DnA: Prepare for the Coming School Year – DnA & ISE

With the close of the current school year and the start of a new one comes preparation for the coming year. Here are some suggestions for things that may need to be done in DnA.

New Users or Users Changing Sites

Part of the DnA: Rollover to the Next Academic Year lesson includes rolling over non-teacher users such as Principals, System Admin, District Admin, etc., so that the users' permissions and affiliations copy from one year to the next. Teacher users, or those with a roster coming from your Student Information System, will automatically be created.

Any new administrators, non-teacher users, and/or new users to your site/district will need accounts set up in DnA.
Any administrator who changes sites will need their affiliations updated.
Teachers are added and edited through the nightly upload process, so there is no need to add/edit their profiles.

For more information, visit the Create a User and Edit a User Profile lessons.

Permissions

Permissions may need to be adjusted for the coming year based on preferences and implementation needs.

The use of modules such as Gradebook or Report Cards in DnA require additional permissions for both administrators and teachers.
Keep in mind: Although some permissions can be set to Yes, you may need additional support from your Customer Success Manager (CSM) or Support Staff to fully implement those changes.

For more information, see the guide Add or Edit Permissions.

Local Assessments

After some time in DnA working on local assessments, it is helpful to review how assessments are tagged or associated with information that helps with searching, how they are shared, and if they need to be duplicated for the upcoming year. In the Testadmin account, or users who manage local assessments, prepare the assessments for the upcoming year.

Review and Update a Single Item Bank Assessment

Some local assessments may not change in structure, design, alignment, or information, and can be administered each year, as is.

Assessment Year is a tag that assists users in searching for an assessment. By default, when creating an assessment, it is associated with the academic year it was created (i.e., 2024-25).
If the assessment will not change in design (standard alignment, structure of the assessment, etc.), you can set the Assessment Year for Item Bank assessments to Repeats Yearly.
Publisher assessments, chapter tests, and quizzes are good examples where the assessment can be administered and used yearly, as is.
All student response data will be available for all years, based on visibility.

If the assessment changes questions or performance bands, you do not want to use the Repeats Yearly option. Instead, duplicate the assessment, associate it with the new academic year, and update the structure or design. Remember to share the assessment as appropriate.

Review and Update Multiple Assessments

How assessments are tagged can be very helpful when sharing assessments to users. Editing, Sharing, Unsharing, and Deleting can be done quickly for multiple assessments within the Assessment List. For users utilizing Key Data Systems assessments, it is very helpful and highly advised to tag and associate the assessments as described below.

Edit and Update Multiple Assessments

In Assessments > View Assessments, use the checkboxes to select all assessments you want to mass update. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Select Edit in the dropdown, then select Submit.
Choose the appropriate information, such as Description, Academic Year, Subject, Scope, and Grade Levels, that applies to all assessments selected.
Select Submit to confirm changes.
Test by selecting the tags in the assessment list, and see if the relevant assessments display.

Deleting Multiple Assessments

Assessments can only be deleted by the assessment author.
When deleted, all assessments and student response data will be removed permanently from DnA.
When deleted, any users who had access to both the assessment and student response data will no longer have access.

For more information on editing, sharing, unsharing, or deleting assessments, please visit the Assessments help manual.

For Gradebook and Report Card Users Only

When using DnA Gradebooks and Report Cards, Grading Periods and Report Cards need to be reviewed for the upcoming year. System Admin users, or those with permission, will need to have completed the Rollover to the Next Academic Year before moving forward with these next steps.