Official Four-Year Graduation Cohort

2017 Four Year Graduation Cohort Review and Verification

Schools will verify records with the Four Year Graduation Status that will impact the graduation rate for the school. The exit code should be reviewed and updated to reflect the student transfer out or the student should be reengaged to continue their education. The 2017 Graduation Cohort information is available in PowerSchool.

4-Year Cohort Graduates in 2017
First Time 9th Grader in 2013 + Transfers In – Verified Transfers Out – Excluded from

Cohort Status Impacting Graduation

Records with status Transfer Out- Unverified and Dropout are considered non-graduates, in turn negatively affecting the school’s overall four year cohort rate.

When verifying enrollment with another school or district, the receiving SID must match the SID in PowerSchool. A duplicate SID may cause Unverified or Drop-Out status. If the school finds a student with duplicate SIDs impacting the graduation cohort, email Crisalia Gonzalez at c7gonzalez@nullnps.k12.nj.us the receiving school’s student enrollment confirmation and the SID they are using to report the student. The SIDs will be merged in NJ SMART to update the cohort status.

Transfer Out – Unverified

Student was transferred out with a code that implied education continuation in the state of New Jersey. The student did not enroll in another district and thus is considered unverified.

School Next Steps

  1. Review paper records and update PowerSchool based on existing evidence (ex. an exit form in student paper file)
  2. Reach out to the receiving district or school to verify student enrollment – the receiving school may not have updated their NJ SMART records, resulting in unverified status.
  3. Reach students through existing contacts to find the whereabouts and update student Exit Code in PowerSchool.
    1. Record Update: If the Exit code is changed to a T8, the school must keep evidence on record, such as Exit Form or confirmation from the receiving school
    2. Record Update: If the student cannot be located and the exit code is T1 or T2, the transfer out code should be updated to D8

Dropout

Student stopped attending school without intention of completing their high school education.

School Next Steps

  1. Review paper records and update PowerSchool based on existing evidence (ex. an exit form in student paper file)
  2. Reach students through existing contacts to find the whereabouts and update student Exit Code in PowerSchool.
    1. Record Update: If the Exit code is changed to a T8, the school must keep evidence on record, such as Exit Form or confirmation from the receiving school.
    2. Student Reengagement: The student should be reengaged in school to complete remaining credits in a comprehensive high school, transfer school, etc.
      Note: Students with a previous dropout code that has been reengaged and do not meet graduation requirements by August 2017 will be considered non-graduates.

Off-Track Continuing

Submitted Grade Level suggests that a student is still attending school, but is at least one year behind their assigned cohort year.

School Next Steps

  1. If the student has not repeated a grade level but the graduation year is not correct (in 2017 Cohort with grade level 11 or lower), the school can appeal the student grade level and place the student in the right cohort during the Graduation Appeal window in late September/ early October 2017. This error occurred because the student was first reported with a grade level to associate the student to the 2017 cohort.

2017 Graduation Cohort in PowerSchool

Two reports in PowerSchool will provide the students in a school’s 2017 cohort. The cohort is based on the Four Year Cohort Rate. The reports are not based on grade level.

Official Graduation Cohort Report

This report is a list of all the students active and inactive in a school’s database that belong to the 2017 Graduation Cohort.

NPS Reports → sqlReports 4 → Graduation Data Management → Official Graduation Cohort

Field Description
SchoolID NPS Local School ID
NJSchoolID NJ State School ID
Student Number Local ID
SID State Student ID (SID)
SchoolName School Name – school where the student record is active or inactive
StudentName Student Name
GradeLevel Current grade level for Active students or last grade level for Inactive students
EnrollStatus Active or Inactive in school’s database
EntryDate Student entry date to the school
ExitDate Student exit date to the school
ExitCode Exit code
GradCohort Graduation cohort year
CohortStatus Official Graduation Cohort Status – this is a dynamic field and will be updated according to the Cohort Calendar Updates
AttendingSchool This is the school the student is currently attending. Out of district placements will be listed in this field if NPS does not have reporting responsibility in NJ SMART. As per NJ State Accountability policies, schools have academic responsibility for students in these out of district schools, including record of historical grades and graduation. Resident schools are never the Accountable school for students in charter schools.
GradDate The graduation date the school identified in the Graduation Data page in PowerSchool

Accountable School: Resident School Report

This report is a list of students, both active and inactive in the Special Education Out-of-District Placement School with resident code associated with the school. These students are expected to graduate, receive a diploma and transcript from the resident school. This report will also list students that transferred out of the school with transfer code TC -Transferred to Charter School but remain in the school’s cohort because the student was not picked up by a receiving school in the state of New Jersey.

NPS Reports → sqlReports 4 → Graduation Data Management → Accountable School: Resident School Report

Field Description
Student Number Local ID
SID State Student ID (SID)
StudentName Student Name
DOB Date of Birth
EnrollStatus Active or Inactive in school’s database
GradeLevel Current grade level for Active students or last grade level for Inactive students
Classification Special Education Classification
Street Student Street Address
Zip Student Zip Code
HomePhone Home phone on record
GradCohort Graduation cohort year
AttendingSchool This is the school the student is currently attending. Out of district placements will be listed in this field if NPS does not have reporting responsibility in NJ SMART. As per NJ State Accountability policies, schools have academic responsibility for students in these out of district schools, including record of historical grades and graduation. Resident schools are never the Accountable school for students in charter schools.
Current_School School in PowerSchool Database
NJ_School_Residence NPS resident school or last attended school
EntryDate Student entry date to the school
ExitDate Student exit date to the school
ExitCode Exit code
For students with Charter School as Current_School, Transfer-Out Unverified next steps apply. This means that the student did not go to a charter school in New Jersey or the receiving school created a duplicate SID.

Questions about the 2017 Graduation Cohort or updates in PowerSchool
Crisalia Gonzalez
C7gonzalez@nullnps.k12.nj.us
973-733-6999


Four-Year Graduation Cohort Calendar of Updates

School Year 2016-2017
As schools review and update the Official Four-Year Graduation Cohort data in PowerSchool, Student Information Services will update student data accordingly in NJ SMART. The process and time to update records varies upon the type of update the school makes.
The table below reflects the timeframes for schools to make updates, for these updates to be processes, and be updated back in PowerSchool.

The calendar also includes the Updates Audit Date a school can expect a request from the District Office to provide appropriate documentation for the updates to the cohort. This is the same documentation that is required for a graduation appeal and mostly impact updates that remove students from the cohort. At this time, the school will also be asked to provide appropriate evidence if they seek to change a student’s cohort altogether. Change in cohort year will be submitted during the appeals window since they cannot be updated in NJ SMART.

Knowing when cohort data has been updated in PowerSchool will help schools monitor and calculate their expected Accountable and Attending graduation rates.

School Updates to Cohort SIS and NJ SMART Process Cohort Updated in PowerSchool Updates Audit Date
January 15 – January 31 February 1 – February 8 February 8 February 15
February 1 – February 28 March 1 – March 8 March 8 March 15
March 1 – March 31 April 3 – April 7 April 7 April 14
April 1 – April 30 May 1 – May 5 May 5 May 17
May 1 – May 31 June 1 – June 7 June 7 June 14
June 1 – June 30 July 3 – July 7 July 7 August 28
August 1 – August 18 August 21 – August 25 August 25 August 28