I-CAT Updates and an Apology

Well blog readers, sometimes we make a mistake. When we do, we need to take responsibility for that mistake and apologize. Below is some information about updates we are making to the I-CAT. Most of it I'm sure you will see as good news. But the last item addresses a mistake I made. Please read below for more information. And know that I am sorry I made the mistake. If you have questions, give me a holler. Spread the word. Thanks folks!

Iowa Curriculum Alignment Toolkit (I-CAT)

Upcoming Changes

2/8/11

How will changes to the Iowa Core in Literacy and Math affect the I-CAT?

Revisions to the Iowa Core in Literacy and Mathematics require the I-CAT be updated to include these changes. These changes will affect all five content areas of the Iowa Core: Literacy, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and 21st Century Skills.

Literacy and Mathematics will be completely replaced in the I-CAT with the new content approved by the State Board of Education on November 17th, 2010.

Portions of the new Iowa Core in Literacy also apply to Science, Social Studies, and Mathematics. This means that Science and Social Studies also need to be updated with this new content in the I-CAT.

If I already entered data into the I-CAT this year, will I have to start over?

Literacy & Mathematics. If you have entered data into the I-CAT for Literacy and/or Mathematics while reflecting on the 2010-11 school year, you and your district should consider entering data again once the I-CAT is updated. Your previously entered data will remain in the database if you want to use it for a report, but it can’t/won’t be carried forward to pre-fill a new version. A new version date will be assigned for these two content areas. The version date will be the day they are loaded into the I-CAT.

Science & Social Studies. If you have entered data into the I-CAT for Science or Social Studies while reflecting on the 2010-11 school year, your data will be carried forward into the newer version. That means your existing data will remain in place, and you can just reflect on the additions.

A new version date will be assigned for these two content areas. The version date will be the day they are loaded into the I-CAT. In addition, the old version date will disappear. Please note, the data will not disappear, just the version date label that was used when the data were entered. In other words, don’t be scared when the version date you started with is gone, but there is a more recent date there. This is done by design.

There is a discrepancy between what is in the I-CAT and on the Iowa Core web page for Civic Literacy for 21st Century Skills. Why is this and what are the implications for the I-CAT?

When the Social Studies portion of the Iowa Core was updated in the I-CAT in October, 2010, this included changes made to Civic Literacy. Unfortunately, those changes were not applied to the Civic Literacy portion of 21st Century Skills in the I-CAT. Both sections of Civic Literacy are intended to be identical. This oversight is completely my responsibility and fault (Brad Niebling, Heartland Alignment Specialist).

What this means for users of the I-CAT is that if you entered data for the Civic Literacy portion of 21st Century Skills on or after October 27th, 2010, you were reflecting on an older version of the Iowa Core.

We are currently working on a solution that will allow the data you entered for the other four Disciplines for 21st Century Skills (i.e., Employability Skills, Financial Literacy, Health Literacy, Technology Literacy) to be carried forward. This way, you would only have to enter new data for Civic Literacy in 21st Century Skills. As soon as the I-CAT is capable of doing this, the field will be notified. In the meantime, it is recommended to skip the Civic Literacy portion of 21st Century Skills until the correction to the I-CAT is made.

Again, I am incredibly sorry for this mistake. It is our goal to make the I-CAT and related alignment services both helpful and of minimal invasion to your valuable time and energy. Please know that we will work both quickly and diligently to fix this problem, and to prevent something like this happening again in the future.

When will these updates to the I-CAT be ready for the field to use?

The documents for all five content areas are still being formatted for uploading into the I-CAT. Furthermore, the programming needed to enact the actions listed in the previous questions is under development and testing. The goal is for all changes to be completed and the I-CAT ready for use by the last week of February or first week of March.

Once the I-CAT is ready for use, it will be announced through the following channels:

• Iowa Core State Network Team Communique´
• Twitter (@bniebling)
• Heartland Alignment Services Wiki, under Recent Alignment Announcements here and here.