Definitions

Academic Years

The years the school is in operation.  Academic years can be defined before the school is in operation. In this case the academic years are used to keep records on classes a student wants to transfer into the school that were taken at other schools prior to enrollment.

Terms

A term is the division of the academic year into periods of schooling. Terms may be semesters or quarters. The term record is a record that indicates the start and end date of each term. Multiple terms are related to academic years. Terms are also related to a Term Label record.

Term Labels

The names of the terms a school is running, like Spring, Fall, etc.  The number of Term Label records indicates the number of terms the school operates.  Term Labels indicate if that term is required or optional, like a summer term.

Student Terms

The school defines its terms with a start and end date, there is one term record for every term the school operates. 

A student term record contains student-specifc information about how the student performed academically in the term, such as the student's grade point avreage for that term. All the classes a student takes (enrollment records) are linked to the student term.  A student has a term record created for each term they are in attendance. 

Grade Level

The student's year in school, first grade, second grade, third grade and so on.

Grade Span

A grade span covers muliple years of school and can be defined by the adminstrator.  A plan can not exceed a grade span.  The purpose of defining grade spans is to help set academic goals and gates. 

Schools

Schools refer to legal defintions in a jurisdiction of various grade levels. In the US this is Elementary School, grades K thorugh 5, Middle School grades 6 through 8, and high school, grades 9 through 12.

Other Schools

Other Schools are the schools that student attend prior to starting at the school.   Other schools will provide transcripts that must in incorporated into the student record. For this reason, each enrollment record on the transcript may be related to an 'other school' to show where the credit was transfered in from.

Class List

This is the list of classes the school offers.  Note: class does not refer to a group of students at a grade level, it refers to a specific subject being taught, like Algebra I or World History.

Curriculum

Curriculum generall refers to the books and excercises used by the teacher to further the studnt's knowledge. In Moodle, the curriculum is a Moodle Course.  Any class may be taught with muliple curriclums, or differetn text books,  so that there are multiple Moodle courses that may be used to teach a Class, as listed in the PEMS.

Subject

Subjects are families of classes. For example, Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II are all in the subject of Math.  Schools can define any subjects they need, and identify any class as belonging to that subject area. Subjects are mainly used to assist the adminstration in checking the student is meeting requiremetns when creating a plan .

Enrollment

Enrollment is the process of signing up for a class. An enrollment record in the PEMS is the class as student takes in a specific term, and stores the student's final grade.  The set of completed enrollments is the information displayed on the student's transcript.

Transcript

A transcript is a report of completed enrollments.  Transcripts are formatted in various ways to use the minimum amount of paper.  A transcritp shows the classes the student has taken at the school, the grades recived and the units earned.

Plans

The plans are sometimed reffered to as "Programs of Study."  Plans are defined by the adminstrator as a series of classes taken across all subjects to meet an educational objective or graduation requirements over a grade span.  Any number of plans may be developed, and a student may be assigned only one plan at a time.  The plan contains the information needed to auto-enroll studnent in their classes (create enrollment records) in each term covered by the plan.

Templates

Templates are records that specify the sequence of classes to be taken in the plan.  The link a class record to a grade level and term label. This information creates a template for the enrollment records for the student.  The enrollment records are create to match the template in the plan.