Roster Verification Process FAQ

In addition to the Roster Verification State Guidelines, school leadership also should review these Frequently Asked Questions in preparation for the roster verification process. Teacher, student and grade/subject data collected through roster verification is associated with state assessments to calculate value-added scores for participating teachers. 

Roster verification allows educators to verify the following four pieces of information: 

  1. The grades, classes and subjects they taught;
  2. The students who received instruction from them;
  3. The months during which students received instruction from them; and
  4. The percentage of instructional responsibility they had for each student during the months selected (verifying sole – or a percentage of – shared instructional responsibility).

Teacher Questions: Whom to Include, Teaching Situations, and Leave

Technical Questions: Data, Instructional Percentages, Adding Students, Statuses, Alerts, and Retests

Staff Account Questions

Participation Questions: Online Courses, Postsecondary Courses, Home Instruction, and Testing Sites


Teacher Questions: Whom to Include, Teaching Situations, and Leave

Should we include our intervention specialists, Title 1 teachers, literacy coaches, gifted teachers, special education teachers, tutors, home instruction teachers, etc.?

Statewide, participating individuals include all licensed teachers responsible for planning and/or providing instruction in the subjects/courses cited in the Roster Verification Guidelines. If the teacher is responsible for planning for and/or providing instruction to the student, then the teacher should verify rosters. Conversely, tutoring program staff or instructional support staff who did not plan and/or provide instruction do not participate in roster verification.

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How do public schools and participating community schools address student teachers?

Student teachers do not complete roster verification. A teacher of record is responsible for the effects of instruction.

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Should we include teachers who work across districts?

Yes. This may result in multiple accounts for teachers in this situation. For special circumstances involving multiple districts, please contact your roster verification service provider, the Management Council of the Ohio Education Computer Network (MCOECN) to coordinate accounts.

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Should we include a teacher who works in one district serving students from multiple districts?

Yes. However, the teacher may need to have his or her principal and/or support team member add these students to the database so the teacher can add them to the class rosters. Students are typically loaded in their home districts but can be added manually to additional districts.

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Should teachers on long-term leave participate in roster verification?

Teachers on extended leave in accordance with FMLA guidelines (for example, long-term illness or maternity leave) should claim instructional responsibility for those months during which they taught a majority of the instructional days available.

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Since substitutes are not required to complete roster verification, who claims instructional responsibility for the students during those months described in the question above?

The roster verification application permits students to be unclaimed for one or more months; however, the system will issue an under-claimed student alert. Principals and support team members should review these alerts for accuracy.

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What is the minimum number of students required in a class to produce a teacher value-added report?

Answers to this question follow, however Roster Verification State Guidelines call for teachers to complete the roster verification process regardless of the number of students they have taught during the school year. For more detailed information, please visit Ohio’s Value-Added technical document.

Grades 4-8 math and English language arts rosters use the Multivariate Response Model that requires the teacher to be linked to the equivalent of at least six full-time students, five of whom must have prior test score data in the same subject and student cohort to receive a teacher value-added report. Students are assigned a full-time equivalent percentage based on the number of months they are in a teacher’s classroom and based on whether the teacher is solo teaching or team teaching. The number of full-time equivalent students must equal at least six. (For example, in the case of team teaching at 50 percent instruction, a minimum of 12 students are needed for the entire year in each grade and subject.)

All other state tests use the Univariate Response Model approach. This includes grades 5 and 8 science and the following courses taken for high school credit: English II, algebra I, geometry, integrated math I and II, American history, American government, and biology. For subjects or courses using this model, the teacher must be linked to at least 10 students totaling six full-time equivalent students, each with at least three prior achievement test scores to receive a teacher value-added report.

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Do value-added reports include students who moved out of the district before testing?

Yes, as long as the student moved to another Ohio public district. All state assessment results taken by students in public schools in Ohio are available for teacher value-added analysis. Teachers should verify the actual months of instruction provided, as well as the percentage of instruction provided to receive the “credit” appropriate for the learning of that student.

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Should we include students taking alternate assessments on a teacher’s roster?

Yes. As long as a student is enrolled in a class and is on the roster, the teacher should account for that student in roster verification. However, alternate assessments currently are not included in the value-added analysis.

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Technical Questions: Data, Instructional Percentages, Adding Students, Statuses, Alerts, and Retests

What data are used to pre-populate the roster verification application?

By default, the data displayed in the roster verification application has been populated with available Student Information System or Educational Management Information System roster data.

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What are the instructional percentage options in the roster verification application?

Values for teacher instruction are available in 10 percent increments beginning with 20 percent. (In other words, a teacher cannot verify rosters for 25 or 65 percent of the instructional time; the percentage must be 20 percent or larger and be equally divisible by 10.) Instructional values of less than 20 percent are not statistically significant; therefore, any instruction less than 20 percent is not captured.

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Will the roster verification application permit a student’s total instruction for each grade/subject (for one or more months) to be less than 100 percent?

Yes, however, an alert will be generated, and principals or support team members will review alerts for accuracy.

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What information do you need to add a missing student to a class roster?

Teachers should first do an exhaustive search by clicking “Add Student” in the Link application. (Hint: If you don’t find the student, try searching for just the first letter of the first and/or last name in case of spelling errors.) A teacher should review and confirm a student’s first name, last name, grade and Statewide Student Identifier (SSID) in the roster verification application before adding a name to a class roster.

If the student is not found in this search, the teacher should contact the principal or support team member. The principal or support team member will need to contact application support at the Management Council of the Ohio Education Computer Network to have the student added to the master database. They will need to provide legal first, middle and last name, district student ID, Statewide Student Identifier (SSID), birth date and grade level of the student. The support staff will then add the student to the database. Following this, the teacher will be able to add the student to the appropriate class rosters.

TIP: If you anticipate or notice a systemwide issue with missing students, please contact the roster verification support desk using the “Contact Support” link in the Resources section of the Link application. 

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Do all alerts need to be cleared in the Link application?

Alerts identify potential data problems within Link, the roster verification application. They are warnings notifying educators of areas that should be examined to ensure data is accurate and complete. Principals/support teams and teachers should review all alerts, making corrections where appropriate. Some alerts — such as those triggered when students are under-claimed due to a long-term substitute situation — draw attention to unusual circumstances where the data are accurate, and no corrective actions should be taken. In such cases, alerts should be acknowledged using the checkboxes provided. Alerts do not affect submission, approval or final roster data in any way.

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Which rosters are included in value-added calculations?

Rosters may have any of five statuses: Not Started, In Progress, Submitted, Unapproved, or Approved.

  • Not Started rosters have been loaded into the roster verification application, but no action has been taken on them.
  • In Progress rosters have been opened and/or modified within the application but have not been submitted.
  • Submitted rosters are those that are awaiting approval by a principal — typically, a teacher submits a roster after he or she has reviewed it for completeness and accuracy.
  • Unapproved—Open for Revision rosters are those sent back for modification. If the Teacher Roster Verification phase has ended and rosters still remain in this status, the principal must make changes to these rosters, resubmit and approve them.
  • Approved rosters are those reviewed and accepted by the principal.

Only rosters in a Submitted or Approved state in Link are used in value-added calculations. Rosters in a Not Started, In Progress or Unapproved state are not included in value-added calculations. Districts must take care to ensure that rosters intended for submission, but which principals modify during the review and approval phase, are in a Submitted or Approved state at the end of the Roster Verification process. 

Please note: The Approve School Process completed by principals takes no action on rosters in a Not Started, In Progress or Unapproved state. Those rosters remain in their existing state, and they are not use in value-added calculations. 

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What happens with scores from retested students?

Since 2017-2018, scores from students retaking end-of-course tests have not been used in teacher value-added calculations.

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Advanced Placement (AP) courses are now automatically loaded for Roster Verification. Do all students taking AP courses need to be rostered? 

Only End of Course (EOC) assessments are included in Value Added calculations, and some students in AP courses may take a related EOC assessment. Verify rosters for any AP course where students are taking a related EOC assessment, even if they are also taking a related AP exam. Remove AP course rosters if none of the students are taking the EOC exam related to the AP course. 

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Staff Account Questions

An Ohio educator state ID is required to create a new or missing staff account to access the roster verification application. What should I use if the staff member does not have an Ohio educator state ID?

Since the roster verification process requires verification of rosters by licensed or certified staff, all teachers should have Ohio educator state IDs. This is an educator’s state educator license number that starts with two alpha characters followed by seven digits (for example, OH1234567). Teachers can request an educator state ID. Directions can be found at CORE User Manual June 2022 (ohio.gov).

Tip: If an educator needs to locate their Ohio educator state IDs, use the Educator Profile search tool.

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Does the school principal and support team have administrative rights to add staff accounts? 

Yes. During the School Set-up Phase, review the pre-loaded staff list using the “Review teacher and classes” link. The principal and support team members will be able to: 

  • Add missing staff (including their email addresses to simultaneously create a login account). 
  • “Create User Accounts” by adding email addresses to existing staff members in the database. This is required for staff to have a login account. 

Tip: Have available a list of your staff members, including their first and last names, dates of birth, work email addresses and Ohio educator state IDs. 

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What if an existing staff account has an incorrect name or Ohio educator state ID?

Please contact the roster verification support desk using the “Contact Support” link in the Resources section of the roster verification application for assistance. 

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How do those with new staff accounts get passwords to be able to log in to the Link application? 

A newly created user in the application should use the “Forgot Password” link on the login page to receive his or her initial password. This link also can be used if users fail to remember their passwords.

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Is past roster verification data available to the educators who provided it? 

Educators who participated in the past can access their previous submissions within the Link application. Prior linkage records are available on The Managment Council's website

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Participation Questions: Online Courses, Postsecondary Courses, Home Instruction, and Testing Sites

Should rosters involving students taking online coursework be included in roster verification? 

If all instruction and grading is provided by the online course application and the district teacher simply assigns grades based on computer scoring, the rosters can be deleted because the identified teacher is not planning and/or providing any instruction. Student(s) will still take state tests aligned with these classes, and those scores still will count for district and building report cards.

If the online course application delivers the majority of instruction and grades most assignments and assessments but the teacher is holding “office hours,” providing feedback and/or clarifying content through whatever medium, the teacher can verify a percentage of the instruction starting at 20 percent. This would be shared instruction where the teacher is sharing the delivery of instruction with the computer or online application.

The teacher can verify rosters at 100 percent when he or she is conducting the following activities:

  • Planning and providing all instruction;
  • Creating an online course;
  • Adapting, modifying, adding content to existing online curriculum based on the needs of the students and the standards that will be assessed; and
  • Facilitating and assisting students.

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Should teachers who teach state tested areas through College Credit Plus, International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement be included in roster verification? 

Yes, licensed kindergarten through grade 12 teachers who are teaching College Credit Plus, International Baccalaureate, or Advanced Placement courses granting high school credit for state tested areas should participate in linkage if their local education agencies are participating in roster verification. Students who take these courses have the option to take an Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate test as a substitute for the state’s end-of- course exam. Even though students have these options, some still may choose to take the state’s tests in those subject areas. For this reason, those teachers should be included in roster verification. Such teachers should link to ALL their students, but only those who have data from Ohio’s State Tests will be included in the teacher’s value- added report. Advanced placement and international baccalaureate test results are not used to calculate value-added scores. Only state tests are used for this purpose, and Ohio’s value-added vendor will remove any students who do not have state test scores reported. 

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Should students on home instruction due to medical reasons be included on a roster? 

If the instructor of record is a licensed or certified teacher planning and/or providing instruction in any of the subjects or courses cited in the Roster Verification Guidelines and the student on home instruction was enrolled for a majority of the instructional days available in given month, the student should be included on a roster. Whether students are excluded from value-added calculations as a result of missing 45 days or more is a function of statistical analysis that takes place after roster verification data has been collected. 

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How does the location where a student takes an end-of-course test impact the teacher-level value-added scores? 

The location where a student takes an end-of-course test has no impact on the assignment of the associated teacher- level value-added score. The teacher who taught the student links that student during roster verification, regardless of where the student physically takes the test.

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Last Modified: 11/22/2024 1:59:40 PM