Keeping track of where students are learning and for how long is one of the hardest things public school district administrators must do, but our latest CheckPoint module makes it easy.

When we talk to school district administrators about their most troubling issues, one thing that comes up again and again is the overwhelming effort it takes to track where every student is at every hour of the day. As more students opt to take courses outside of their traditional school — whether at a local technical center, a postsecondary institution, or somewhere else — tracking students’ whereabouts is only going to get more difficult.

This is cause for concern, as a school’s funding levels are directly impacted by the percentage of time each student spends on its campus. Say, for example, that a state allocates $7,000 of funding per student per year. If a student takes two of their ten classes for the year at an offsite location, their main school will only receive $5,600 to cover the instruction of that student, not the full $7,000.

That’s why it’s absolutely essential for schools to keep precise a record of how much instruction time they provide to each and every student. Hearing how difficult this critical task had become to public school administrators inspired us to create our new Percent of Time module, the latest addition to our CheckPoint EMIS platform.

A New Approach to Student Tracking

The Percent of Time module provides school administrators with a centralized platform on which they can closely and proactively monitor student scheduling patterns, making it easy to ensure their EMIS data accurately reflects the amount of instruction time they are actually providing.

The module intuitively charts the apportionments of student time that a school has negotiated with various outside facilities. That gives administrators a clear reference point for what percentage of a given student’s time (and funding) they should claim, for example, if the student is taking two outside courses at the same external facility versus what they would claim if the student were taking a full course-load in their own school. The tool creates a clear record of what data has been entered and validated, what data has not, and who is responsible for verifying the instruction time of each individual student.

A Comprehensive Picture

District administrators can use the module to gain a comprehensive picture of their entire district broken down by individual school, percentage of student time claimed across each school, and total number of “warnings” at each school. The module’s built-in Errors & Warnings functionality is tremendously helpful for district and school administrators alike, as it automatically populates student charts with notifications of suspect or clearly problematic enrollment statuses.

For instance, if a student appears to be enrolled in nine courses at their main school, but the school is only claiming 72% of the student’s time, something is very likely amiss. The Errors & Warnings section will flag anomalies like these, thereby guiding administrators toward specific cases in need of their attention. Perhaps the student is double-enrolled in an on-campus class, or maybe they were initially planning to take a class at the local community college but ultimately decided against it. Whatever the case may be, the Percent of Time Module provides administrators with all the information they need to sort it all out.

When combined with CheckPoint’s existing features geared toward tracking critical student information like LEP status and IEPs, the Percent of Time Module helps guarantee that a school district receives every last penny of funding to which it is legally entitled. This not only gives districts the financial resources they need to provide an education, but the knowledge of each student’s behavior and interests they need to make it a great one.