Here is a list of terms that are used in the AS21/OSTT systems.
| Term | Description |
| Activities | Activities are the broad programs you offer to serve your community or the higher level category that broadly describes the type of sessions that will fall under the Activity. Each activity has at least one session. Often, the Activity title is related to the APR category to which it relates. For example, if the Session is related to Grade 3 Math, the Activity may be called "STEM" and the session cold be called "Grade 3 Math." |
| APR | The APR or Annual Performance Report is the set of data submitted to the US Department of Education via the 21APR federal database to show what took place in your program during a reporting year. When creating Activities, Users will be prompted to select the APR Category that each Activity is related to; this is how this APR information is tracked in the system and eventually communicated up to the Federal Government on two times a year, for summer and school year programming. |
| Custom Field | Custom fields can be created to capture data that is in addition to the many system default fields but is required for tracking at the state or grant level. Custom fields can be created for Participant (registration) information, Activities, Staff, and Organizations. Types of Custom Fields include textboxes, pick list/down-down menus, multi-select menus, checkboxes, and radio boxes. |
| Data Collection Period | These periods define the date ranges into which program data will be segmented. These include the Reporting Year and Reporting Term. |
| Default Participation Time | When recording participation, the system automatically stores a start and end time for each participant. The default participation time will depend on a toggle setting set in the session set up screen or the group participation screen. Typically, unless recording participation in real-time at an event, each participant's default start and end time will be the start and time for the session that participation is being recorded for. For example, if Chess Club is set up to have a start time of 4 pm and end time of 5 pm, the default start and end time for each participant will be 4 pm and 5 pm. These times can be changed as needed. for real time attendance taking the default time can be set to the time the participation is actually recorded (current time). For unscheduled activity sessions, the default time is 12 am to 11:59 pm; this time must be changed to reflect the actual participation time. |
| Enrolled | This is an optional function that allows participants to be enrolled when creating or editing a Session. Enrolling students into a Session creates a pre-determined list of Participants that will automatically appear on the Participation entry screen for that session, allowing the User to save time and reduce the manual selection of Participants during the participation recording process. This is a helpful option to use if you have a consistent group of Participants attending this Session regularly. |
| Funder | Funders are names of organizations, grants or other sources of funding that support your program. Funders can be associated with activities so data about the funders investment in your program can be shared, such as how many people were impacted by the activities the Funder supported. Funders are defined in the Organizations section of the system for each Institution/District/Grantee that they support. |
| Grantee | This is the organization that is manages one more program sites. The grantee organization is typically awarded a significant grant (e.g., 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC), LEAPS, BOOST, or ASES), that makes operating these program sites financially possible. The grantee organization is responsible for managing grant-level information, overseeing its program sites, maintaining users and settings, and submitting required program and performance data. These may also be referred to as "Districts" within the Pathwise system. |
| One-Time Event | An Activity that only occurs one-time; one date is selected on the session calendar. |
| Organization | This is general term for any entity that provides services to individuals, such as a State, School District, Community-Based Organization, or Site. Organizations can be renamed to fit what the program calls them (grantees instead of districts for example). AfterSchool21 uses the organizational structure to organize participant and attendance data, control access to data, allow administrators to monitor sites, support reporting and more. |
| Participant | People in the system are called participants because, through the efforts of program staff, they “participate” in the activities offered. These are typically your student population, but may also include adult participants if you track adult participation in Family Engagement activities, for example. |
| Participant Group | Participant Group is a reusable roster of participants organized according to any grouping that helps your program - for example, by grade level, cohort, gender, or a named team such as “Blue Group.” These groups can then be used to expedite the attendance taking process by allowing the User to define and filter by the expected list of participants. |
| Participant ID | A unique identifier assigned to a each participant within the system. This may be the same as the District Student ID, for example, or it can be randomly generated. This is the identifier Pathwise users to track the Participant throughout the system. When it is a Student ID, it is often used to connect academic outcome data to a student. |
| Participation | Within the Pathwise system, attendance is referred to as "Participation." Participation can be entered via the Participation section, an individual's Participation tab, from the Activity Calendar view, or it can be Imported via the "Tools" section. |
| Partner | Partners are organizations that work with your out-of-school time program. They may provide free goods, services, or staffing or work with you through a contracted relationship. Recording such partnerships can show your program's wider impact and connections in the community, which may assist in ongoing fund development efforts. |
| Recurring Event | A Recurring event happens more than once but does not have to follow a certain pattern (e.g., every Monday). Users will select the Start and End dates for the range of dates when the recurring event will happen and then which specific dates the event will occur in that range. |
| Registered | A participant is Registered when they have at least one registration record for the current Reporting Term/Registration Period - i.e., they've been added to the system and enrolled for that period. |
| Registration | The record created when a participant is added to a Registration Period. A Registration can be created four ways: manually on the Participants screen (as a new individual or carried forward from a prior term), in bulk via an Import, or through a submitted online Registration Form. |
| Registration Form | Within Pathwise, a registration form is a customizable online form used to collect participant information for program registration, intake, or similar processes. Submitted forms can be reviewed and, when approved, place the participant on the appropriate Participant list or Session for the selected Registration Period. |
| Registration Period | There are 2 reporting periods (summer and school year) associated with each APR reporting year. The Reporting Year BEGINS with the summer reporting period, then continues through the school year reporting period. |
| Reporting Term | A Reporting Term is a defined date range within a Reporting Year used to organize and report program data. |
| Roster | A Roster is a list of Participants. These can be Session Rosters Or Participant Group Rosters. They can be used for recording participation. |
| Scheduled Activity | Scheduled Activities have specific dates and times. Enrichment activities like chess club or robotics are examples of scheduled activities; they are activities that staff are planning on offering at a certain date, time, and place, and plan to record who attends. Those participants expected to attend can be enrolled ahead of time for a scheduled activity, or a scheduled activity can be a drop-in type activity with no pre-event enrollment. |
| School | Schools are locations where students attend during the day. They are set up in the system as a child element of an LEA (local education agency/school district) and are associated with students and teachers. |
| Security Role | The selected role defines the user's access level to one or more Organizations. Permissions control data access (editable or read-only) and determine the availability of system functions. For example, lower-level users are unable to access setup features. Most users see only one security role in the Switch Access drop-down, but some may have multiple if they support other users. Switching to the supported user's role lets them view screens as that user does, aiding in understanding their questions. |
| Sessions | Sessions are an important part of activities. Each activity has at least one session. While activities are broad, sessions are specific. Sessions include important information such as funder, dates and time offered and more. As an example, while STEM may be the broad activity, sessions are more specific in order to capture different days/times offered, a different group of expected participants, a different funder, etc.: e.g., 3rd Grade Math Tutoring, Monday-Wednesday Science Club. |
| Session Groups | Session Groups let institution-level administrators cluster related sessions — for example, a Snack session and a Homework Help session — under a shared parent, so that enrolling or unenrolling a participant in one session automatically keeps the linked session’s roster in sync. This removes the need to manually update enrollment in both sessions every time. |
| Site | A distinct physical location where an out-of-school-time program operates and where participant enrollment, attendance, activities, staff, funding, and outcomes are managed and reported. A site may be a school, community center, technical school, or another approved program location. It is the operational level below the grantee/district. Pathwise supports reporting at the individual-site level as well as across multiple sites. |
| Site Calendar | The Site Calendar defines which dates you anticipate programming will be offered throughout the Reporting Term at a specific site. When creating Sessions, it shows open dates to prevent incorrect participation or service data entry; dates not marked as “open” will not allow participation recording. You can add or edit a Site Calendar at both the Site and District/Institution levels. Setting up calendars at the District/Institution level allows you to create calendars for multiple sites at once. However, edits must be made individually for each site, as there is no bulk editing option. As a result, site-level staff often create calendars specific to their needs. |
| Staff | Staff are employees and volunteers that work in your program. The system can store information about paid and volunteer staff including hire and termination dates and funding source if employed which is required by some funding sources. Staff can associated with specific sessions for scheduling purposes. |
| State Participant ID | The official student identification number issued by a state education system. In AfterSchool21, it identifies the participant for reporting and data matching purposes. Enter the student’s valid state-issued ID exactly as provided; do not substitute a local student ID unless specifically instructed. |
| Switch Access | This feature allows a user to change the viewable data by Reporting Term, Security Role and Organization. All users can switch between terms to see data from a previous term. Users who have access to more than one site OR who have more than one security role can use the "Switch Access" menu to toggle between different data views. After a selection has been made and access has been switched, the screen refreshes briefly, after which the user will then have access to the system with the selected Reporting Term, Organization, and Security Role. |
| Teacher | Teachers in the system refer to day-school teachers, not teachers in the after school program. They can be added to the system and linked to Participant records under the "Teachers" tab. Teachers from a student's day school are associated with the student for two primary reasons: 1) to let the program staff know who works with the child during the day in case they want to discuss the child's specific needs, such as academic or behavioral issues, and 2) to send teachers surveys about students' grades, behavior, attendance, etc. |
| Unscheduled Activity | Unscheduled Activities are activities that are not scheduled for specific dates and times; examples could include Drop-in Counseling or Drop-in tutoring. Recording the amount of time participants are served in such activities is more labor intensive because no defaults are established for unscheduled activities. |
| User | Users are the people who access and take action within the system such as adding participants, entering attendance or generating reports. Users will be assigned a security role and organizations which will limit their access to the system. When setting up new users, grant them the most limited access they will need; additional access can be granted later if needed. |
| Workflows | Workflows are internal and external notification flows triggered by certain actions within the system. Setting up a workflow trigger will send either an email or internal notification to be sent to a User and/or the submitters of registration forms. For example, an internal workflow can be set up so that Site Coordinators receive an internal notification each time a new on-line Registration Form is submitted. |
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