1. Planning Enhancements in ePlan
2016 ESEA Directors Institute
August 25, 2016

2. Renee Palakovic, Director of Planning Linda Stachera, ePlan System Administrator Consolidated Planning & Monitoring

3. Objectives Timeline Needs assessment changes ePlan User tips
What is public? What is private?
The “View Summary” function
The “Action Step Bank”
Finalizing plans
User access reminders

4. Timeline

5. 2016-17 Plan Due Dates September 30, 2016
LEAs submit LEA plans in ePlan
October 31, 2016
LEA plans reviewed and approved by CORE
November 15, 2016
Schools submit school plans in ePlan
All schools must enter a school plan in ePlan
December 15, 2016
School plans reviewed and approved by LEA
All school plans must be approved by the LEA in ePlan

6. Needs Assessment Changes

7. REVISED ORGANIZATION OF GRAD RATE TABLE
Revised Sections Page
REVISED ORGANIZATION OF GRAD RATE TABLE

8. Planning Team: Additional Narrative Question
Identify members of the LEA/School Planning Team
And, describe how parents are engaged and continuously involved in the planning process.

9. New Organization: Academic Data Pages
Academic data tables are organized according to academic subject area.
Both LEA and School Plans have one page each for elementary/middle school subjects and one page for high school subjects.

10. New Organization: Academic Data Pages
Elementary and middle school academic data page includes 3-8 data for:
Reading/Language Arts
Mathematics
Science
High school academic page includes 9-12 data for:
English I, II III
Algebra I, II
Biology I

11. New Organization: Subgroup Data Tables
The data for the racial / ethnic subgroups has been moved below the “All” category.
The data for the subgroups of ED (economically disadvantaged), SWD (students with disabilities), and EL (English learners) has been moved below the racial/ethnic subgroups.

12. New Guiding Questions: All Academic Subjects
Guiding questions for each of the academic subjects:
After analyzing data for all students, provide a summary of the progress and challenges, identify underlying causes for each. Cite specific examples and address racial/ethnic subgroups where relevant. (Include all local data analyzed as part of the comprehensive needs assessment.) 
Discuss the progress and challenges of students who are economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, and English learners. Cite specific examples and include local data analyzed as part of the comprehensive needs assessment.

13. New Section: Human Capital Data
Allows for analysis and summary of teacher data
Teacher experience
Attendance rates
Teacher evaluation, growth & performance
Recruitment & retention
Equitable access to high quality teachers

14. Human Capital Data: Narrative Questions
Two narrative questions required for LEA and school plans:
TVAAS, progress/growth question that was formerly on the academic data page
New question to address equitable access to experienced and qualified teachers

15. Human Capital Data: Narrative Questions
Progress/Growth Data
TVAAS – Analyze the data and provide a summary of progress and challenges, identifying underlying reasons for each. This analysis may include a reflection of TVAAS scores across different subjects and grades, and/or for particular groups of students using diagnostic reports. 
Equitable Access to Experienced and Qualified Teachers
How are you ensuring equitable access to experienced and qualified teachers to address the elimination of the achievement gap separating low-income and minority students from other students?

16. Human Capital Data: LEA Data Tables
The human capital data tables that appear in the LEA plan reflect portions of the data tables that appear in the Human Capital Data Reports.
Human Capital Data Reports are located in the LEA Document Library.
LEA users can open documents in the LEA Document Library in another tab or window in their browser to review the data reports while responding to questions in the LEA plan.

17. Human Capital Reports: LEA Document Library
Human Capital Data Reports in the 2016 LEA Document Library

18. Human Capital Data: LEA Data Tables
Data tables and narrative questions for human capital are in four sections:
Distribution of scores
New hires
Persistently high/low performing teachers
District retention
Reponses to data provided in each section are required in LEA plans.

19. Human Capital Data: Distribution of Scores
The data in these tables can be found in Table 1 of the Human Capital Report, Part A, Section 1: Evaluation.
Data is provided in three tables:
Level of overall effectiveness
Observation average
TVAAS growth score: teachers w/ individual growth

20. Human Capital Data: Distribution of Scores
The column labeled “Teachers with Data” includes all teachers with evaluation data who do not have partial year exemptions (PYE).
Table - Level of Overall Effectiveness
Table - Observation Average
Table - TVAAS Growth Score: Teachers w/ Individual Growth
Teachers with Data
Level 1
(%)
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5

21. Human Capital Data: Distribution of Scores
Guiding questions for distribution of scores:
How do the components of evaluation align across the different levels?
What is the alignment between teacher practice and student growth?
What differences exist at the school level?
How will the district address any discrepancies?
Please include strategies or evaluation flexibility (co-observation, surveys, IPI, etc.) options that the district is currently using.
Are there any discrepancies that could be addressed?

22. Human Capital Data: New Hires
The data in this table are reflected in Table 5 of the Human Capital Report, Part 1, Section 3: Hiring.
Total New Hires (District)

23. Human Capital Data: New Hires
Guiding questions for new hires:
How are new teachers supported in the district?
What strategies are currently in place to generate growth among new hires?
What data does the district use to plan for recruitment?
Describe the district’s plan for recruiting teachers to high-needs subjects? Schools? CTE? Related service teachers? What incentives exists to attract teachers?
What interview and selection tools or processes are in place in this district?
How are school leaders trained to identify and select effective teachers?

24. Human Capital Data: Persistently High/Low Performing Teachers
The data in this table are reflected in Tables 6 and 7 of the Human Capital Report, Part 1, Section 4: Retention.
Includes only those educators with three years of individual growth scores ( , , ) available for analysis.

25. Human Capital Data: Persistently High/Low Performing Teachers
Persistently high-performing teacher = individual growth scores of 4 or 5 for each of the last three years
Persistently low-performing teacher = individual growth scores of 1 or 2 for each of the last three years
Persistently High- and Low-Performing Teachers
High
Low # %

26. Human Capital Data: Persistently High/Low Performing Teachers
Guiding questions for persistently high/low performing teachers:
What retention practices or incentives are in place, specifically for teachers who have demonstrated strong performance over time?
What district strategies are in place to support school administrators who have a high concentration of new or low-performing teachers?

27. Human Capital Data: District Retention
“Percentage Who Moved Districts” reflects teachers rostered in a new district for that school year.
Percentages will not add up to 100 because the table does not include those teachers who left Tennessee public schools in that school year.
District Retention 1 2 3 4 5
Percent Retained
Percent who Moved Districts

28. Human Capital Data: District Retention
Guiding questions for district retention:
Are effective teachers retained at higher rates than less effective teachers? If not, what school or district strategies are in place to improve retention of effective teachers?
What might be the primary reasons teachers exit the district? Are exit interviews required?

29. School Climate and Culture
Student Enrollment (No Change)
Student enrollment by subgroup
Student Attendance (Separate tables for K-8 and High School)
K-8 Student attendance by subgroup
High School student attendance by subgroup
Chronic Absenteeism NEW
Student Discipline/Suspensions
Suspensions by subgroup
Suspensions by grade level NEW
Student Discipline/Expulsions
Expulsions by subgroup
Expulsions by grade level NEW

30. School Climate & Culture: Chronic Absenteeism
To address the important topic of chronic absenteeism, data tables for students who are chronically absent have been added to both LEA and school plans.
LEAs will also be able to view a summary of their schools’ roll-up data in the 2016 LEA Document Library.
LEA users can open documents in the LEA Document Library in another tab or window in their browser to review the data reports while responding to questions in the LEA plan.

31. School Climate & Culture: Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism data in LEA and school plans
10% or more by subgroup
20% or more by subgroup
10% or more by grade level
20% or more by grade level
Chronic absenteeism reports in the LEA Document Library
Schools roll-up of students who are chronically absent for 10% or more of the school year
Schools roll-up of students who are chronically absent for 20% or more of the school year

32. School Climate & Culture: Chronic Absenteeism
Note: All school climate and culture data is reported by (a) number of students and (b) percentage.
10% or More
20% or More # %
Table for subgroups
Table for grade level

33. School Climate & Culture: Guiding Questions
Guiding questions for school climate and culture data:
Review student attendance and chronic absenteeism data. If chronic absenteeism rates exceed 10% (overall or by school, grade level, or subgroup), identify strategies that will be implemented.
Review discipline data. If suspension and/or expulsion rates, either overall or by subgroup, exceed state average by 25% (i.e., out-of-school suspension rates above 7.75% or expulsion rates above .25 %), describe strategies school will adopt in order to reduce lost instructional time and/or disparate impact. Note: statewide suspension rate was 6.2% and the statewide expulsion rate was 0.2%.

34. English Learners: New Page
Available in LEA plans ONLY
Eliminates the need for a separate district level Title III/EL plan
Requires response to six questions:
Indicate the number of schools in the district that have English Learner students. Include schools with students in any of the EL classifications: L, W, T1, and T2. (Indicate zero if no EL students.)
Describe how non-ESL teachers utilize the World-class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) standards. (Indicate N/A if no ESL teachers.)

35. English Learners: New Page
EL questions cont’d
Describe how the district ESL program is monitored and evaluated. Include the timeline for monitoring and evaluation, the frequency of plan updates, the data analyzed and the staff involved. (Districts are required to have an ESL plan, even if there are currently no EL students.)
Briefly describe the progress monitoring that occurs for T1 and T2 students to determine if they are experiencing academic difficulty due to linguistic issues. (Indicate N/A if no T1/T2 students.)
Describe the commonly used interventions utilized by the ESL teacher when providing limited services to T1 and T2 students experiencing academic difficulties due to linguistic difficulties. (Indicate N/A if no T1/T2 students.)
Describe the commonly used strategies and interventions utilized by the classroom teachers to differentiate instruction for T1 and T2 students. (Indicate NA if no T1/T2 students.)

36. Additional Areas
Provide narrative responses to guiding questions related to key instructional areas and initiatives (LEA and school plan).
RTI2
Describe your progress in implementing RTI across all grades. Identify areas of strength and weakness evidenced and discuss the root causes for each. 
Technology Access and Use
Discuss the level of access that students have to technology as part of the instructional program and how well staff integrate technology into the instructional program. Identify areas of strength and weakness and discuss the root causes of each.

37. Additional Areas Professional Development: Parent Involvement:
Describe the prior year professional development activities and how effectively they addressed student needs.
Discuss the areas of weakness that can be effectively addressed through high-quality, on-going, sustained professional development moving forward.
Parent Involvement:
Describe the parent and community involvement activities that have occurred in the prior year and how they have impacted student achievement.
Identify ways in which parent and community involvement activities could be strengthened and more closely aligned with student achievement.

38. Needs Assessment Summary
The needs assessment summary combines two pages from prior year (“Summary of Accomplishments and What’s Working” and “Prioritized List of Needs”) onto one page.
Moved to the end of the needs assessment section as these questions can only be answered AFTER a comprehensive needs assessment has been conducted and all data has been analyzed.

39. Needs Assessment Summary: Accomplishments
After analyzing all available data:
Summarize your accomplishments and what is working for students. To what do you attribute these accomplishments?

40. Needs Assessment Summary: Prioritized List of Needs
List, in priority order, your top 3-5 areas of need as identified through the needs assessment. These should be the areas that you can most reasonably address in the coming year. Prioritizing needs will identify the most critical areas where your work will begin with the creation of goals and strategies.
Note: users must list at least three priority needs, but no more than five.

41. ePlan User Tips

42. Starting the Plan
Select 2017 from the dropdown menu on the main page of the planning tool.
Click “Draft Started” at the top of the Sections page.

43. Copying Information from Prior Year
Once “Draft Started” is confirmed, ePlan will auto-populate prior year goals, strategies, and action steps into the new plan.
When goals, strategies and action steps are copied into the new year, the entire structure is copied along with all of the plan’s parts.
Goals and strategies that are “hidden” in the 2016 plans will move into 2017 as “hidden” as well.
To make hidden goals and strategies viewable, school users must check the box to view hidden goals and strategies when beginning work on the school plans.

44. Copying Information from Prior Year
The needs assessment will not copy forward. Users must enter new responses to needs assessment questions each year.
Using Word and PDF can be useful for copying and pasting text into needs assessment narrative boxes.
For best results, do not open last year’s plan in one browser window and this year’s plan in another browser window. This may cause data to be erased.

45. Prioritized Goals and Strategies
Use the links, arrows, and trash cans provided in the “Prioritized Goals and Strategies” section to add, remove, and reorder goals, strategies, and action steps.
For more detailed instructions for beginners, refer to the planning webinars in TDOE Resources under “District and School Planning Tool.”

46. Deleting Goals and Strategies
When deleting a goal or strategy, the user is also deleting everything that falls under that goal or strategy.
For example, deleting a strategy will delete the action steps under it, along with any descriptions, funding relationships, and component relationships.
Good news! ePlan will alert you before deleting:
ePlan message: The Goal you have selected to delete may have associated items. Deleting this Goal will delete all associated Fiscal Resources, Strategies, Action Steps, Grant Relationships, and Component Relationships. Click "Delete" to continue or "Cancel"
Just be very cautious when deleting.

47. Deleting Goals and Strategies
LEAs cannot delete goals and strategies if one or more schools have extended them as part of school plans
Schools must first delete goal and strategy extensions before the LEA can delete.

48. School Plan Goals and Strategies
Since the goals and strategies for the schools in the “Prioritized Goals and Strategies” section extend from the LEA plan, schools may not submit their plans until the LEA plan is fully approved by the TDOE.
When the LEA adds, deletes, reorders, or changes a goal or strategy in the LEA plan, those changes are immediately duplicated in the school plans within the LEA.

49. Individualizing School Plans
While school users cannot create goals or strategies, there are several ways the school can individualize them for school plans.
For example, while extending goals, school users can enter text to personalize the school’s goal that will fall under the LEA-level goal in the school plan.
The text outlined in red below is what the LEA user entered. The text underlined in blue is what the school user entered while extending the goal.

50. Marking Goals and Strategies as N/A
School users may mark goals and strategies in school plans as “N/A” if they feel they are not pertinent to the school plan.
To open the checkboxes to mark as N/A, check the box for “Mark Goals and Strategies Not Applicable/Show Hidden Goals and Strategies” at the top of the page.

51. Copying Strategies and Action Steps
ePlan allows LEA and school users the option to copy strategies and action steps. (This may be helpful for strategies or action steps that pertain to multiple goals.)
For example, “High quality professional development” below may apply to all goals.

52. Helpful Numbering Conventions
Some users find it helpful to be consistent when using copied strategies and action steps. For example, an LEA or school may have “high quality professional development” as strategy 1.1 for Reading/Language Arts and Strategy 2.1 for Math.

53. ePlan Numbering Convention
ePlan uses a numbering system for goals, strategies, and actions steps similar to outline numbering.
For example, action step refers to goal 2, strategy 1, and action step 3.
For strategy 3.2, the goal is #3 and the strategy is #2. Since it is a strategy, there is no third decimal place (no action step).

54. ePlan Data: Private or Pubic?

55. Public Access
Portions of the LEA Plan and School Plans can be viewed by individuals who do not have an ePlan user access login. This is called “Public Access.”
“Public Access” is indicated in the lower left corner of the ePlan screen. Users who have an ePlan user ID and password may notice this before logging into the system.
Anyone visiting the ePlan website on the Internet will have public access.

56. Private Access
“Private Access” refers to the access level of users who are logged into ePlan. After logging in, users will see their name displayed below the ePlan sign-in menu item.
ePlan users who are signed in will have a broader menu and access to more information in the ePlan system than public users.
ePlan access is limited to users who are added to the system by LEA and school user access administrators.

57. What is Public? What is Private?
Public access users may only view public portions of plans that are fully approved.

58. How Public Users View Plans
To use “Public Access,” access the ePlan website at
From here, go to Search-Organizations

59. Public Access: Search Organizations
Type in the name of a district or school in the “Organization Name” box and click Search.
Users may also use a district or school ID or county to perform a search.

60. Public Access: Planning Tool
Click on the link for the district name to view the homepage of that organization.
Or as a shortcut, click on “PT” to go directly to the planning tool.
Once in the planning tool, the public user will only see plans that are fully approved.

61. View Summary Function

62. The View Summary Link
The “View Summary” link is located at the bottom of the main page of the planning tool.
“View Summary” is a report to visualize components within the LEA and school plans.
Note: You cannot alter anything in the plans by using this report, so feel free to use it as a resource.

63. Use Checkboxes to View the Structure
While the main purpose of the “View Summary” report is to look at funding relationships, it may be useful to visualize the structure of the goals, strategies, and action steps.
This shows that there is only one action step for the strategy for prevention/intervention for the Reading/Language Arts goal in the LEA plan.

64. Using “View Summary”
Here are the goals, strategies, and action steps of the LEA plan.

65. Using “View Summary”
What can we tell from “View Summary”?

66. What You Can Tell From “View Summary”
This school has not created any action steps yet.

67. The Action Step Bank

68. The Action Step Bank
LEA plan users may create a bank of action steps for schools to use in their school plans.
This allows for consistency of action steps among school plans within the LEA.
The “Action Step Bank” can be accessed from the PLANNING menu item off of the main navigational menu in ePlan.
There are two ways to add action steps to the Action Step Bank.

69. The “Create Action Step Bank Item” Link
The LEA user may click the link at the top of the Action Step Bank page.
From here, the user may create a new action step.
Also on this screen the LEA user will see navigational tools to move and delete existing action step items within the bank.

70. Adding New Action Steps to the Bank
LEA users may add new action steps to the Action Step Bank directly from the planning tool.
After clicking on “Create Action Step,” simply complete the text and check the box “Add to Action Step Bank” at the bottom of the “Create Action Step” screen.
Note: Once the action step is added and saved, the option to add the item to the Action Step Bank is no longer available. If you create a new action step, you need to decide right away if you are going to include it in the Action Step Bank.

71. School Users: Selecting Action Step Bank Items
School users may choose action steps from the Action Step Bank by selecting from the dropdown menu in the “Recommended Action Step” box.

72. School Users: Adding Items Not in the Bank
School users who do not choose to use a “Recommended Action Step” may create a new action step by entering text in the open textbox below the “Recommended Action Step” dropdown menu.
School users may not add action steps to the Action Step Bank.

73. Finalizing Plans

74. Submitting the Plan
Users who have completed the plan will click on “Draft Completed” at the top of the Sections page.
After clicking “Draft Completed,” the LEA plan will be approved by (1) the LEA Plan Reviewer and (2) the TDOE.
After clicking “Draft Completed,” the school plan will be approved by (1) the School Plan Reviewer and (2) the LEA School Plan Reviewer.

75. Validation Errors
If the plan will not move into “Draft Completed” status, click on the “Messages” link at the top of the Sections page to view the validation errors.
Anything with a red error message must be corrected before ePlan will allow the plan to move to “Draft Completed”.

76. The Plan Checklist
The plan checklist is a great way for plan approvers to communicate about individual items within the plans.
The plan checklist is located at the bottom of the Sections page in both the LEA and school plans.
TDOE users will use the LEA plan checklist to provide feedback on LEA plans.
LEA plan users will use the school plan checklist to provide feedback on school plans.

77. Using the Plan Checklist
For plans that are returned as “Not Approved,” click on the plan checklist to view items that are marked as “Attention Needed.”
These items will have a comment provided by the reviewer of the plan.
To correct the plan, address only the items that are marked as “Attention Needed” and resubmit the plan.
LEA users may use the checklist for school plans by clicking on the school plan checklist and choosing “OK”, “N/A”, or “Attention Needed” and providing a comment on the items that need attention.

78. School Plan Assurances
The LEA School Plan Reviewer must verify the school plans for all schools on the “Update School Plan Assurances” page.
LEAs may access this page off of the main page of the planning tool.

79. ePlan User Access Reminders

80. LEA and School Plan User Access Roles
LEA Plan
User Access Roles
LEA Plan Data Entry
LEA Plan Reviewer (district-level individual(s) who are responsible for approving the LEA plan)
School Plan
User Access Roles
School Plan Data Entry
School Plan Reviewer (school administrator/ principal)
LEA School Plan Reviewer (district level individual(s) responsible for approving school plans)
To gain access levels in BLUE, send a user access form to the TDOE.
To gain access levels in RED, contact your district’s User Access Administrator.

81. LEA User Access Administrators
The district’s User Access Administrator maintains the ePlan user access for the school users within their district.
To find the name and contact information for your district’s User Access Administrator(s), look in your Address Book under “LEA Role Contacts.” The User Access Administrator is the last role in the list of users (alphabetical).
Instructions (for Users Access Administrators) on how to add school-level users to ePlan are located in TDOE Resources under “District and School Planning Tool.”
To obtain the role of the district User Access Administrator, send a completed and signed user access form to the TDOE.

82. LEA & School Users: Viewing/Editing ePlan
LEA plan users can view and edit
The LEA plan
All school plans within their LEA
School plan users can edit
The school plan for their school
School plan users can view
The approved school plans of other schools within their district

83. Questions

85. Notifications can also be submitted electronically at:
FRAUD, WASTE, or ABUSE
Citizens and agencies are encouraged to report fraud, waste, or abuse in State and Local government.
NOTICE: This agency is a recipient of taxpayer funding. If you observe an agency director or employee engaging in any activity which you consider to be illegal, improper or wasteful, please call the state Comptroller’s toll-free Hotline:
Notifications can also be submitted electronically at: