AScore: Art Visions Scoring System
Visions Screening Process Steps Help Table of Contents

Purpose This describes the steps necessary by teachers and administrators to accomplish an entire year's Art Visions screening process. Data export or import steps are marked with a green, double-headed arrow . See all import/export steps in the graphic at the end of the Overall Description.

Step Job
 
1.
 DBA a. Set up in AScore any new staff (teachers, art coordinator, superintendent) in the teacher file. Add a scanned JPEG signature image of any new teacher or art coordinator to each teacher record, as well as lowercase initials. The steps are:
1. On the main menu, push the clear button to the right of the teacher field. You may also push the all button in the lower right corner to clear all selection fields.
2. Push the green button in the go column to the left of the teacher field. This should take you to the teacher file, with the first record in the file showing.
3. Push the new button. A blank record should appear for the new teacher. Enter the last name of the new teacher. It must be unique and not blank. Resolve conflicts in case of teachers with duplicate last names by using initials: e.g. SmithX and SmithY (for Xenia Smith and Yolanda Smith).
4. Enter the rest of the data. Use the get sig button to import a .JPG file of the new teacher's signature. For more info on this step, see the button descriptions in the teacher file.

b. Create new school records, if necessary, in the school file. The steps are:
1. On the main menu, push the clear button to the right of the school field. You may also push the all button in the lower right corner to clear all selection fields.
2. Push the green button in the go column to the left of the school field. This should take you to the school file, with the first record in the file showing.
3. Push the new button. A blank record should appear for the new school. Enter the new school abbreviation. It must be unique and not blank.
4. Enter the rest of the data.

c. IMPORTANT: Completely set up a new yearly data record with corresponding data before going any further with the Screening Process. The steps are:
1. On the main menu, push the clear button to the right of the year field. You may also push the all button in the lower right corner to clear all selection fields.
2. Push the green button in the go column to the left of the year field. This should take you to the yearly data file, with the last record in the file showing. Presumably, this will be the record for the current school year.
3. Push the new button. A new year will appear at the top of a new blank record.
4. Push the get prev button to bring forward some constant or nearly constant data from the previous year's record. Good idea to do this step.
5. Enter the rest of the data. Pick any new Superintendent's name, Database Administrator or Art Coordinator's name from the pulldowns. Note that those three people are listed in the teacher file. Enter any new school district address, phone numbers etc. Collect and revise the print and response dates for the various letters and reports.
After these steps are performed, go back to the main menu and pick the newly created year from the year pulldown. From this point on, choose a school year from the pulldown for all further student record creation and management.
 
2.
 DBA On the main menu, pick the current school year in the year pulldown. Push the square green button in the go column beside the administrative forms to bring up a menu of available forms to print. Use the buttons to access and print the following forms:
a. Teacher Nomination Lists (gold sheets)
b. Parent Permission to Test forms (yellow sheets)
c. Teacher Nomination Form Letters
d. Nomination Guidelines Form
e. Poster
Staple either a (c) letter or a (d) form to a yellow sheet (b). Make enough of these to accommodate expected nominations. All forms, including (a), go to the Art Coordinator for distribution.
3.
DBA    On the main menu, after you have chosen the current school year, there should be a no students button. If the button says students, click on it and on the bottom right of the Student page, click delete all. If this is not done, some teacher may turn up with extra, phantom students. EXTREME WARNING: Make sure you have chosen the correct year, because you could accidentally delete a former year's worth of archived data (YOURS!).
Import initial student data from SASI into AScore database. This should be done by doing a query in SASI to a file in Excel spreadsheet format. This file should be reviewed for validity and content, then imported into AScore as follows:
1. On the AScore main menu, choose only the current school year and then the import button.
2. On the next menu, pick button 2, initial student data.
3. In the ensuing file dialog, navigate to and import the Excel file containing the data.
The input file must be created with Excel. While the name of the file is arbitrary, the name of the Excel worksheet (the name on the worksheet tab) within the file must be initial-ascore.xls. It would be a good idea if that were the name of the file, as well.

The Excel spreadsheet must have column headers named and ordered as follows:
school abbreviation AES, AMES, BES, FES, LOES, PGES, RES, WHES, WVES
student last  
student first  
race W [white], B [black], O [other]
gender F [female], M [male]
lunch F [free], R [reduced], N [no]
grade level 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
homeroom teacher last name  
art teacher last name  
address  
city  
state  
zip  
 
4.
 DBA Verify and confirm all data entries. On the AScore main menu, choose only the current school year (the one you are creating and editing data for). Go to reports and print:
a. The Teacher Checklist (Beige Sheet)
b. Specific Audition score sheet (Blue sheet)
c. Labels (prints 1 for each student for file folder.)
d. Envelopes, one per child
All print jobs with individual sheets for each child will sort by school, teacher, grade, name.
5.
DBA    Verify that all teachers can be reached by email. All data transfer will be handled via email, including return of test scores.

Go to the AScore main menu, choose only the current school year, and then the distribute button. Choose all distribution info [button 1] from the menu. This will transfer the data you collected to it in four files named student-total-dist.fp7, year-total-dist.fp7, teacher-total-dist.fp7 and school-total-dist.fp7 into your Export folder. There is a shortcut to this folder via Start>Programs>Visions>Export>AScore Export. Attach these four files to an email addressed to each teacher.
 
6.
Art Coord. On the main menu, select the current year. Verify that the drawing objects are correct, select different ones, or edit new ones. Print and pass out testing instructions, gold sheets for faculty nominations and nomination forms for parents. Put up Visions posters.
7.
Art Teachers    Bring up AScore on your computer. On the main menu, choose the current year in the Year pulldown. If the current year is not in the list, then follow steps 1c, 1 - 3 to create a new year for your records. If there are any new teachers or administrators, you will also have to have corresponding signature files, which you can get along with installation instructions from the DBA. When you finish with that step, go back to the main menu and choose the current year from the list. If you do not pick the current year, you will import data into the previous year or some other, thus trashing your database. Note that creating a yearly data record will actually put the newly created year into the pulldown list on the main menu.

On the main menu, after you have chosen only the current (!!) current school year, click no students. If the label says students, and you are starting a new year afresh, then go to the Students page. On the bottom right of the Students page, click delete all. If this is not done, you will turn up with extra, phantom students in your class. If you are not at the beginning of the year and you have accumulated actual student data, do not perform the delete all step.
When you receive your email from the DBA containing attachments named student-total-dist.fp7, year-total-dist.fp7, teacher-total-dist.fp7 and school-total-dist.fp7, save each attachment to the AScore Export folder. You can open the AScore Export folder by accessing Start>Programs>Visions>Export>AScore Export. Note that if there are files by that name already in the folder, you will be asked to replace them when you save. Agree to do so.

On the AScore main menu choose the correct school year and then the import button. On the next menu that will appear, choose the button labeled all distributed data [button 1]. Back on the main menu, select one at a time the specific teachers from the pulldown whose signatures were selected during the AScore installation in the Signatures package, and edit each one using the large square green button to the left of the field. On the teacher record, perform Get Sig, and import the corresponding signature. In an effort to minimize the running size of the database, the initial distribution does not contain the teacher signatures, therefore this step is required before letters can be printed. If a new teacher is added to the faculty, then the new signature must be added to the Signatures folder before above step can be performed. See the help document on editing teacher records for detailed instructions for doing this.
 
8.
Art Teachers Go back to the main menu. From the pulldown menus choose the current school year and your school, then go to Students, where there will now be student records sorted by school and grade. If you don't pick your school, you will have to plow through all students from all schools. If you pick your school, you will see only the students in that school. In this step, you cannot pick yourself, because you may not be assigned to the correct students yet, as the case may be if you are not the only art teacher at the school. Verify the art teacher of each student record. If it is incorrect, use the teacher pulldown menu to select yourself and press enter. A green get prev button has been provided to make teacher entry easier. After each next, use the button to copy the art teacher, if necessary, from the previous record. There is also a this to all button, which copies the current art teacher to all student records in the found set (everyone in the selected school). Avoid this button unless its use is necessary.
  9. Art Teachers Enter Nomination info from the Yellow Sheets into each student record by checking the x-boxes next the appropriate nomination item. If you have other schools, go back to main menu and repeat this operation (Step 8) for each of your schools. NOTE: from this point on, teachers must always pick themselves before editing student data. Picking school will narrow your found set to your school's students.
 
10.
Art Teachers With yourself and your school selected from the pulldown menus (from step 8), go to Reports, Worksheets, Letters. Choose the first one under Letters, specific screening letter. When it appears, go up to the little flip chart on the left. You can see how many AScore found to print, and navigate through them to see whose they are by clicking on the chart to go forward or back. Print the letters, write in the date and time for the test, and give them to students several days before their tests.
 
11.
Art Teachers Sort your Teacher Checklists (beige colored sheet) by school, teacher, and student last name. From the main menu, choose the current school year, your school, and yourself. Click button 4, Students, to access the student records pages. Students will appear in alphabetical order by last name. In field 2, enter the teacher checklist score from the bottom of the beige colored sheet. Use the yellow navigation buttons just above this area to move from one student record to the next.

Sort the blue score sheets from the Specific screening by school, teacher, student last name. Go to the Scores menu and press button 1, Specific audition. A new window will appear. Use the yellow navigational buttons on the right to move to the rest of the students. Type in scores from all three judges for lines 1-9 from the blue score sheet. You do not have to type in the decimal unless there is a fractional portion to enter. Do not average the scores. AScore will do all of the calculations. For each 5th grader who is already in the program as a current Visions student and who is testing for Middle School Visions, you must check the current elem visions flag near the top left of the window. This will prevent those students who passed the test from getting specific Yes letters, since they are required only to pass the specific test to enter the Middle School Visions program. They will get only final Yes letters, in this case. If they do not pass the specific test, however, they will get No letters. It is the art teacher's sole responsibility to set this flag. The DBA will not hunt you down and ask you who these students are.
12.
Art Teachers This step will export specific screening scores to the DBA. In the AScore menu, pick the current school year, teacher and school. If there are two teachers in the same school, each teacher's students must be exported separately. If a you maintain two schools on the same PC, you must export each school separately. Go to export, and export Specific Screening Scores. The procedure will place a file called student-spec-scores.fp7 into the AScore Export folder, which is a shortcut icon via Start>Programs>Visions>Export>AScore Export. Open your email client (GroupWise) and address an email to the DBA, whose name you can find in the Yearly Data. Browse to and attach the file you just created. It will be used by the DBA in step 14 below. Only certain fields will be chosen for export from the database (examples shown in second column):
school abbreviation FES
art teacher last name Cheser
last name Duck
first name Daffy
grade level 4
specific audition scores [9 fields x 3 reviewers = 27 values]
teacher checklist score 18
administrative nomination Y
parent nomination Y
student nomination N (or space)
self nomination N (or space)
current elem visions student Y
 
13.
Art Teachers Send the email to the DBA. Make sure that it is properly identified, for example: SUBJECT: VScore Specific Scores from Ivan Awfulich.
14.
DBA   Get email from the art teachers. For each attachment:
1. Save into the AScore export folder.
2. In the AScore menu, pick the current school year, no school and no teacher and then the import button.
3. Push the button labeled teacher screening scores [button 4]. This will transfer this teacher's specific screening scores and nomination info into the database.
 
15.
DBA Print Specific Score Reports for determining the cutoff score. This is done via the specific score report button [8]. The art coordinator and teachers will use this report in the next step.
 
16.
 Art Teachers Meet to manually determine the cutoff score and decide if any students should be allowed to override the cutoff. Make sure that you pick a cutoff score that is between two student scores. The student score above (but not equal to) the cutoff score will pass. Those below (but not equal to) will not pass. Also at this meeting, determine where each external testing committee will be on each planned testing day, and intercommunicate this information.
 
17.
 All From the AScore main menu with the current school year chosen, click the go button to the left of the year field, and enter the specific cutoff scores into the Yearly Data record. Go back to the menu and go to Students to indicate cutoff overrides (communicated by the art coordinator) on individual student records. Note that the override flag does not get exported during any operation to the DBA. The reason is that the art teacher, the art coordinator and the DBA should consult together before setting the flag. Only the DBA can officially set the testing override flags.
 
18.
 DBA Print specific score school reports [button 9] for each art teacher listing students to go on to final screening. (This report puts a page break after each school.) This is information that will be needed to schedule testing times. Each teacher can also do this step by selecting herself and her school, and running the report for her own students.
 
19.
 Art Teachers Use the worksheet "Interview Schedule" from the Administrative Forms [button 7] to work out your testing schedule. Go to the student page and press the green "View Testing" button below the yellow specific screening score. You will see only those students who will be tested in the final phase. On the right side of each student page, you will see fields to enter the date and time that each student will be tested. Note the green "Get Prev" button in that area which will copy a testing date from a previous student record (assuming you have entered one). This saves time during data entry. To see the next student, press the yellow "Next" button in that area. Keep entering dates and times until you run out of students. These dates and times will print automatically on 4 forms: (a) the Specific Yes Letter, (b) the Homeroom Teacher Letter, (c) the Final Screening Letter, and (d) the Final Screening Schedule.
20. Art Teachers This step will export final testing times to the DBA. In the AScore menu, pick the current school year, teacher and school. Go to export, and export Final Screening Scores. The procedure will place a file called student-final-scores.fp7 into the AScore Export folder, which is a shortcut to the folder via Start>Programs>Visions>Export>AScore Export. Create an email to the DBA and attach student-final-scores.fp7 to it. Fields to be exported will be similar to step 12 above, but will contain the final screening data, instead of the specific screening data. Also note that this step is identical to Step 28, below, except that no final testing scores will exist yet to transmit, only testing dates and times.
  21a. DBA Go to the Reports page and select items 10, 15, 16. Print and distribute each of the reports as follows:
10 Final Screening Schedule: print to include in the judges' packets.
15 Specific Yes Letter: print for mailing. Interview date and time will print on each letter.
16 Specific No Letter: print for mailing.
  21b. Art Teachers Go to the Reports page and select item 17 for printing. Print and distribute the report as follows:
17 Homeroom Teacher Letter: with your school and yourself selected, print; give a copy of the appropriate grade level to each teacher who has students being tested.
 
22.
 DBA Print one Green sheet and one White sheet per student for the Final Screening. These will be placed in each packet for each Final Testing day. Note that there is are different White sheets for grades 2-5 and 6-7 which must be printed separately.
 
23.
 DBA Use the Setup item in the Go menu (Cntrl-7) to perform a print setup for #10 envelopes, landscape. Print envelopes for final mailing [button 23]. Note that if you push the green button to the far right on that line, you will not print a return address on the envelope.
 
24.
 DBA and Art Coord. Prepare packets for Judges. Include the Final Screening Schedule printed in 21a.
 
25.
  Art Teachers As in step 8, with yourself and your school selected, go to Reports, Worksheets, and Letters. Select the fifth letter, (button 17) Homeroom Teacher Letter. You can view all grade levels by clicking on the little notebook in the upper left corner of your screen. Print one copy. Students to be in the final screening will be printed by grade level. All grade levels will print. Fill in interview date, times and place, and Xerox enough copies of each grade level to distribute to your principal and all homeroom teachers of students being tested.
 
26.
 Judges Fill in Score Sheets (green) with Audition Scores (white) and Interview Scores. You may use half-points. DO NOT AVERAGE the scores: AScore will do that. Give the score sheets to the art teacher or the school secretary to give the art teacher before you leave the school.
 
27.
 Art Teachers Sort the green and white final screening sheets by school, teacher, grade and student. On the AScore Main Menu, choose the school year and yourself and press Scores. Choose Final Audition Scores and Enter the Audition scores from the green final audition sheet. You do not have to enter the decimal unless there is a fractional part to enter. Use the yellow navigational buttons on the right to move to the rest of the students.

From the upper left corner of this view, press Scores again. From the Scores menu, select button 3 for grades 2 - 5, and button 4 for grades 6 - 7. From the white interview score sheets, enter the scores. The average for each of the scores will appear. Also, click the circle indicating whether the student brought new artwork for the audition. The calculations from these data will appear on the student record in the final screening area. Use the yellow navigation buttons to move from student to student to enter all scores.
28.
 Art Teachers This step will export final testing scores to the DBA. In the AScore menu, pick the current school year and teacher, but no school. Go to export, and export Final Screening Scores. The procedure will place a file called student-final-scores.fp7 into the AScore Export folder, which is a shortcut to the folder via Start>Programs>Visions>Export>AScore Export. Create an email to the DBA and attach student-final-scores.fp7 to it. Fields to be exported will be similar to step 12 above, but will contain the final screening data, instead of the specific screening data.
 
29.
 Art Teachers Send the email with exported scores to the DBA. Please make sure your full name and subject are in the email. Use an identifying subject, such as ART: Final Test Scores from Auguste Renoir.
30.
 DBA In the AScore menu, pick the current school year, no school and no teacher and then the import button. Get email from returned from an art teacher and save the attached file named student-final-scores.fp7 from step 28 into the Export folder. Push the button labeled final screening scores from teachers [button 5]. This will transfer this teacher's final screening scores and artwork info to the database. Do this step for each teacher score disk, replacing the file as you go along.
 
31.
 DBA Go to Reports (again with only the school year chosen) and print the composite score report for the teachers to determine cutoff point and Visions program overrides.
 
32.
 Art Teachers Meet to determine cutoff score and any overrides. Remember to coordinate the overrides with the art coordinator, and to communicate them to the DBA.
 
33.
 DBA Enter composite cutoff score on the yearly data reference page and program entry overrides for appropriate students.
 
34.
 DBA Review the Final Letter date in current Yearly Data. Print Final Yes and No Letters, as well as Final Screening Envelopes, if they have not already been printed in Step 23.
 
35.
 DBA Print Final Report (on gray paper) [button 13]. Print Composite Score School Report [button 12] for teachers. Note that the composite score report has only scores for those students who were eligible to take the final test. Print Final Individual Student Data Sheets for folders (Gray Sheets).
36.
 DBA Perform step 5 again.
37.
 Art Teachers Perform step 7 again.
 
38.
 Art Teachers File all student sheets in folders.
 
39.
 DBA Archive this year's file set according to the recommendations on the archive help page.