SchoolFront Support

Modeling Your Graduation Set(s) in SchoolFront

Graduation sets typically reflect the state's requirements for graduation with a specific diploma. Some states have a standard diploma that everyone must minimally earn plus one or more optional advanced or specialized diplomas which students may optionally pursue (e.g. "Honors" or "Technical"). If your school supports a standard diploma type and other advanced or specialized diplomas, they will each be represented by their own graduation set in SchoolFront. 

Example: The State of Virginia Recognizes 3 Different Graduation Sets

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/graduation/index.shtml

Supported Diploma Types

The state of Virginia recognizes 3 diploma types: a Standard Diploma, an Advanced Studies Diploma, and a Modified Standard Diploma. 

• To graduate with a Standard Diploma, a student must earn at least 22 standard units of credit by passing required courses and electives, and earn at least six verified credits by passing end-of-course SOL tests or other assessments approved by the Board of Education. 

• To graduate with an Advanced Studies Diploma, a student must earn at least 24 or 26 standard units of credit, depending on when he or she entered ninth grade, and at least nine verified units of credit. 

• The Modified Standard Diploma is intended for certain students at the secondary level who have a disability and are unlikely to meet the credit requirements for a Standard Diploma. Eligibility and participation in the program are determined by the student's IEP team and the student, when appropriate.

Translating Diplomas to Graduation Sets

Public schools in the State of Virginia under the direction of the Virginia State Board of Education typically allow students to pursue one of these 3 diplomas. In SchoolFront each diploma type would be a graduation set, so you would create 3 graduation sets in the system. Students would then each be associated with and tracked against one of the 3 graduation sets/diploma types. 

Example: Breaking Virginia's Standard Diploma Grad Set into Requirements

Graduation sets in SchoolFront can be broken into very high-level requirements which loosely guide student progress toward a diploma or they can be more stringent, providing a more specifically-defined path for students.

Simple Breakdown Example (High Level, Less Specific)

Here is a high-level breakdown that you could do of the Virginia State Standard Diploma. Each of the rows in the table would be a single "Requirement" in the "Virginia State Standard Diploma" Graduation Set that you setup in SchoolFront:

Complex Breakdown Example (More Specific)

Virginia has the concept of standard credits and verified credits. All course credits can be counted against graduation credit requirements, but verified credits can only be counted if the student passes an exam/assessment at the conclusion of the course. In the graduation set breakdown, you could depict this nuance by modeling the Virginia State Standard Diploma like this instead (note the added complexity):

Courses in SchoolFront are not confined to a single requirement, so you could have single courses in the system that could meet both the "standard" credit requirement and the "verified" requirement, however if a student chose to take 3 full credits of Mathematics course without an approved assessment (e.g. unverified courses), he/she would still need to take 1 credit of verified math to earn the diploma. Typically all verified courses in Virginia will also count toward the student's standard credit requirement, but all courses in the subject area will not necessarily meet the verified requirement.

Remember that these example are specific to theoretical public schools in Virginia and that your State and/or school may have a graduation set (or multiple sets) that differs significantly. These examples are designed to help you analyze and breakdown your graduation set(s). 

When you're ready to begin Grad Set definition, start with Subject Areas.