Glossary of terms used on this site

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act:

A United States federal law that governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to children with disabilities.

A written statement for a child with a disability that is developed, reviewed, and revised in a team meeting in accordance with the regulations governing special education programs in Pennsylvania. The Individualized Education Plan (IEP) specifies the individual educational needs of the child and what education and related services are necessary to meet those needs.

Institutions of Higher Education (colleges and universities)

The 2013-14 Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) Course/HQT collection is introducing a new concept, Instructional Responsibility. Instructional Responsibility refers to a professional or temporary professional educator charged with planning, instructing, and assessing the effectiveness of instruction within a course of study. Instructional Responsibility is a critical part of attributing student growth to teachers when developing Educator Effectiveness evaluations. PIMS collects data for Instructional Responsibility in two parts: Instructional Relationship weight and Instructional Responsibility weight

One or more professional or temporary professional educators charged with planning, instructing, and/or assessing course content and student progressions within the course of study.

and 

• The percentage of instruction for which an individual teacher is responsible in the course by individual student. The Instructional Responsibility Weight will account for multiple instructors sharing instruction of a student in a course.

• This percentage is used to appropriately weight student growth in teacher scores, given that multiple teachers may be simultaneously providing direct instruction of course material within a course.

• This percentage is dependent on Instructional Relationship Weight. It answers the question: “Of the time this student and teacher were concurrently enrolled in this course, how much instructional responsibility did this teacher have for this course?"

• Teachers, school administrators and districts administrators should note that PDE provided professional development sessions for PVAAS Roster Verification and PVAAS Teacher Specific Reporting the term used was “% Full/Partial Instruction.” In the PIMS, the term “Instructional Responsibility Weight” is used to represent the same data and variable.

An international standard format for the date (YYYY-MM-DD) used in all PIMS fields that require a date. For example School Year Date, Date of Birth, etc.  This format (YYYYMMDDHHMM) is also used as the timestamp for PIMS templates to successfully submit in File Manager.

Internet Service Provider

Instructional Technology

Network that has the potential to connect all the LEAs within an Intermediate Unit