Clicking on the Process Students button in the Misc Options & Student Loading/Processing tab will generate the list of students and whether or not they qualify for the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma award.
Once the Process Students button is selected a processing symbol appears indicating that the program is creating the list of students.
The Process Students function will evaluate the students' transcript (HIS), and SBAC ELA, SBAC Math and CAST (TST) test results to determine which students meet the GSSMD requirements based on the selections made in the prior 5 subject tabs. The system will also use the Graduation Status (HSG) table to determine if they are on track to graduate.
When the Loading symbol goes away the Review Students screen will be populated with the results. Students included in the Review Students screen are:
- currently active students in the the selected grade level(s) (an option to include inactive students is available on the Misc Options & Student Loading/Processing tab to include students that graduate before the end of the school year)
- that are on track for graduation based on the Graduation Status (HSG) table
- that have met one or more of the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma requirements
To view the students click on the Review Students tab to bring up the screen.
A header line with the six Golden State Seal Merit Diploma requirement areas displays at the top of the Review Students screen. The criteria (transcript information or test score) used to determine a student's satisfaction of the GSSMD requirement displays under each column.
If the student satisfies a GSSMD requirement through course work (transcript), then HIS will display followed by the course number and the number of qualifying marks used to determine eligibility. In the above screenshot Allan Abbott has HIS 0703 2/2 under the U.S. History column. This indicates that he successfully completed the U.S. History requirement by receiving a B or higher mark in both terms (2/2) of course 0703 - AP US History.
NOTE: Any students that passed with a qualifying course score of 1/1 should be reviewed to confirm that the course or subject area fulfilled a full year of study.
If the student satisfies the Eng/Lang Arts or Mathematics GSSMD requirements through SBAC tests, then SBAC will display followed by the test part and qualifying score. In the above screenshot Allan Abbott has SBAC ELA 3 under the Eng/Lang Arts column. This indicates that he successfully completed the Eng/Lang Arts requirement by completing a SBAC ELA test with a performance level of 3.
If the student satisfies the Science GSSMD requirement through the CAST test, then CAST SCI will display followed by the qualifying score. In the above screenshot Jessica Abney has CAST SCI 4 under the Science column. This indicates that she successfully completed the Science requirement by completing a CAST test in either grade 10 or 11 with a performance level of 4.
Students that satisfy all six GSSMD requirements and are on track for graduation will get a check mark in the Qualifies? column.
The information on the Review Students screen is stored in a couple of tables. The Temporary Student Information (TSI) table contains the students' permanent ID, school, and qualifying values for each GSSMD requirement. The Report Tags (RTG) table contains the students' student number, school, and qualification status for each GSSMD requirement. With this feature users can log out of Aeries and when they log in again and go to the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma screen they will see the results as of the last time that they processed or saved changes to the screen.
Clicking on any of the columns in the header will sort the records on the screen in order of the selected header, with the students' last and first name as a secondary sort.
Users can change any student from a not qualified status to a qualified status by selecting the Qualifies? box. They may do this in cases where the system does not have all of the information necessary to determine if the student qualified for the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, for example, if the student demonstrated mastery in a subject area through a district-determined test.
Options at the bottom of the tab allow you to choose to display only the qualifying students, or both non-qualifying and qualifying students.
If any changes are entered on the screen the Save Changes button will turn red as a reminder that the changes need to be saved prior to leaving the screen otherwise the changes will be lost. Clicking on the Print button will also first save any changes prior to creating the report.
NOTE: Hand-entered changes on the Review Students screen will be lost if the user re-processes the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma. Re-processing the students refreshes all of the records in the Report Tags and Temporary Student Information tables for that report. Hand-entered changes may need to be re-entered if they are based off of information that the system does not have, for example, if the student demonstrated mastery in a foreign language through a district-determined language test. A copy of the report should be generated or a query of the Report Tag (RTG) table should be run so that those changed can quickly be re-entered.
A report can also be generated for the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma by clicking on the Print button.
This report will list all of the students in the same sort order as selected on the Review Students screen. At the top of the report the school year will be printed along with the grade calculation method. The Report Grouping options, Print passing students on bold, and Print signature line options selected in the Misc Options & Student Loading/Processing tab will all be honored when the report is generated. To the right of the student’s name is the status of each of the eligibility criteria for that student and whether or not they qualify for the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma award.
When the option to Print signature line is selected an extra page will be printed at the end of the student results with a Principal Signature line and a Date line.
A legend will also print at the end of the report for all test parts and subject areas selected for each Qualifying Examination and will print in order of the column headings.
Update
At the end of the year the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma form can be used to add Activities and Awards (ACT) records for the students that received the award.
A Golden State Seal Merit Diploma code will need to exist in the Activities and Awards (ACT) table. If it is not already in the dropdown it can be added in the Update Code Table screen. Select the ACT table and CD field. Add a code and description for the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma. For more information on how to update the Code (COD) table see the Code Table Management article.
Only students that have a Completion Date (STU.DG), Completion Code (STU.HSG), and qualify to receive the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma will receive ACT records. Prior to running the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma form at the end of the school year make sure that all 12th grade student have been updated with their completion date and code.
Select the Award Code that will be used to populate the ACT record. Click on the Update button to create the ACT records.
The creation of the ACT records must be done at the end of the school year after 12th grade students have been updated with Completion Status (i.e., Graduation) Dates (STU.DG) and Completion Codes (STU.HSG).
After the ACT records have been added the user will receive an email indicating how many ACT records were updated.
NOTE: The Completion Code (STU.HSG) must be non-blank and not equal to 480 (Promoted – matriculated) in order to create an ACT record for the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma.
The ACT records can be viewed in Student Data | Other | Activities and Awards.
Query
As the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma processes, the Report Tags (RTG) table is updated with a record for each student. The Not Qualified students will have a Report Tag (RTG.QT) value of "NQ" and the Qualified students will have a Report Tag (RTG.QT) value of "QF".
Queries can be run to further evaluate these students or to KEEP the students for other processing (printing letters or certificates).
This query can be used to list the Not Qualified Students with their Status, School, Student ID, Name, Grade, Completion Status and Completion Date along with their Golden State Seal Merit Diploma report tag value:
LIST STU RTG STU.TG STU.SC STU.SN STU.ID STU.LN STU.FN STU.GR STU.HSG STU.DG RTG.RNM RTG.QT IF RTG.RNM = "GoldenStateSealMeritDiploma" AND RTG.QT = "NQ"
This query can be used to list the Qualified Students with their Status, School, Student ID, Name, Grade, Completion Status and Completion Date along with their Golden State Seal Merit Diploma report tag value:
LIST STU RTG STU.TG STU.SC STU.SN STU.ID STU.LN STU.FN STU.GR STU.HSG STU.DG RTG.RNM RTG.QT IF RTG.RNM = "GoldenStateSealMeritDiploma" AND RTG.QT = "QF"
Please review this article for more information on querying Report Tags
CALPADS
Please refer to the following Help Page for more information on how to report Golden State Seal Merit Diploma recipients to CALPADS please review this article: CALPADS Extracts - Other Options