Problem: Both parents and teachers have expressed a desire for a better notification system regarding “missing” assignments.
Solution: We’ve been working on a scenario where parents/guardians would be sent missing assignment notifications via email on a given day of the week. Instead of just receiving a notice of missing assignments, parents would prefer to see an actual list of the missing assignments, viewable directly in the email. We are putting final touches on the notification system and hope to begin testing within the next week.
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Q1. How would this new feature work? What would teachers mark in the gradebook that would trigger this?
Each week, the system (Infinite Campus) will query all grade books (6th grade thru 12th grade) and identify all assignments that have been marked “M” for missing by the teachers. A district standardized email is then sent to each guardian that has a student with 1 or more missing assignments. If your child does not have any missing assignments – then no notification will be sent.
Q2. What about assignments that are past the due date and have not been graded?
Those assignments will not be included in the notification, only the assignments that were manually marked as missing by the classroom teacher.
Q3. When will the notifications start? and how often will they be sent?
We’re hoping to finish up the programming on this feature this week and will roll the feature out as soon as it’s ready. We will start by sending the notifications out once a week – every Thursday evening.
Q4. Why Thursday night? Why not Friday?
Parents were requesting the information prior to the weekend, so that students have a chance to return to school to get the missing work. Parents were concerned that sending out the notifications during the weekened was nice – but would be frustrating because they couldn’t get back into the building during the weekend to collect materials that might be needed.
Q5. Will the message be unique to each school?
No. Since the message is sent from Infinite Campus, it must be standardized and apply to all students in all schools.
Q6. What will the notification look like? Could we see a sample?
To: < Parent email address>
Subject:Missing assignment reminder for <last name>, <first name> — A Message From: WDMCS Messages
Campus Messenger from the West Des Moines Community Schools
Parent/Guardian of <student first name> <student last name>:
Your student <student first name> has the following missing assignment(s).
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Course Number |
Course Name | Teacher | Assignment Title | Due Date | Teacher Comments |
| MTH304 | Algebra II – Trig B | Bakker | Quiz 8.1-8.3 | 02/13/2012 |
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Please sign into your school’s parent portal at https://campus.wdm.k12.ia.us/campus/portal/westdesmoines.jsp to find more information.
Thank you for your support!
West Des Moines Community School District Missing Assignment Policy: Assignments marked as “M” are currently missing and have not been turned in to the teacher. Students are allowed to finish and submit all assignments designated as missing. Submitted missing assignments cannot receive a zero, however, they may not receive full credit as this is determined by the classroom teacher.
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Please do not respond via the email client Reply button. Your response to the Campus Notification will not be delivered to the person who originated this message
Q7. Why does the policy state that “zeros” are not allowed?
If we are going to notify students and parents about missing assignments – and if they go through the work of getting the assignments turned in, then a zero is not appropriate. However, as to what portion of credit can be earned, that is at the discretion of the classroom teacher.
West Des Moines Community Schools Technology 