Information and Reporting Services

System for Tracking Education Performance 
Reporting for the 2003-04 School Year

August 13, 2004

We have addressed all issues in version 3.04 that were brought to our attention.  STEP 3.05 is now available.  Files placed on the FTP site must be exported from a version of STEP 3.03 or higher.  Note: The 3.05 version will not require any change to your existing back-end databases.

Please see the STEP Software Release Notes for detailed information.  Additional documentation on how to use the mechanism that has been added to STEP to assist LEAs in meeting the 1% cap for NYSAA measures to be used for meeting the proficiency requirements of accountability is now available.  Also, please note the STEP file due date change below.

We have received many questions about how to report course grades in STEP.  In special circumstances, the Commissioner has allowed school districts to count a course grade as meeting the assessment requirement for graduation.  Nevertheless, COURSE GRADES MUST NOT BE REPORTED IN STEP AND CANNOT BE USED IN CALCULATING THE PERFORMANCE INDEX FOR ACCOUNTABILITY.   For more information, please see Reporting of Secondary-Level Examination Scores through STEP.

Reporting CTE/Tech-Prep Program Services

DEADLINES:  2004 STEP and LEAP Due Dates
Information for Submitting 2004 LEAP and STEP Files

STEP .spd files for the 2003-04 school year are due as follows:

• If any school in your district that is required to provide STEP data did not make adequate yearly progress based on the 2002-03 school year data or if any of those schools were in need of improvement during the 2003-04 school year, your 2003-04 STEP file is due on August 12, 2004.
• If all schools in your district that are required to provide STEP data made adequate yearly progress based on the 2002-03 data submitted and none of those schools were in need of improvement during the 2003-04 school year, your 2003-04 STEP file is due on August 27, 2004.  
• If your STEP file is not received by the deadline for your school district, we cannot guarantee that you will have an opportunity to send corrected data.

JUNE 2003 MATH A DATA IN STEP:  To assist districts in updating their STEP databases for the rescaled June 2003 Math A scores, in November 2003 a STEP import file for each district was provided to the district's Regional Information Centers.  A file was made available directly to Big 5 districts that do not provide STEP data through a Regional Information Center.  Please contact your Regional Information Center with any questions regarding these files.

Software and Documentation:   STEP is now developed and distributed on an Access 2000 platform.  Microsoft no longer supports Access 97.  If you need a copy of the Access 2000 runtime version, please visit the runtime link below.

STEP software
2003-04 STEP Manual
2003-04 STEP Guide to Operation
STEP Software Release Notes
STEP Manual Release Notes
How to address the 1% cap for NYSAA measures
Append process description
Program history record requirements

Please download the newest version of the STEP documentation.  Any significant enhancements made to the STEP software are documented in the STEP Release Notes.

Other Related Information:

• School and District Accountability Rules (HTML) (MS PowerPoint )
• Using School and District Reports to Determine Accountability Status: August 2004 (HTML) (MS PowerPoint)
• Office of State Assessment Web site
• New York State Career & Technical Education Approved Programs

This page was last updated on 12/07/2004

URL: http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/STEP/home.html