Sharing Student Information from Data Director Using the Microsoft Office Mail Merge Feature

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Sharing Student Information fromData DirectorUsing the Microsoft Office Mail Merge Feature

St. Clair County RESA Data Director Institute

August 19, 2010Cynthia Compton, District Learning Coach, Marysville Schools

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Student Data

• Data Director stores many types of student data pulled from multiple places.– You can create a report for a class, a

school, or a district.– You can pull a complete individual profile

for a student.• Data Director has the built-in

capability to compile this type of information easily.

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Sharing Student Data

• Why not use the data and technological capabilities provided to make individual student reporting easier?–Use the data to automatically fill

out required forms, letters, and reports.

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Student Data In Data Director

• Address & Phone Number

• School & Teacher• Class Schedule• Attendance• Participation in

Federal/State Programs

• Demographics

• Grades• MEAP scores• MME/ACT scores• District Assessments• Classroom

Assessments• Anything else you

would like to input…

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Possible Uses for Mail Merging Data

• Enrollment Forms• Parent Letters• Address Labels• Program Invitation Letters• Individual Monitoring Forms• Individual Score Reporting• Student Evaluation Forms• Custom Reporting Forms

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Examples

• Title I Parent Labels• After School Program Invitations• Summer School Material Requests• FLEP Student Forms• K-2nd Grade Literacy Profiles• PLAN/EXPLORE/ACT Parent Reports

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Getting Started…

• What information do you want to share?• Who will be receiving the information?• What will your Microsoft output will be?

– Letter– Labels– Form

• What Data Director Information will you need?

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Let’s Try It…

• We will go through the steps of the process together.* Slides 9- 21 of this presentation

have step by step instructions for you to refer back to later.

• First, let’s look at our information in Data Directorwww.achievedata.com/sccresa

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1. Build a Custom Data Director Report

For detailed instructions on how to build a custom report go to the “Tools for Schools” section of the St.

Clair County website and choose “Data Director”.http://www.sccresa.org/toolsforschools/datadirector/

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1a. Save the Report

Choose to save the report as an Excel file.

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1b. Save the Report

Choose the location to which you want to save the report.

Renamethe file

something easy to identify.

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2. Create Your Microsoft Word Document

•Open Microsoft Word.•You can choose to

•create the document first •begin with the merge wizard•or, use a previously save document

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Go to the "Mailings" tab in

the toolbar.Click on “Start Mail

Merge”.Go down to the “Step by Step Mail Merge

Wizard”.

3. Start the Mail Merge Process

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Choose the type of document you will

use then click "Next: Starting document" at the bottom right

of the page.

At this point you can choose to:

• Use the current document

-or-• Open another

document

Choose the document then click

“Next: Select recipients”.

3a. Choose the Document

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You will use the Excel file saved from Data Director, so you want to “Use an existing list” and click “Browse…”

• This will open up a "Select Data Source" box.

• Find your previously saved Excel document.

• Then "Open".

3b. Select Recipients

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3b. Select Recipients

*If you want to delete any students or sort the list, you

can do it here.

Click “OK” for both pop-up

boxes.

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*The type of document you

are creating will show here…i.e. “labels” instead

of “letter”

3c. Select Recipients

·Then click "Next: Write your letter" at the bottom right of

the page.

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A. In the Word document, click the place you want to insert data.

B. Then click "More items..." from the right Mail Merge menu. This will give you a box with a list of data fields.

4a-b. Insert Data Into the Document

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C. Choose the fields you want to put in the spot where you placed the

cursor.

D. Click "Insert".

*You will repeat steps 4 A - D for each piece of data

you want to insert into the document.

4c-d. Insert Data Into the Document

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Once you have inserted all of the data fields that you need, click "Next: Preview

your letters" from the bottom right of the page.

You will be able to preview the letters.

As you change the recipient, the information (student

name and scores) will change.

5. Preview Your Merged Documents

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From the bottom right of the page, click on "Next: Complete the merge".

You are ready to print your merged documents.

*You can even add notes to individual students by clicking "Edit individual letters...".

6. Merge & Print

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Time to Apply…

• Think of one, simple thing you could apply this to for this year.–Student information cards for

grouping or substitutes.–Parent letters–Student Labels

• Follow the same steps to practice.

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For More Information…

Cindy Compton• District Learning Coach, Marysville Schools• ccompton@marysvilleschools.us• (810) 455-6212

You can find this presentation at:• www.protopage.com/ccompton

– “Data Director” tab

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294683 (letters)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294684 (labels)

Resources for using the MS Mail Merge Feature: