FLORIDA BOARD OF EDUCATION
�
JIM HORNE
TO:
District Superintendents
SECRETARY
FROM:
Jim Horne
F. PHILIP HANDY
Secretary of Education
CHAIRMAN
LINDA J. EADS, Ed. D.
DATE:
November 15, 2002
T. WILLARD FAIR
€
CHARLES PATRICK GARCÍA
RE:
FACTS High School Academic Evaluations/
€
Section 1009.531 (4), F.S., Implementation Alternative
JULIA L. JOHNSON
WILLIAM L. PROCTOR, Ph.D.
CAROLYN KING ROBERTS
CHARLIE CRIST
COMMISSIONER
FLORIDA DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION
I am pleased to announce that beginning in January 2003, all high
school students and their parents will be able to receive a personalized
High School Academic Evaluation on how the student stands in
relation to Bright Futures eligibility requirements and the State
University System course admissions requirements. In addition, the
evaluations are intended to help the Districts meet the requirements of
Section 1009.531(4), F.S., passed this last legislative session. The
evaluations will be accessible through the Internet on
FACTS.org
,
Florida’s official statewide student advising system.
FACTS.org
was originally developed to provide traditional and
distance learning postsecondary students with access to their
transcripts, degree audits, and transfer information through a statewide
on-line student advising center. With the emphasis on K-20 education
services,
FACTS.org
has been expanded beyond its original mission
to include services to K-12 students and their parents. Information
about postsecondary opportunities has also been expanded to include
independent colleges and universities as well as public institutions,
truly making FACTS.org a K-20 one-stop web center.
The
High School Academic Evaluation
function is currently being
tested. When put into production, it will allow high school students to
create a LOGIN ID and PASSWORD, and using transcripts provided
by their high school, receive an evaluation of their progress towards
meeting the Bright Futures Scholarship program eligibility
requirements and the State University System course requirements for
admission. The
High School Academic Evaluation
will be ready for
students to use beginning
January 2003
.
FACTS.org High School Academic Evaluations
€
November 15, 2002
€
Page Two
€
In addition to providing K-12 students and their parents with web access to different evaluations,
€
this
function also meets most of the requirements called for in
Section 1009.531(4), F.S. The
€
only requirement not covered by the evaluation is the requirement that students’ report cards
€
include a disclosure
that the grade point average calculated for the purposes of the Florida
€
Bright Futures Scholarship Program may differ from the grade point average on the report card.
€
Currently, school districts are required to electronically submit transcripts for high school seniors
who have applied for the Bright Futures Scholarship and for all students in the top twenty
percent of their graduating class as part of the Talented 20 program to the Department of
Education.
Using this same procedure, we are requesting that you please submit transcripts
for all your students --Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors – via the FASTER
electronic transcript system. We are requesting the transcripts be sent no later than
December 16, 2002,
so information from your District will be available when the system is
unveiled to the students and their parents in January.
The transcript submissions will occur
three times during the academic year; after Fall and Spring schedules are finalized and at
the end of the school year after final grades have been posted. For the December 16
th
transmission, we would like you to send the final Fall transcripts with the courses in
progress listed.
Attached to this memorandum are instructions and timelines for the submission
of student transcripts.
We have found that students, parents and high school counselors throughout the State are
enthusiastic about the wealth of information provided on
FACTS.org,
and are eagerly awaiting
the High School Academic Evaluations. As education moves into the electronic age, students
expect to receive services comparable to the types of services they already receive from private
commerce via the web. FACTS.org is intended to meet students’ expectations as well as
improve access to educational services. It has been built with students and parents in mind and
we are confident that FACTS.org will become a valuable tool in your District as you look for
ways to serve students better and more efficiently.
If you require additional information, please contact Connie Graunke at (850) 201-7363 or email
her at connie.graunke@fldoe.org.
We look forward to continuing to serve you and the students of the State of Florida.
JH/cgh
Attachment
c:
?
High School Principals
District MIS Directors
District Guidance Supervisors
District Bright Futures Representatives
Instructions for Submitting Transcripts in Support of the
FACTS HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIC EVALUATION TOOL
The Bright Futures Scholarship System was chosen as the repository for the data that will
support the FACTS High School Academic Evaluation Tool because it already has the
capability to store transcripts for both high school seniors and underclassmen. Last year,
in fact, school districts submitted transcripts for about 60,000 juniors, 40,000
sophomores, and 20,000 freshmen to Bright Futures.
In submitting data for the new
FACTS High School Academic Evaluation tool, school districts will follow the same
procedures from last year with which you are already familiar.
1.0 This Year’s Bright Futures Processing
This year, conduct your Bright Futures processing in the same way as last year. All
FASTER transmissions will still be sent to ‘district’ 95 (Addressed Institution
0000095
)
on the FASTER Header Record). You will still submit seniors’ transcripts to Early
Evaluation processing in the middle of the students’ senior year, and to Summer
Evaluation after these students have graduated. As with last year, transcripts must be
submitted to the Practice System until the student completes their Florida Financial Aid
Application with the State Student Financial Aid Database. None of these procedures
change.
2.0 Additional Transmissions In Support of FACTS
You are being asked to conduct an additional transmission of senior transcripts, and
several transmissions of the transcripts of your underclassmen. The goal of the FACTS
High School Academic Evaluation Tool is to provide students with real-time evaluations
of their progress towards scholarship qualification and university system course
admission requirements. To achieve this goal, FACTS must have access to your
students’ latest transcript information. Thus, you are asked to submit transcripts for your
students:
1.
?
At the beginning of the school year as soon as student schedules are finalized
in conjunction with the Schedule II Survey
(so the transcripts will include the
new classes on the students’ schedules as courses-in-progress),
2.
?
At the beginning of the second semester, once semester 1 grades have been
posted and semester 2 schedules are finalized
in conjunction with the Bright
Futures Early Qualification Submission (submit semester 2 courses as courses-in-
progress), and
3.
?
At the end of the school year once semester 2 grades have been posted in
conjunction with the Graduation Evaluation sent for Bright Futures
(if
scheduling information for the next school year is available at this time, you may
send them as courses-in-progress).
For schools operating under the trimester or quarter systems, send transcripts at the
beginning of the school year and at the end of each term.
For your seniors, transmissions 2 and 3 above are the normal transmissions you would
send at the end of their seventh (Early Evaluation) and eighth semesters (Graduation
Evaluation). The above transmissions are supplemental to your ordinary Bright Futures
submissions of transcripts for your seniors, so
you would not need to send one
transmission for Bright Futures purposes and a separate transmission for FACTS:
a single transmission will satisfy both needs.
Submit your transcripts according to the existing FASTER addressing scheme for Bright
Futures Transcripts. The
Addressed District
field on the FASTER Header Record will
continue to be ‘district’
0000095
. The values for
Addressed School
will be as follows:
Freshmen:
0670
€
Sophomores:
0570
€
Juniors:
0470
€
Seniors:
0370
(only for beginning-of-year submission)
€
Send your transcripts in exactly the same way you would submit any other Bright Futures
transcript. The Bright Futures System will respond to these transcript submissions in the
normal way. Every time you make a new submission, the system will evaluate the new
or updated transcripts and put out Cumulative and Most Recent Evaluation Reports for
you to download under the existing dataset naming convention:
Cumulative Reports:
OBF.IE.P30047.Yyyyy.S7.Ann
Most Recent Evaluations:
OBF.IE.P30048.Yyyyy.S7.Ann
Where ‘nn’ is your district number, and ‘yyyy’ is 2006 for freshmen, 2005 for
sophomores, 2004 for juniors, and 2003 for seniors. Your guidance counselors will be
able to use the Bright Futures web system to review these transcript submissions as they
have in past years.
Again, the transmissions you will make in support of the FACTS High School Academic
Evaluation Tool are supplemental to the Bright Futures transmissions you would
normally make. If you are already submitting transcripts of freshmen, sophomores, and
juniors to Bright Futures, you will not have to do anything you have not already done
before, except make a transmission in Fall.
This Year’s FACTS Transmission Schedule
Since the beginning of the 2002-2003 school year has already come and gone, you will
not be able to make the Fall FACTS transmission at the time you would normally make
it. Instead, you are asked to make this transmission (transcripts of all high school
students, freshmen through seniors) as soon as you can, but no later than
December 16,
2002
. This will enable the FACTS High School Academic Evaluation Tool to come on-
line, fully loaded, in January of 2003.
Semester schools will make their second transmission at the beginning of the second
semester (once semester 1 grades have been posted and semester 2 course schedules are
final). Their third transmission will come at the end of the second semester once grades
have been posted. If the students’ provisional fall schedules are available at this time,
send these fall courses as courses-in-progress.
Trimester schools will make their second transmission at the beginning of the third
trimester (once trimester 2 grades have been posted and trimester 3 course schedules are
final). Their third transmission will come at the end of the year, as with semester
schools.
Quarter schools will make their second transmission at the beginning of quarter 3 (once
quarter 2 grades have been posted and quarter 3 course schedules are final). Similarly,
their third transmission will come at the beginning of quarter 4, followed by a fourth
transmission at the end of the school year (as with semester and trimester schools).
If you have any technical questions concerning FACTS transmissions to Bright Futures,
please contact Pete Tanzy at (850)487-8658, SUNCOM/277-8658,
Pete.Tanzy@fldoe.org.
