Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I'm having issues with my login. What do I do?

If you have an admin account (all School Leaders, APs, or CSs), then please reach out directly to Phil.

If you are a teacher or student:

• Please reach out to the PLAC at your school site who can help to support with checking PowerSchool and Clever. More often than not, the issues with account access lie in PowerSchool (error in email, new student not enrolled, etc.) and can be solved there. Please allow 24 hours for Clever and PowerSchool to sync.

Q: My students are locked out of an assessment! What does this mean and what do I do?

The students in question are likely shared in two different sections in Clever. This means they are put in two different sections in Amplify's system as well. When this happens, the students' assessments must be unlocked for the student in all sections they are associated with for that content before it will unlock. This is to prevent teachers from accidentally overriding one another and giving a student access to an assessment they should not have. Both teachers who have that student will need to unlock them in their section where they have that student in their roster.

1. First - the teacher will need to go to a chapter that contains an assessment they need to administer. On the above screen they will click the orange "Settings" tab at the bottom of the lesson's graphic.
2. They will need to select the section they wish to unlock the assessment for in the left sidebar menu and click on it.
3. Once a section has been clicked on, they will be taken to a to unlock their students assessments. Generally speaking - they will want to click "Unlock All Students". However, they can also unlock only particular students by simply scrolling down and clicking on the slide button beside the student's name. It will turn blue and at this point the student is unlocked.

When students are in multiple sections, each of their teachers that have them in a roster that is entitled to amplify content must unlock the student in this way.

Q: How should I provide a Course Grade for Grades 5-8?

Amplify’s post-unit assessments may not be sufficient to inform an end-of-course/unit PowerSchool gradebook score or indication of mastery. Furthermore the back-end calculations to score the post-unit assessments may be confusing for teachers, students, and families.

It is recommended that teachers weight final grades based on:

• 30%: Multiple-choice from Amplify (end-of-unit assessment only!)
• 40%: Constructed Response/Short Answer from Amplify (end-of-unit assessment only!)
• 30%: Teacher-created Supplement (Task or Project) - this may include the progress monitoring Chapter Tasks released by the Amplify Master Teachers

Please work with your coach/AP to determine how this works best for your school.

Reminder: as a pilot region of KIPP Foundation…

Teachers in 6th-8th must provide pre-, critical juncture-, and post-unit assessments as-is on the Amplify platform.

Note: Amplify doesn't calculate "grades" in a traditional sense. They align to what is called "progress builds" which are similar to "DOK." They also take into account formative grades (warm ups, sims, reflections, etc.) and homework that are should not be averaged into a final summative grade. Amplify is aware of this and the Foundation team has very clearly laid out frustrations about this, as well.

Q: I am missing kit components or I'm issues with Amplify web access. Is there a workaround?

K-5

Print materials

• ○ In the Unit Overview section of each unit, Teachers can download a PDF of all the print materials that are included in the unit's kit. The documents are named: Print Materials (8.5" x 11"), and Print Materials (11" x 17").
• ○ Once the PDF has been downloaded, the Teacher can use the PDF to project the materials that pertain to each lesson and discuss them with the class. For each item, the applicable lesson number has been specified in the lower right hand corner.

Books in the kit

○ The Student Books associated with the first units being taught in each grade are now temporarily accessible online from Amplify Academy Science Elementary Books. Please note, teachers must log in with their learning.amplify.com credentials to access this link.

Hands-on materials

• ○ In the Unit Overview section of each unit, Teachers can download a PDF of all the materials that are necessary for each lesson. The document is named: Materials and Preparation at a Glance. For each item, the applicable lesson number has been listed in the "Used in lesson" column that is contained in the document.
• ○ In the event schools already have the materials that are needed in the first few lessons, they can use their materials to complete the hands-on activity.

6-8

Print materials

• ○ In the Unit Overview section of each unit, Teachers can download a PDF of all the print materials that are included in the unit's kit. The documents are named: Resource: Print Materials (8.5" x 11"), and Resource: Print Materials (11" x 17").
• ○ Once the PDF has been downloaded, the Teacher can use the PDF to project the materials that pertain to each lesson and discuss them with the class. For each item, the applicable lesson number has been specified in the lower right hand corner.

Hands-on materials

• ○ In the Unit Overview section of each unit, Teachers can download a PDF of all the materials that are necessary for each lesson. The document is named: Reference: Materials and Preparation at a Glance. For each item, the applicable lesson number has been listed in the "Used in lesson" column that is contained in the document.
• ○ In the event schools already have the materials that are needed in the first few lessons, they can use their materials to complete the hands-on activity.

Q: What is the best way to see the Gradebook View of Student Assessment Answers and Critical Responses

Check out this resource that allows teachers to visualize the data and hopefully work with it more easily. Teachers can see how the class answered on every activity in the assessments, as well as each student relative to the full class.