SCCS 3.0
PROJECT SCOPE AND TIMELINE
PROJECT SCOPE
This project seeks to make management of the School Climate and Connectedness Survey
(SCCS) activation, deployment and monitoring more efficient by automating select processes and
adding enhanced monitoring features to streamline administrative functions. These improvements
are intended to reduce the current level of AASB staff time involved, in part by shifting some
responsibilities to personnel in districts taking the survey.
Examples of shifted district responsibilities include activating a survey, confirming that the number
of students taking a survey matches state enrollment numbers, and ensuring that all students and
staff scheduled to take a survey have completed it within the time period the district has specified.
To accomplish these goals, student level data from the State of Alaska EED would be imported
and housed with SCCS data on its host server. Two types of student data would be collected:
1. Demographic: district/school enrollment, grade levels, gender, ethnicity, etc.
2. Performance: attendance, graduation rates, dropout rates, SBA and HSGQE scores, etc.
The state student data would be made accessible through an administrative “dashboard” graphic
user interface for simplified comparative analysis with SCCS data.
Contractor Mark Jablonowski of Rogue Global Systems will be responsible for constructing
systems and tools to accomplish the following technical processes:
 Periodically export student level demographic and performance data from EED
 Import and house EED data with SCCS data
 Selected comparative analysis of EED and SCCS data via an administrative screen
(specifications to be determined). Allow for future expansion of analysis capabilities.
REVISED SCCS PROCESS
Deployment, monitoring and reporting results from the SCCS survey to multiple districts, each
comprised of many schools, has become a complex and time consuming task involving multiple
AASB staff. Streamlining parts of these processes through automation could help make them
progress more smoothly and involve less staff time. The following description shows how revised
SCCS process steps could work.
1. Signing MOA
District signs memorandum of agreement with AASB to take survey, which includes:
 Date range for survey deployment.
 Identifying district contact person who will be accountable for deploying the survey and
monitoring staff/student participation.
 When MOA is signed, the district contact person is provided with a link to an online form
that must be filled out to activate the survey.
2. Activating Survey
District contact person activates survey by filling out an online form, which includes:
 Fields for district; city/school names; number of sites taking survey; number of staff and
students taking survey at each school; grades levels of students taking the survey; date
range survey will be open; district contact person’s name, phone and email address;
district contact person’s supervisor name, phone and email address; site administrator’s
name, phone and email address at each school taking the survey
 When the numbers of staff and students taking the survey at each school are entered,
the form will display EED enrollment numbers reported by the district at the start of the
school year. The contact person has the option to type updated enrollment numbers in
the boxes that will be saved when the form is submitted. These updated enrollment
numbers will be compared to survey response totals when monitoring participation.
3. Monitoring Participation
Once the district contact person has filled out form and submitted it:
 Survey is activated and will be automatically opened and closed on the dates specified.
 Prior to survey open dates, the district contact person will receive automatically
generated emails at preset time intervals reminding them that the survey will start in 3
weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days, tomorrow, etc. and providing additional instructions.
 Two weeks before survey opens, the district contact person will receive an automatically
generated email with login instructions and links to the staff and student surveys.
 One week before survey opens, the district contact person will receive an automatically
generated email with login instructions, links to the staff and student surveys and a
reminder of dates the survey will be open for that district. This same email will also be
sent three days before the survey is scheduled to be taken.
 During the survey open period, the district contact person and AASB staff will receive
automatically generated email reminders at preset time intervals listing how many
staff/students at each school have taken the survey, versus how many are supposed to
take it (SCCS response numbers compared to enrollment numbers reported to EED).
 During the survey open period, AASB staff will receive an automatically generated status
report listing all districts/schools taking the survey; how many schools are finished taking
the survey; how many schools are still in process; a current snapshot of survey
responses versus enrollment numbers for each participating school. This information can
also be accessed manually at any time via the administrative dashboard screen. Based
on this information AASB staff may choose to contact the district to alert them of low
survey participation rates or other issues shown in the report.
4. Creating and Distributing Reports
Once the survey period has closed:
 Preliminary reports will automatically be generated from survey responses from each
district and emailed to AASB staff for review and distribution to districts.
 AASB staff will manually create csv files from all survey responses to provide to AIR for
inclusion in the final reports they produce that each district.
REVISED SCCS FEATURES
Some features to be incorporated into the current SCCS survey and administrative screens:
 Online survey activation form for districts
 District activated survey open and close dates (with administrative override ability)
 User access to administrative, report generation screens via password protected levels
 Compare numbers of student/staff scheduled to take survey with district-reported state
enrollment numbers
 Add additional questions into existing surveys and reports as requested by districts.
 District summary admin screen that displays info from online activation form, including
survey open/close dates; comparison of enrollment numbers with student/staff scheduled
to take survey; district, survey coordinator and site administrator contact information, etc.
 Automatic email notification generation function tied to calendar and clock
 Ability to add “cleaned” survey results back into the database for sorting and reporting.
 Incorporate Google Maps to show locations of schools participating in SCCS with colorcoded designations for CDL, non-CDL and QS2 projects.
PROJECT TIMELINE (Draft)
 Spring 09: Survey/database, administrative, dashboard and report features outlined,
construction and review process begins..
 Summer 09: Survey/database, administrative, dashboard and report features finalized.
Construction and review process continues, some features completed.
 Fall 09: (SCCS deployed) Survey/database, administrative, dashboard and report
features completed. Import and incorporate EED data when it becomes available October
1st. Construction and review process for reporting functions completed.