About Summer School

As summer approaches, it is important that the district’s technical team prepares for their summer school session with Benchmark Universe.

There are a few different ways a district can set up their summer school session.

We recommend creating a separate district term for summer school, although some districts prefer to treat summer school as an extension of the current school year – or as a jump-start to the new school year.

Learn more about the purpose and the benefits of each district term approach here.

If you still have questions, please schedule a meeting with our Technical Success team. They will be happy to walk you through the process at a time that is convenient for you.

Summer School Scenarios

There are a few different ways that a district can set up their summer school session as described below. Choose what works best for your district.

1. Create a Separate Summer School District Term
2. Extend the Existing School Year
3. Jump-Start the Upcoming School Year
4. Do Not Create a New District Term

 

Create a Separate Summer School District Term

Purpose	Address skill gaps from last year and prepare students for the next grade level.
Benefits	This is like a blank slate. You will only share summer school students, teachers, classes.
Rostering Approach	Create new summer school classes and associate teachers and students with the classes. Teachers will see their classes and rosters in Benchmark Universe.
Impacts to Classes/Assignments	Summer school teachers see their summer school classes and are able to create assignments for students. Active teacher and student accounts shared during the previous school year will still have access to their resources in the Benchmark Universe Library, but no assignment or class functionality is available for these users.
Impact to Assessment/Reporting	Only summer school data is available.

 

Extend the Existing School Year

Purpose	Reteach and address current grade-level gaps.
Benefits	No need to create a new district term. Simply extend the current term’s end date to the end of summer school.
Rostering Approach	Create new summer school classes and associate teachers and students with the classes. Teachers will see their classes and rosters in Benchmark Universe.
Impacts to Classes/Assignments	Teachers still see all the existing school year’s students and classes along with their new summer students and classes.
Impact to Assessment/Reporting	Summer school data is available along with existing school year data.

 

Jump-Start the Upcoming School Year

Purpose	Reteach late or current grade-level materials, and additionally teach precursor materials.
Benefits	Get a head start on creating your district term for the upcoming school year (you will not need to create another district term once the upcoming school year kicks off).
Rostering Approach	Create new summer school classes and associate teachers and students with the classes. Teachers will see their classes and rosters in Benchmark Universe.
Impacts to Classes/Assignments	Once updated rosters are loaded, summer school teachers will see their new summer classes and be able to create assignments for students. Summer school classes/assignments will persist through the upcoming school year.
Impact to Assessment/Reporting	Summer school data is available along with your upcoming school year data.

 

Do Not Create a New District Term (Not Recommended)

Purpose	Continued access for active users from the current school year.
Benefits	No need to create summer school classes to roster students and teachers.
Rostering Approach	No need to roster teachers or students.
Impacts to Classes/Assignments	When the current district term ends, classes and assignments from that term are archived and are not viewable.
Impact to Assessment/Reporting	When the current district term ends, eAssessments cannot be assigned or completed. The data from the previous school year will be archived and is only accessible by School and District Admins.