| Date Added |
|
Question and Answer |
| 09/16/05 |
A |
The school number in the STN Lookup is used by ISTAR for
the students school of service. It is not necessary to send
an STN Lookup to change the school number for students in membership. |
| |
| 08/25/04 |
Q |
How
do we handle a legal name change? |
| |
A |
Please use the legal name change request
form found at: www.doe.in.gov/stn/welcome.html |
| |
| 08/06/04 |
Q |
We
have a student that we gave an STN number to when he
was first here. He was home schooled for a year and then
returned to us with a new last name because he had been
adopted. What steps do we take to correct this? |
| |
A |
Fax the information on letterhead to 317-233-6326.
Attention STN Team. Please include all of the original name
and all of the current name of the student. |
| |
| 02/18/04 |
Q |
STNs
for ISTEP/ISTAR: Many of the students that attend our
facility are funded through DFC or DOE and come from
throughout the state. These students participate in either
ISTEP or ISTAR. Some corporations are not cooperating
in assigning STNs and thus the students are not participating
in statewide assessments. Any thoughts? |
| |
A |
All students are required to have assigned
to them an STN. |
| |
| 10/06/03 |
Q |
We
had a student last year that was assigned a STN #. He
dropped out before the STN numbers were sent to the doe.
I am trying to do the drop out report and when I try
to submit the info the message says, The STN does not
exist in the STN Lookup System and will not let me submit
him. What do I do? |
| |
A |
Please submit the information for the
student in the STN LOOKUP data file again. Check the LOOKUP
first to make sure the student did not have another number
assigned to him/her. Then submit the DR report again. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Student
left/never got an STN/is inactive. I get "STN does
not exist in the STN Lookup System." error. What
do I do? |
| |
A |
Perform a lookup in the STN Application
Center to make sure the student doesn't already have an STN.
If there is one, use that STN. Otherwise, assign an STN to
the student from your school and submit an STN update. Then
enter the expulsion information for that student. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
I
performed an STN lookup, and I found more than one record
for the same student. What should I do?
|
| |
A |
1. First, verify that the numbers are actually
duplicates (either by your own records or by getting in touch
with the corresponding schools). Occasionally, 2 (or more)
students really have the same first name, last name, gender,
and birth date.
2. Once you have verified that the numbers
are duplicates, decide which record to keep. IF THE STUDENT
HAD TAKEN THE ISTEP UNDER ONE OF THE NUMBERS, THAT STN SHOULD
BE THE NUMBER USED FROM NOW ON. If the student had not taken
the ISTEP, choose the STN that corresponds with their other
records – these include Attendance, English Proficiency,
and Pupil Enrollment. If each STN is associated with student
records, choose the STN that was first assigned.
3. Once you decide which STN to keep, send
a fax on School or Corporation letterhead to the Department
of Education at 317-233-6326 stating which STN to delete
and which STN to keep. DO NOT include the student's name
(for security purposes). Include your email address in the
fax so we contact you if we have questions. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
I
performed an STN lookup and found a misspelling in a
student's name. What should I do? |
| |
A |
Correct the mistake in your next STN Lookup
file upload. This is one of the purposes of the monthly STN
updates. As a reminder, names should appear exactly as they
do on the students' birth certificates. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
I
accidentally assigned students to my school that should
not have been assigned. How do I correct the error and
unassign them from my school? |
| |
A |
When this situation occurs, send an email
to ahart@doe.in.gov.
Include in your email the date of the transfer, the login
you used for the transfer, the school the students were transferred
from, and the school the students were transferred to. Please
send an email to this address only if you have incorrectly
assigned students to your school. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
It
is the end of the school year, and we are currently enrolling
students and/or registering kindergartners for the next
school year. When would be a good time to assign them
to my school for the STN Lookup? |
| |
A |
Wait until the students actually show
up in the fall before assigning them to your school. It is
common for students to plan on enrolling but never actually
attend that school. Waiting until the fall to assign them
to your school will help prevent inaccurate information in
our system. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Will
district offices and/or schools access the Test Number
Lookup System or will access be allowed to only one of
the two? |
| |
A |
This question will be answered by the
superintendent of each public school corporation or by the
headmaster of each accredited non-public school. Superintendents
will be asked to provide a list of individuals who are to
be given user names and passwords required to use the system.
It will be important for personnel who actually enroll new
students to have access to the STN lookup system. If new
students are enrolled at the building level, building level
staff will need to have access to the system. No decision
has been made yet about the maximum number of users for each
school or school corporation. Final determination of the
number of authorized users per school must take into consideration
legal and security requirements. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
What
grade levels do we begin pre-K or K |
| |
A |
Student test numbers should be assigned
for all students in a school. If a school contains both kindergarten
and pre-kindergarten students, numbers should be assigned
to both pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Will
the Department, the vendor, or the local school make
the bar code labels? If we aren't responsible for creating
labels, will this be a problem?
|
| |
A |
At the present time, the vendor makes
the labels for ISTEP+. This will remain in effect. You will
recall from prior communications that school corporations
will be required to submit files for ISTEP+ in July, 2005. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
My
student management system allows for two student numbers.
I use "Alternate number" for my state IP. Will
XML be flexible enough to pull my "Alternate student
number?" |
| |
A |
Yes. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
At
the high school level, other than out-of-state move-ins,
will it be necessary to assign ID numbers to Juniors
and Seniors who have completed ISTEP+ testing?
|
| |
A |
STNs should be assigned to all students.
It is possible that STNs may be used in the future by post
secondary institutions. Furthermore, it is likely to be easier
for school officials to assign Student Test Numbers to all
students rather than attempting to exempt specific categories
of students. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Who assigns STNs for Special Education
coops? |
| |
A |
Whichever entity maintains records for
the students enrolled in a school corporation but attending
a special education coop is probably in the best position
to assign and report the numbers. It makes no difference
in terms of the usefulness of the STN; the important requirement
is that the STN not be reported twice. Communication
among school corporations, special education coops and vendors
will be needed to assure that only one number is assigned
and reported. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
After this year’s assignment
of numbers, no other numbers will need to be assigned
except for students entering kindergarten or transferring
in from out of state, true or untrue? |
| |
A |
This statement is almost correct.
It should read “After this year’s assignment of
numbers, no other numbers will need to be assigned except
for students entering kindergarten, transferring in from
out of state, transferring from a home school environment,
or transferring from a non- accredited non-public school. A
check of the Student Test Number Lookup System will indicate
whether the student already has a Test Number or needs to
be assigned one. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Do you change the first few characters
when you get a new student with a previous number and
will the “02” part of the child’s number
change each year? |
| |
A |
No. The importance of this point
cannot be overstated Once assigned, the STNs will stay
the same throughout the student’s Indiana education experience. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Will a number be assigned to students
in accredited nonpublic schools? |
| |
A |
Accredited non-public schools have the
same authority and responsibility to assign STNs as public
schools/corporations. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Will evening high school and adult
education programs that test ISTEP+ use the same numbering
system? |
| |
A |
Yes |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
How are the nonpublic test numbers
different from the public schools? |
| |
A |
The only difference is that nonpublic
schools have a school ID that begins with a letter. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
Has the Department considered taking
responsibility for generation of all student test numbers
as opposed to the districts? |
| |
A |
This alternative has been discussed, considered,
and rejected. We have selected an approach that leaves control
of student records where it should be – at the local
level. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
In regards to digits five and six
of the student number, why not use the year of graduation
at first enroll? This immediately adds an additional
piece of data, whether the student was ever retained. |
| |
A |
The STNs is nothing more than a unique
identifier. It does not have, and should not have, any substantive
meaning. In designing relational data bases, key fields such
as the student test number should have no inherent meaning.
This is a basic premise of data base design. |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
What do we do with a new school
that will not open until August 2004? |
| |
A |
Most of the students enrolling in a new
school in August 2004 will already have been assigned STNs
by the schools they attended during the 2002- 2003 school
year. A new school opening in August 2004 will assign STNs
only to new Indiana students (including previously
home-schooled students, out-of-state students, and students
from non-accredited schools). |
| |
| unavailable |
Q |
If you are a school with an extremely
high mobility rate and students retain their ID numbers
will building level aggregate reports be skewed (i.e.,
how do you identify all the different ID numbers as belonging
to one building)? |
| |
A |
Attendance and enrollment in a particular
building will be reported through Attendance and Enrollment
reports, and are not part of the requirements for assigning
and reporting STNs or to the development of the lookup data
base. This question illustrates why the creation of STNs
is essential to implementation of Public Law 221. Only by
being able to recognize students’ movement from school
to school and from corporation to corporation will it be
possible to establish mobility rates as required by the law. |
| |
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