Alabama State Department of Education

Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) Approver GuideToday’s Improvement, Tomorrow’s Success

Prepared By:

Table of ContentsGeneral Overview........................................................................................................................................3

ALSDE CIP Explained....................................................................................................................................3

Requirements..............................................................................................................................................................................3

Purpose....................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Obtaining a User Account to the CIP...........................................................................................................4

Requesting an Account................................................................................................................................................................4

Logging Into the CIP Website......................................................................................................................................................6

Exploring the Home Page............................................................................................................................7

Exploring the School Plans Detail Page........................................................................................................8

Exploring the Plan Page...............................................................................................................................9

Approving Your First Plan..........................................................................................................................10

Getting a Workflow Status Change Email.............................................................................................................................10

Examining the Plan...............................................................................................................................................................10

Approving / Not Approving the Plan...........................................................................................................12

Confirm the Move................................................................................................................................................................13

User Roles Summary..................................................................................................................................14

Workflow Steps Summary.........................................................................................................................15

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General OverviewThis guide was created to provide a general understanding of the ALSDE CIP web site. In it you will find some information on requesting a user account to the website, steps to approve or not approve a completed plan, descriptions of the workflow states a plan can be in, a list of the roles users can have and other general miscellaneous information.

ALSDE CIP ExplainedAlabama’s Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP) should be used by all schools in improvement and Title I schools not in improvement to facilitate the planning process. Three templates are available based on the specific school scenario: Title I Schoolwide, Title I Targeted Assistance, or Non-Title. The final plan must be approved by the local education agency’s (LEA’s) board members and signed by the superintendent, federal programs coordinator, principal, and committee members. A CIP is effective for a two-year period and should be reviewed and revised monthly.

RequirementsThe CIP should be developed by a school team that is representative of the challenges being addressed with support from the LEA. Team members that must be present include the principal, guidance counselor, district school improvement specialist (or other designee), appropriate content-area teachers, parent representatives, and student representatives (as appropriate). Depending on the data, additional members may include special population representatives (Technology Coordinator, Special Education, ELL, etc.), district federal programs coordinator, district chief school financial officer, community stakeholders, or any other member as appropriate.

PurposeThe CIP is a document that is designed to guide the school improvement effort of the school. It should be reviewed regularly and revised as needed in response to the school’s progress on the identified goals and strategies. Once the plan is Board-approved and signed, it is not necessary to obtain additional Board approval when revisions are made to the plan.

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Obtaining a User Account to the CIPThis section explains how to request a username and password to access the CIP website.

Requesting an AccountIf you do not have an account and need to obtain one, you can submit a request to your School District’s Administrator via the CIP website.

You can reach this page by clicking on either the, Contact District Admin menu option or the Request a Login link

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Obtaining a User Account to the CIP (cont.)Complete the form, selecting the District in which you belong to. With this form, you can let your district administrator know that you want an account for the CIP system. Please be specific as to what your role is with the district or at a school within the district.

Once the email is submitted, the district administrator has had time to review it and it was approved, you will receive an email giving you your username and temporary password.

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An example email sent once you have had your account created:

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Obtaining a User Account to the CIP (cont.)

Logging Into the CIP WebsiteOnce you receive the temporary password, you can now log into the website. Log in through the Login Menu section on the left hand side of the plan.

After logging in, you should be redirected to change your password.

After changing your password you are now an established user with the CIP system.

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Exploring the Home PageOnce you are logged in and on the home page, the following are available.

1. Select a School – Displays the current schools you are affiliated with. These are the schools’ plans you can interact with in your given role. Clicking on a school here will take you to the CIP plans for this school.

2. Search Schools – Search for a school and see its plans. If you are not affiliated with the school, you will only see their public plans, if they have any.

3. Search Plans – Search for plans by type, status and when they were last updated. Once again, if you are not affiliated with the school plan you select, you will not be allowed to view it until it is public.

4. Contact District Admin – Send a message to selected district administrators.5. Account Menu – Update your profile information, change your password, sign out and view

your current session time remaining.

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Exploring the School Plans Detail PageOnce you have selected a school, the following page is available.

1. School Details – Displays the school name, AYP status, service type and the date the data was last updated from eGap.

2. Plan Message – Gives you a brief message regarding the plans that can be worked on for this school. For more information see Open Plan Dates.

3. Plans Table– Displays the schools plans, their current workflow step and when they were last updated. If a plan has not been started, the last updated date will be the current date. Clicking on these links will take you to the plan for this school.

4. Plans – Once a school is viewed, this menu option will always bring you back to this screen.5. Address Book – Once a school is viewed, this menu option will display all of the associated users

with this school’s entire CIP process from data entry to final Superintendent approval.

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Exploring the Plan PageOnce you select a plan to view, the following page will appear.

1. The Workflow – Displays the plan type, school, a link to the comments/change log, current workflow status, any instructional text for the workflow status, ability to change workflow status and link to print the plan.

2. Section Headers – Displays the sections of the plan. The current section is larger than the rest. Sections could have green check marks (they are complete) or a padlock (someone else is working on that section) next to them.

3. Plan Section – the section of the plan currently being viewed / edited.

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Approving Your First PlanAs a Principal of a school, or as a Federal Programs Coordinator or Superintendent of a school district, you are responsible for approving a completed plan that was developed within your area of responsibility. For the most part, your role is not a time consuming one, but still very important.

Getting a Workflow Status Change EmailOnce a plan has been completed and is ready for your approval. You will get an email letting you know of the workflow state it has moved into and that your role is associated with this new workflow state.

An example workflow change email received by a Superintendent

Examining the PlanNow that you have been notified, you can go into the website and view the plan in question and you will be presented with your lists of schools in which you have a role. Find the school you got an email for in the list and click on it.

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Approving Your First Plan (cont.)You are now able to select the individual plan that is waiting for your approval.

Review the answers in the plan by browsing through the sections.

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Approving Your First Plan (cont.)Approving / Not Approving the PlanAfter you have looked at the plan and made your decision on whether you are happy with the plan as is, click on either the Approved or Not Approved links that are available in the Workflow Status section.

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Approving Your First Plan (cont.)

Confirm the MoveYou are now asked to confirm that you want to change the plan status. If you are not approving, it may be helpful to leave some comments for those who edit the plan why you are rejecting it if something in particular caught your eye. Any comments entered will be displayed in the email they receive as well as visible in the workflow history.

If you do not approve the plan, it will go back to the data entry users who will work on it and complete it again. Once they do, it will go through the entire approval process, starting with the Principal and ending with the Superintendent, so you will have the chance to review any changes made.

Once all approvers in the workflow have approved the plan it will become public and anyone on the website, logged in or not, will be able to view it if they search for it. - 16 - CIP Approver Guide

User Roles Summary

School Data EntryThese are individuals who can enter their schools data into the CIP system. They can mark the plan as Draft Started, Draft Completed and Revision Started.

PrincipalThese users can mark their assigned school’s plan as Principal Approved or Principal Not Approved.

Federal Programs CoordinatorThese are users who can mark the schools in their assigned district as Federal Programs Coordinator Approved or Federal Programs Coordinator Not Approved.

SuperintendentThese users can mark the schools in their assigned district as Superintendent Approved (making it a public plan) or Superintendent Not Approved.

District AdministratorThese are users who can create users and assign them roles at the district level or at the school level within the administrator’s assigned district.

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Workflow Steps SummaryNot StartedThe specific plan has not been started. The only role who can move the plan into Draft Started is a School Data Entry user.

Draft StartedA draft of the plan is in progress. Once all sections are complete, it can be moved to Draft Completed by a Data Entry user.

Draft CompletedA draft of the plan is complete. The principal of the school is notified that they can now approve or not approve the plan.

Principal Not ApprovedPrincipal did not approve the plan and it now goes back to a Data Entry stage, where the plan is edited as needed and marked complete for principal approval.

Principal ApprovedPrincipal has approved the plan. The Federal Programs Coordinator for the district is now notified that the school’s principal has approved it and they can now either approve or not approve it.

Federal Programs Coordinator Not ApprovedThe Federal Programs Coordinator has not approved the plan and it now goes back to a Data Entry stage where the plan is edited as needed and marked complete for principal approval to start the approval process over.

Federal Programs Coordinator ApprovedThe Federal Programs Coordinator has approved the plan. The Superintendent for the district is now notified that they can now either approve or not approve it.

Superintendent Not ApprovedThe Superintendent has not approved the plan and it now goes back to a Data Entry stage where the plan is edited as needed and marked complete for principal approval to start the approval process over.

Superintendent ApprovedThe Superintendent has approved the plan. The plan is now considered public and is available for any person (logged in or not) to view on the website. The form will remain public until a Data Entry user moves the plan to Revision Started.

Revision StartedA revision has been started on the plan. Once the revision is complete it can be moved to Draft Completed to start a new approval process beginning, again, with the Principal. The only role that can move to Revision Started is School Data Entry. - 18 - CIP Approver Guide