Early Childhood Observation Tool (ECOT) - Teacher Manual

Observation by Indicator Page

Observation by Indicator Page

Notes: This page allows teachers to select an indicator; view the description, the full indicator, standards and/or rubric of the indicator. Teachers are able to rate their students based on the indicator they select.

  1. Click the “Observation by Indicator” button.

  1. Select an Indicator from the drop-down list.
  1. By default, the “Show Rubric” checkbox is selected when you select an indicator. Click on the “Show Rubric” checkbox to un-select the option and click on the “Refresh” button to redisplay the page when an indicator has been selected.

  1. Once an indicator has been selected, a grid with all students on the roster will be displayed. To score an observation for the students, click on the button below the rubric for each student that best describes the level of knowledge or skills for the current indicator. The rubrics are displayed from left to right where the left is the lowest level of progress, “Making Progress for 4s” to the mid-level of progress, “Making Progress for K” to the highest level of progress, “Making Progress for Grade 1”.
  2. “No Rating” is selected by default until the teacher rates the student(s).
  3. If the teacher wanted to add additional information about the student(s) regarding the current indicator, there is a “Notes” section that can be utilized to include this information. To add notes or comments, please click in the “Notes” textbox and input text.
  1. By default, the current date and time is entered when an observation is made. For dates prior to the current date there are two options. A global date textbox is available above the grid in the “Use Date for All” box. If this box is populated, all observations entered will use that date as the observation date. The second method for entering the date is to populate the Date box for the student.Please be sure to use the MM/DD/YYYY format when manipulating the date.
  1. The number of observations for a student is displayed in the “Observations” column of the grid.
  1. “Exempt” would be selected if the student has an exception for the current indicator and is ONLY allowable for: IEP, Medical, or Home Language. Please note that you must select a “Reason” when using the exempt option. Absences are not an exemption.
  1. Click the “Save” button to save the current rating for the student or students that observations are being recorded.

  1. A message stating “Your observations have been saved” will indicate that your information has been saved successfully. If you receive any other message, please correct the errors indicated.
  1. Click the “Show Only Students Without Observations” checkbox and it will display only the students that have no observations. It will display “0” in the “Observations” column of the grid.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

1)When I click ‘Save’ to save my ratings, they don’t save:

  • All data that is successfully saved displays a “Your observations have been saved” message on the screen after hitting ‘Save.’
  • If you do not see this message, please check that the date field is populated correctly in MM/DD/YYYY format or blank if you are submitting data for the current day.
  • Additionally, please check the ‘Obs.’ (Observation Counter) column and see if the observations have been saved. Every time you save an observation for an indicator, the counter adds one to the value in this column.
  • If these issues have not solved your problem, please contact .