How to Promote or Retain Non-Senior Students

Aspen Support Updated by Aspen Support

Promote, Retain, or Graduate Guidelines

All students from K0-12 must have a promotion status set in Aspen before the last day of school. The Students “Promote Status” field is blank by default in Aspen. This means they will be rolled up to the next grade level with the End-of-Year Rollover.

Schools should only make entries in the Promote Status field when a student is being retained in that grade or needs to go to summer school and anticipates promotion to the next grade level.

  • Graduate - [Gr12 only] Student has met state and local graduation requirements
  • Promote - Promote student to next grade (including summer school attendees*)
  • Met local - [Gr12 only] Student has met only local requirements for graduation. The student will NOT be returning for any additional instruction.
  • August Graduate Possible - [Gr12 only] Student can graduate by completing summer school
  • Retain - Retain student in same grade (only those you know will be retained)
  • Enroll in SP grade-level - [Gr12 only] These are students with IEPs who satisfied academic local requirements, have completed their diploma or certificate of attainment, and remain enrolled in BPS for special education, transition, and related services.
  • Retain due to age - Central Office Use Only - for students too young to promote to K1
  • Summer School Reg. - Student is registered in Aspen for summer school and is expected to attend and be in the next grade level in September.

* Use "retain" ONLY for students that will be retained regardless of summer school attendance or performance. Non-grade 12 students whose promotion depends on summer school should be left blank and they will be promoted with the end of the year data is rolled over.

School teams will have the opportunity to make updates in August, based on summer school results.

Making an entry in the Promotion Status field ONLY impacts a student’s grade level and assignment for next year.

During the End-of-Year Rollover process, Aspen will do the following, based on these values:

Graduate - Enrollment status will be changed to “Graduate”

Promote - Grade level will be incremented by 1

Met local - Enrollment status will be changed to “Withdrawn”

Retain - Grade level will be unchanged -Retain

Enroll in SP grade-level - Grade level will be SP

August Graduate Possible - Grade level will be unchanged

How to Promote or Retain Non-Senior Students

This article is also available as an interactive tutorial. Click here to view the interactive tutorial or scroll down to view a step-by-step version.

1 Click Student top-tab

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2 Click Grade in the Gray Header to sort students by Grade Level.

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3 Click the Field Set menu

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4 Select the Promotion Fields

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5 Click Options

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6 Click Modify List 

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7 Click the blue pencil above the Promote Status column to Edit it.

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8 Schools are only required to change this for students who must be retained. Use retain ONLY for students that will be retained regardless of summer school attendance or performance. Students are set to "Promote" by default. If a student is left blank, they will be automatically promoted. 

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9 Click the Dropdown menu and Select Retain

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10 To make this go faster, once you have set the Promote Status for the first student, use the TAB key to go to the next student. Instead of clicking on the drop-down menu, use the R key for RETAIN.

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11 IMPORTANT: The green check mark is your SAVE button for each screen! In other words, if you have 25 students per page in Aspen, you must save before you move onto page 2, with records 26 - 50.

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12 Click The green check mark to SAVE your work on this page.

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13 When you are done changing all student status, click Options.

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14 Click Modify List again to exit the editing mode. 

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15 To see if there are any students in your school who still need their Promotion status changed, click Filter again.

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16 Click Promotion Status not Set

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NOTE: If you start with this filter, as you click the save icon, your screen will refresh and you will no longer see the students you just saved. But don’t worry, they disappear because those students no longer meet the filter criteria of “Promotion Status not set”.

17 To print this list, click Quick Print menu

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18 Select the report format you would like.

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19 Your report will download so that you can print.

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Tips and Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Are there any tips or tricks to make this go faster?

  • Yes!  Skip the mouse and use your keyboard to complete this task in record time!
  • Once you have set the Promote Status for 1 student, use the TAB key to go to the next student.
  • Then, instead of clicking on the drop-down menu, use the P key for promote, the R key for retain, the G key for graduate, and the M key for met local.

2. What if I leave a student blank?

  • Promote status is assumed by default. If a student is left blank, he/she will be promoted. 
  • All you have to  absolutely do is mark the students that should be retained.

For questions and support please contact the Guidance Office at 617-635-8030. For technical support email aspen@bostonpublicschools.org or call the BPS Technology Help Desk at 617-635-9200.

How did we do?

How to Enter a Student's Next Year Homeroom in School View

How to Set Promotion Status for Seniors

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