Conference?
Answer
As of August 30 2016, The 2017 AQuESTT conference is planned to be held in Kearney NE on Monday April 10 and Tuesday April 11th 2017.
9. Question 9: How will historical data be uploaded?
Answer
Historical data will be made available over time with the data warehouse. The ADVISER dashboard provides some historical data for the prior years. For the attendance metrics, the user can view historical data by day, week, grading period, semester, and year. All discipline metrics can be viewed by week, grading period, semester, and year. And all grades metrics, such as grades below C, can be viewed by grading period.