This is an accessible alternate version (AAV) of the LC software demonstration. This document provides text translation to the LC software demonstration, which is posted as a flash file. The LC software demonstration (non-AAV) flash file should be the version selected by most users.
LC Software Demonstration:
Presented by Karl Scheff and Shana Yeary
California Department of Education, Sacramento, CA
February 2008
Slide 1:
Welcome to the LC Data Entry Assistant (LCDEA) software demonstration. This demonstration will focus on how to use the LC software to input and submit your district’s LC data.
When installing the software, follow the instructions on the Download LCDEA Software Web page. We recommend that districts install the software to the default directory which is on the local (C) drive in the Program Files folder in a folder titled LC2008. If you are installing the software at the school sites or on a network drive, refer to the instructions on the Internet for further assistance. If you have problems installing the software, you may not have administrative rights and you will need to get assistance from your technology department. Once you have installed the software, an icon will be placed on your desktop. To open the software, double click on this icon. If there is not an icon on your desktop, you can open the software by going to the “Start” menu. The software will be listed as one of the items under “Programs.” We will begin this demonstration by double clicking on the icon on the desktop and opening the software program. Please note that once the software is installed, you will not need to go to the Internet when opening or using the software.
Slide 2:
When the software opens for the first time it will prompt you to select your district. You may either type in the name of your district or scroll through the list of districts. Once you find your district, click on your district’s name to highlight it.
Slide 3:
Next choose to either “Preload languages” or “Don’t preload languages.” If you choose to preload languages from last year, the languages reported last year for each school will appear in Part 1. This option is useful if you have several languages in your schools and the languages are the same each year. You may still add or delete languages later on as needed.
Slide 4:
Once you have selected your district and chosen to either preload languages or not, click on the “Load district data” button. This will create data entry forms for each school in your district.
California School Information Services (CSIS) state reporting districts will have an additional box come up that says, “This is a CSIS production district, do you want to load ONLY the Non-Participating Charter Schools?” and will need to select “Yes” or “No” before proceeding to the next screen.
Slide 5:
A box will appear asking if you would like to view this Internet training, continue with the LCDEA, or check a box indicating not to show this option again. We will select the option to continue with the LCDEA.
Slide 6:
We will now demonstrate how to edit or input data for your schools. To begin entering data, select the “Edit” menu option on the menu bar located on the top of your screen.
Slide 7:
Then select the “Select/Edit School” option from the edit menu.
Slide 8:
A listing of all the schools in your district will appear. Notice that all the schools have errors indicated. This means that no data have been entered for the schools. As you enter data, these error messages will go away. This year we have added the school code “0000001” to the list of schools in the LCDEA software for every district. This code should be used for reporting students who are sent to nonpublic, nonsectarian schools for special education services that the district cannot provide. If you do not send students to NPSs, delete this school from the software. If you send students to NPSs, but none of them are English learners (ELs) and/or fluent-English-proficient (FEP) students, indicate the no EL or FEP students enrolled as of March 1 option under the submission tab in the software.
Find the school you wish to edit in the list of schools by scrolling through the list of schools or you can search for a school by typing the name of the school in the “Search on School” box. Once you have found the school you wish to edit, click on the name of the school in the list of schools to highlight it.
Slide 9:
Then click on the “Edit R30 Form” button to edit the form.
Slide 10:
A screen will appear that has tabs at the top. Each tab corresponds to a section of the LC form. The “Submission” tab allows you to choose if there are ELs and/or FEPs in the school. The default option is that there are ELs and/or FEPs in the school. However, if there are no ELs and/or FEPs in the school as of February 29, 2008, select the first option. For schools with no ELs and/or FEPs, only complete Parts 3 and 4 as applicable. Refer to the LC instructions on pages 6-7 for information on identifying ELs and FEPs. To enter data from Part 1 of the form, click on the “Part 1” tab.
Slide 11:
Part 1 contains counts of all EL and FEP students enrolled in the school reported by grade and language. The columns across the top of the screen correspond to the grade level. The languages are listed on the left. You may have to scroll down to see all the languages. You may also change the order your data are listed on the screen by changing the sort order, which is located at the bottom of the screen. The sort options allow you to sort alphabetically by “language order” or by the order the language was entered.
If you selected to preload languages from last year, you will have a listing of languages and may begin entering your data by selecting the appropriate cells and entering the data. Make sure you select the appropriate language, grade-level, and English proficiency status before entering data. Note that as data are entered, row and column totals are automatically calculated and displayed. If you wish to add additional languages, click on the “Add language” button on the bottom of the screen.
Slide 12:
A list of languages will appear. Select the language you wish to add. To select more than one language at a time, hold down the shift key and click on the first and last language in a range or hold the ctrl key and select multiple individual languages. On this screen you also have a choice of adding the languages to the school you are working on or to all schools in the district. This is done by clicking on one of the radio buttons on the bottom of the screen. The default option is to add languages only to the current school.
Slide 13:
After you have chosen the language you wish to add, click on the select “>” button to move the language to the “Languages to add” window.
Slide 14:
Once you have completed selecting all languages you wish to add to the school, click on the “Add language(s)” button to add the languages to Part 1.
Slide 15:
Enter the data for the language you just added by selecting the appropriate cells. Once you are finished and ready to move to Part 2, click on the “Part 2” tab.
Slide 16:
Enter the data for Part 2 into the appropriate cells. Part 2 collects the number of ELs in structured English immersion and the type of instructional services ELs receive. FEP students are not included in this section. All ELs are to be accounted for in section B of Part 2 and the totals in section B must be equal to the total number of ELs in the school. Notice that the EL total from Part 1 is displayed at the top of this section. If the totals from section B do not match the total ELs from Part 1, you will get an error. Refer to the LC instructions on pages 7-8 for information on how to report ELs in this section. When you are ready to move to Part 3, click on the “Part 3” tab.
Slide 17:
Enter the data for Part 3. Part 3 contains a count of reclassified students. Only include those students who have been reclassified since the last March LC. Students who have been reclassified since the last LC, but no longer attend the school (graduated or moved) should also be included in this count. Refer to the LC instructions for information on reporting reclassified students. When you are ready to move to Part 4, click on the “Part 4” tab.
Slide 18:
Enter the data for Part 4. Part 4 contains a count of the total parental exception waivers from English language classrooms and the count of parental exception waivers from English classrooms that have been granted since last March. A parental exception waiver from English language classrooms is a request from parents to have their EL students placed in a bilingual class (Part 2, line 7) or an alternative course of study. It should not be confused with a parental request (in Part 2), which is a request from parents to have their EL students placed in a mainstream class. Refer to the LC instructions on page 9 for information on reporting parental exception waivers. When you are ready to move to Part 5a, click on the “Part 5a” tab.
Slide 19:
This portion of the form is used to report teachers and aides that provide primary language instruction to ELs. In order to enter data for Part 5a, you will need to select the language of instruction otherwise the screen will appear grayed out. To add a language, click on the “Add lang.” button at the bottom of the screen.
Slide 20:
A list of languages will appear. Find the language you wish to add to Part 5a by scrolling through the list of languages.
Slide 21:
Select the language or languages you wish to add. On this screen you also have a choice of adding the languages to the school you are working on or to all schools in the district. This is done by clicking on one of the radio buttons on the bottom of the screen. The default option is to only add languages to the school.
Slide 22:
After you have chosen the languages you wish to add, click on the select “>” button to move the language to the “Languages to add” window.
Slide 23:
Click on the “Add language(s)” button to add the languages to Part 5a.
Slide 24:
Enter the data for Part 5a in the appropriate cells. Part 5a is a count of staff that provide bilingual services (primary language instruction or support) to ELs. Staff that hold a bilingual authorization are not to be included in your LC data if they do not provide services to ELs in English language development (ELD), language arts, mathematics, science, and/or social studies.
If staff hold a bilingual authorization and only provide ELD and/or Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE), rather than primary language instruction, they are to be reported in Part 5b. If staff provide ELD and/or SDAIE, in addition to primary language instruction, only count them in Part 5a. Refer to the LC instructions for information on reporting bilingual staff. When entering your data, please do not leave languages in this section if there are no data to report for these languages. If you need to delete a language, select the language you wish to delete.
Slide 25:
Once you have selected a language to delete, click on the “Delete lang.” button at the bottom of the screen.
Slide 26:
A window will appear asking if you want to delete the language. Click “Yes” to delete the language.
Slide 27:
Once you are finished entering data into Part 5a and are ready to move to Part 5b, click on the “Part 5b” tab.
Slide 28:
This section of the form is used to report teachers providing ELD and/or SDAIE services to ELs. Enter the data for Part 5b in the appropriate cells.
Staff that hold an EL authorization are not to be included in your LC data if they do not provide services to ELs. Staff that provide primary language instruction, in addition to ELD and/or SDAIE, are only counted in Part 5a. Do not count a teacher in both sections A and B. Refer to the LC instructions for information on reporting ELD and SDAIE staff. Once you are finished entering data into Part 5b and are ready to move to Part 5, click on the “Part 5” tab.
Slide 29:
Part 5 contains a summary of the data entered in Parts 5a and 5b and indicates the total number of teachers who provide services to ELs. Part 5 also includes two very important check boxes. The first box allows you to indicate if you have teachers at this site who hold EL authorizations, but are not providing services to ELs. Since the LC data collection only asks for staff providing instruction to ELs, this check box is a way to indicate that your school has additional staff that are authorized to teach ELs, but are not actually providing EL instruction to ELs.
The second check box allows you to indicate if you have ELs at this site who receive instruction from teachers reported at another site. Count each teacher at one site only. If you have teachers reported at another site who provide instruction to ELs at this site, it is important that you check this box. Checking this box may clear up some of your errors or warnings and lets us know that there are additional teachers providing services to the ELs at this site. Refer to the LC instructions for more information on these check boxes.
When you are finished reviewing the summary data, or checking the appropriate boxes in Part 5, click on the “Exit” button. This will bring you back to the screen containing a list of schools for your district.
Slide 30:
This screen allows you to see which schools have errors or warnings, and which schools you have entered data for. As you enter data an “X” will appear beneath the “Parts with data” column to indicate which sections have been completed for each school. This is helpful in keeping track of your key entry. This screen also allows you to select another school to edit, add or delete schools on your list of schools, or exit and return to the main screen. We will now click on the “Exit” button and exit out of the edit mode and review some of the other features of the software.
Slide 31:
First we will review the report features and look at one of the reports. Click on the “Reports” option on the menu bar to view the available reports.
Slide 32:
- The “R30-LC form” report allows you to view or print a form for each of the schools in your district. If you have entered data for the school, the data will be reflected on this report, otherwise you will get a blank form with the school’s name on the top of the form.
- The “Blank R30-LC form” report allows you to view or print a blank LC form.
- The “R30-LC District Summary” report allows you to view or print a district summary of the LC data for all the schools in your district after you have entered data. This report looks just like an R30-LC form; however, data are aggregate sums from all the schools in the district.
- The “Error report” option allows you to view or print a listing of all the errors and warnings for the schools in your district.
- The “Explanation of Errors” report allows you to view or print a description of all the errors or warnings and why it may be triggered.
- The “District summary by Language” report allows you to view or print a report that shows the number of ELs by language for all the schools in your district.
- The “District summary by Language by Grade” report allows you to view or print a report that shows a summary of Part 1 by language and grade for each school as well as at the district level.
- The "Changes from Last Year" report allows you to view or print a report that shows a comparison of last year's data versus this year's data for parts 1, 3, and 5 for all schools as well as at the district level.
- The "Certification" report allows you to view or print a copy of your submission receipt. This receipt is also available to print at the time of submission.
Now we are going to take a look at the Error report. Select the “Error report” option from the report menu.
Slide 33:
If you want a paper version of the report, click on the “Print” button. We are going to click on the “Preview” button.
Slide 34:
The Error report is displayed. This report shows the specific errors and warnings for each school in the district. Errors must be corrected prior to submitting your data. Review all warnings and make corrections as needed. Close the report by clicking on the “Close Preview” button.
Slide 35.
Click on the “Exit” button to exit out of the “Process Report” screen and return to the main screen.
Slide 36:
We will now explore some of the features in the utilities menu. Select the “Utilities” option on the menu bar.
Slide 37:
- One feature of the utilities menu is to select another district. This feature is used if you are responsible for reporting data for more than one district. The “Select new district” option under the utilities menu allows you to easily work on more than one district at a time without losing any data previously entered.
- Another feature of the utilities menu is the option to “Reindex Files.” Use this when your file is out of order and it appears the program is not functioning correctly. Reindexing files will put everything back in place and allow the program to function more efficiently.
- Another feature of the utilities menu is the option to “Rerun Error Checks.” This option will rerun the edit checks that the software performs and will refresh any errors or warnings that schools may have. This action should be performed after you have entered all your data and before you submit your data. Once you rerun error checks, return to the edit screen to see if there are any errors or warnings for your schools. You may also view the errors or warnings by viewing the error report in the reports menu.
- The last feature of the utilities menu is the option to “Restore from backup.” This feature is used when you have created a backup file of your data and would like to restore your data using that backup file.
Slide 38:
We will now explore the features in the “Help” menu. Select the help option on the menu bar.
Slide 39:
- The “About LC-DEA” option tells you about the software including the version number and date. This is helpful when there has been a software update or patch posted on our Web site and you are unsure if you have the most recent version of the software.
- The “Help” option brings up a help system that offers assistance on reporting LC data. To get to the “help contents” or “help index,” click on “help topics” button. The “help contents” option lists the topics in the help system according to each menu item on the menu bar. The “help index” lists all the topics that are available in the help system. Some topics include, instructions on each section of the form, a glossary of terms, the file structure and instructions on how to import data, and a summary of changes for this year’s LC data collection.
- The “LC Internet Home Page (www)” option links directly to the LC (R30-LC) Instructional Materials Web page where you can find useful coordinator information, such as key dates, forms, and other instructional materials.
- The “LC Internet Software News” option links directly to the LC Software News Web page which includes software instructional materials, descriptions of software problems, and software updates as they become available.
- The “LC Internet Training” option links to this online training.
Note, when you select one of the options to link to our Web site, your Internet browser will automatically open to our Web site. On some computers it may open in the background and appear in the task bar on the bottom of your screen as an open application. In order to open and view the Web page, you will have to click on the application in the task bar or minimize the software application.
Slide 40:
We will now explore the features in the file menu. Select the “file” option on the menu bar.
Slide 41:
The file menu is where you submit your data via the Internet, import or export data, or exit the software system.
- When you are ready to submit your data and all of your warnings have been verified and your errors have been fixed, click on the ”file” menu and select the option to “Submit data via Internet.” Follow the prompts on the screen. Once your data have been submitted successfully, you will get a message telling you that the data were submitted successfully.
- If you have a data file that matches our file structure, you may use the “Import data” option under the file menu to load your data file, rather than having to key enter the data.
- If you would like to create a file that contains all the data that you have entered into the software, use the “Export data” option in the file menu to create the data file. This option is often used in districts that have each school key their data and then send the file to the district coordinator, who then imports each school’s data file into the software. For further instruction on this feature, refer to the instructions on our Web site for using the software at multiple sites or on the network.
When you are finished editing your data and would like to exit the software, select the “Exit” option under the file menu.
Slide 42:
An “Exit/Backup” window will appear when you exit the software. This window gives you the option to either backup your data or exit the software. We highly recommend backing up your data when you are finished entering all of your data. We also recommend that you back up your data to a location other than your local drive, just in case you have a computer failure. At this time we will exit the software and conclude this demonstration.
Thank you for taking the time to complete this demonstration. Since we are asking all districts to submit their data electronically, we hope this demonstration is helpful in showing you the basics of using the software, what features the software has, and how user friendly it is. We also hope to ease some of your concerns about using the software to submit your data.
If you require further assistance with the LC software, please feel free to contact the Educational Demographics Office at 916-327-0219.
