Table of Contents

Overview of the BPS Course Catalog in Aspen

Rikka Mai Updated by Rikka Mai

Please see the Table of Contents to the right-hand side of the page to navigate to a specific field.

About Catalog and Navigation

What is the district course catalog?

The district course catalog is an organized list of course offerings at Boston Public Schools by school year. Each column in the district catalog is called a field and provides specific information about the course.

How to Navigate to the Course Catalog in Aspen

In District View, click the Schedule top tab > Courses side tab.

Fields Required for All Courses

School Year Context

Courses are tied to a specific school year. While course numbers can roll over annually, they are school year-specific to accommodate any year-to-year changes.

School year context of a course is also important to consider in the School Course Catalog and Transcript Course Number as it affects features such as Official Transcripts and Programs of Study (e.g. Graduation Requirement) calculations.

Course Number

The BPS course catalog is organized by Course numbers. The Course Number is a unique entity in the BPS Course Catalog, and no two courses in the catalog share the exact same course number.

BPS Course Number Original Rules

The first two characters indicate the content area and school level, then is followed by additional characters that make the course number unique.

  • The first character indicates the content area
  • The second character indicates the school level and academic level

High School (HS) Level Courses

  • 5 is HS regular level course
  • 6 is HS honors 
  • 7 is AP or IB

Middle School (MS) Level Courses

  • 3 is MS regular level course
  • 4 is MS Honors or Advanced courses

Elementary Course Numbers
  • K0-05 course numbers are made of the content and grade level.
    • For example: ARTSGR1.
  • K0 and K1 grades share the same course number.
    • For example: AR-K0K1.

Dual Enrollment Course Numbers

Dual Enrollment Courses are 7 characters in length.

  • The first two characters indicate the content area
  • The two last characters are DE indicating "Dual Enrollment"
  • The middle three characters are three consecutive numbers that make the course numbers unique

Description, Title, and Spanish Title

The course description and title are important unique identifiers for a course. Course titles provide readers with a brief, general description of the subject matter covered in the course. No two courses in the catalog share the exact same course description or title.

There are four fields in the course catalog to identify a course. Generally, Short Description and Course Title should be the same.

Field

Purpose

Character Limit

Description

This is the full course name

50 character limit

Short Description

This is the shortened name of the course that shows up in certain views in Aspen

25 character limit

Course Title

This is what is displayed in Official Transcripts and Report Cards

25 character limit

Spanish Course Title

This is what is displayed in Report Cards printed in Spanish

25 character limit

State Subject Area Course Code

The subject area course code is used to report to DESE.

The DESE Description for the Subject Area Course Codes is: The State-defined code that identifies the organization of subject matter and related learning experiences, provided for the instruction of students.

The complete list of the subject area course codes can be found in Appendix G1, G2, and G3 of the EPIMS Appendices. Specific subject area course codes are also used for accountability reporting: Advanced Courses.

The Subject Area Course Codes are split into three categories:

Prior-to-Secondary Codes

Appendix G1

  • 5 Digits
  • First digit is 5, 6, or 7

Secondary Codes

Appendix G2

  • 5 Digits
  • First digit is 0, 1, or 2

Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Codes

Appendix G3

  • 7 Digits
  • Schools with Chapter 74-Approved Vocational Technical Education Programs are required to use the Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) Codes to report in SCS.
  • Schools that do not have Chapter 74-Approved Programs should report subject area-course code information using only the five-character SCS/NCES codes for teachers of vocational and academic classes.

For Prior-to-Secondary and Secondary codes, the first two digits of the code pertain to the Subject Area:

Department

The department of the BPS course catalog identifies the subject area of study. The subject area refers to an academic program's defined domain of knowledge and skill. Each course should belong to one subject area, and be overseen by the director of the Academics department. 

Sub Department

The element “sub department” is used to differentiate courses belonging to the same department by content.

As of April 2026, these are the departments with Sub Departments

Department

Sub Departments

Health and Wellness

  1. Health Education
  2. Physical Education

Visual/Perform Arts

  1. Dance
  2. Media Art
  3. Music
  4. Theatre
  5. Visual Art

World Language

  1. American Sign
  2. Arabic
  3. Cape Verdean
  4. Chinese
  5. French
  6. German
  7. Greek
  8. Haitian
  9. Italian
  10. Japanese
  11. Latin
  12. Portuguese
  13. Somali
  14. Spanish

Governance

Each course belongs to one subject area department but can be governed by an additional department or external department. For example, ESL courses belong the English department but governed by Multilingual department.

Any Dual Enrollment or College courses are governed by OSSPC.

Course Credit

Course credit is a unit that gives a weight to the time requirements of an academic course. This is the value that a student earns when successfully completing a course.

  • The course credit is not applicable for the elementary and middle school level courses
  • The course credit is required for Secondary (high school) level courses
Credits and Units mean the exact same thing. ELA 4 Units in MassCore Framework means a student should earn 4 credits for ELA classes passed in a high school.

Credits

Note

0.0

Used if the course is not credit-bearing. This should be used for all Elementary and Middle School level courses.

1.0

0.5

0.25

Include in GPA

This field indicates whether or not a course should be included when calculating students' Grade Point Average.

  • This field should be Yes (checked off) for any Secondary level courses that receive credit.
  • This field should be No (not checked off) for Elementary and Middle School level courses.

Academic Level

Academic Level is the degree of difficulty or complexity of the content of a course in a specific subject area. The Academic Level of a course can also impact its weight in a students’ GPA.

Academic Level

Description

Regular

The course is suitable for the needs of the average student. These courses meet all the state standards and requirements. A course providing instruction that focuses primarily on general concepts for the appropriate grade level.

Honors

Honors Courses offer to students in grades 9-12 and supports BPS’ belief in access for all. Students wishing to pursue Honors credit regardless of their ability or heritage language, should have access at their school. An Honors course differs from a regular course because of the weighted GPA calculation (+0.5) and provides an increased pace of learning, a deeper dive into content/concepts, an introduction to topics for the following years’ standards, and additional or different assignments/products. Schools can enroll students in Honors Level Courses in the following content areas: Language Arts, Mathematics, History/Social Sciences, and Science.

AP

Advanced Placement courses which are college level courses that are operated by the College Board. These higher level courses are offered at high schools to provide students an opportunity to earn college credits. Each AP course is associated with a large test that the course is oriented for.

College

Students will earn high school and college credit at the same time through dual enrollment programs. These programs can help students get a head start on college, explore potential areas of study, and shorten the time needed to complete a college degree.

Functional

Functional courses are for students with the most severe cognitive disabilities. Students taking functional courses will likely live and work in a supported environment. Functional courses are aligned to standards that are not aligned to typical age-grade level equivalencies. Functional courses meet MassCore requirements and are included in a students’ GPA.

Ch74 SA

Chapter 74 outlines the approved vocational technical secondary courses that comply with the requirements of the statewide articulation agreement for Advanced Coursework. It is important to note that courses at the Chapter 74 Statewide Articulation academic level do not receive extra weight in the GPA calculation. The list of these courses is maintained by the Director of the Career Technical Education Department.

IB DP

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a high-quality two-year IB course offered to students in the final two years of high school from all over the world. The IB DP aims to develop students physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically, and it culminates in the award of a worldwide recognized Diploma.

IB MYP

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme emphasizes intellectual challenge. It encourages students in grades 6-10 to make practical connections between their studies and the real world, preparing them for success in further study and in life.

Untracked

Untracked courses are not tracked for academics. These courses do not meet the state standards and requirements, are not graded, and are not included in state reporting.

Academic Level in GPA Calculations

The Academic Level of a 9th-12th grade level course impacts the weight in GPA calculations.

Weights are applied to courses through the academic level of the course. The following weights are given to each academic level based on the MA Board of Higher Education recommendations.

Grade Level

Grade level is the level of the educational program studied by a student. This field identifies which grade level(s) the course is intended for. A course can be created for a single grade level or for multiple grade levels.

Ensure that the state subject area course code of a course aligns with the course grade level as some codes are grade level-specific.

School Level

This field identifies which school level the course is intended for.

There are four school levels of courses

School Level

Description

Elementary

Defines courses created for K0-05 grade levels

Middle

Defines courses created for 06-08 grade levels

Secondary

Defines courses created for 09-12 grade levels

All Levels

This is used for courses such as Clever Sync Block, Homeroom, Library, After school Sports Program, etc.

ESL Eligible

The element identifies if the course can be counted toward meeting a students’ required number of ESL service minutes. ESL eligible courses must meet the requirements of the BPS - DOJ agreement.

ESL-Standalone

An ESL Course with instruction provided by an ESL Certified teacher.

ESL-Non Standalone

An English ELA course with embedded ESL instruction provided by ESL certified teachers.

Not ESL

The course is neither an ESL nor ELA

SEI Core Content

SEI stands for Sheltered English Immersion. The element identifies if the course is applicable to Sheltered English Immersion Endorsements (SEI).

SEI Core content courses can include Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Where SEI-endorsed, content-licensed educators shelter instruction so that ELs can meaningfully engage with grade-level content, and develop discipline-specific academic language. Sheltered instruction is intended to make instruction in academic content areas more accessible to EL students. The language of instruction is English. The student also receives ESL instruction, which is designed to teach English to EL students.

  • This field should be Yes if the course is applicable to SEI Endorsements
  • This field should be No otherwise.

Summary

The course summary describes the goals and content being taught in the course. Usually this is the Summary or Description provided at the beginning of a syllabus.

This is the link to the syllabus provided.

The syllabus link has a maximum of 25 characters due to field limitations. It may be necessary to shorten the URL.

Course Approve Date

This is the date the course was approved by Academics.

Format is MM/DD/YYYY

Course Note

This field is optional for additional notes about the course.

Visibility Type

This dictates which schools have access to a course.

To update visibility type:

  1. go to District View > Schedule top tab > Course side tab > Select the course.
  2. In the Default Template, click on the School top tab > Add > Select the schools to either include or exclude.
  3. Click Save.

Number

Description

Function

0

Exclude

If a school is added, it will not have access to this course.

In this example, schools 1080 and 1200 are the only schools in the district who cannot pull this course in their school course catalog.

1

Include

If a school is added, it will have access to this course. Update the Course Visibility Type to 1 (Include) if only specific schools are permitted to use the course in their catalog.

In this example, schools 1450 and 1200 are the only two schools who can pull this course from the district catalog to their school course catalog.

MassCore and Graduation Requirement Fields

MassCore

This element indicates if the course satisfies one of the requirements for MassCore graduation requirements. The Data Owner defines a logic which courses can be included in the MassCore completion.

MassCore is a state-recommended program of study that outlines the minimum core courses needed to meet four-year college and workforce expectations. MassCore includes four units of English, four units of mathematics, three units of a lab-based science, three units of history, two units of the same foreign language, one unit of the arts, and five additional core courses. Students are required to fulfill 1.0 credit of PE over the course of 4 years, and take a quarter (0.25 credit) of Health before they graduate.

Core

Courses that meet the state requirements for graduation based on the MassCore Framework. The Program of Studies include: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, History and Social Science, Foreign Language, and Arts.

Elective

Included in the five additional credits needed for graduation requirements.

NA

Course is neither Core nor Elective.

Include in Graduation Requirements

Indicates if the course satisfies one of the requirements for the BPS Graduation Requirements.

  • This field should be Yes if the course is Core or Elective for MassCore
  • This field should be No if the course does not count towards graduation requirements and has NA for MassCore.

Graduation Requirements Group

Indicates which BPS Graduation Requirement group a course satisfies when a student completes the course.

Dual Enrollment Fields

The Massachusetts Commonwealth Dual Enrollment Partnership (CDEP) provides opportunities for Massachusetts high school students to take college-level courses for free or at a discounted price and earn credit toward high school completion and their future college degrees.

Dual Enrollment courses are all Governed by OSSPC.
Override School Code

The override school code is used for courses provided by colleges and institutions outside of Boston Public Schools. This element is reported to DESE for the EPIMS and SCS collections.

From EPIMS Data Handbook: The four digit college institution codes used to report degree institutions in the EPIMS staff roster file will be preceded by “CLBR” (all uppercase letters only) to form the 8 character code.

The complete list of Degree Institution Codes can be found in Appendix C of the EPIMS Appendices.

DE Course Number

This is the course number provided by the college.

CTE and Pathways Fields

Pathways Course

This field is used in state reporting and is an element in the Student Course Schedules (SCS) dataset.

DESE Description: SCS14 Pathways Course Indicates that a particular course is being used to meet the student’s technical course taking requirement for Perkins, Early College or Innovation Pathway programs.

Additional information: Massachusetts High Quality College and Career Pathways Initiative and Perkins Funding
Is PLTW?

Indicates if a course is part of the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) program.

Is CTE Program?

Indicates if a course is part of a CTE Program.

CTE Chapter 74

Indicates the Chapter 74 Program the course fulfills. This field helps to determine a student's Chapter 74 program for Student Information Management System (SIMS) reporting.

CTE Non Chapter 74

Indicates the Non Chapter 74 the course fulfills. This field helps to determine a student's Non Chapter 74 program for Student Information Management System (SIMS) reporting.

Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) Fields

The course catalog also includes data for federal reporting.

Civil Rights Data Collection (CDRC) The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) collects a variety of information including student enrollment and educational programs and services, most of which is disaggregated by race/ethnicity, sex, limited English proficiency, and disability.

The CRDC is a long-standing and important aspect of the ED Office for Civil Rights (OCR) overall strategy for administering and enforcing the civil rights statutes for which it is responsible. Information collected by the CRDC is also used by other ED offices as well as policy makers and researchers outside of ED.

Additional Information: US Department of Education Civil Rights Data

CRDC AP Course Category

All AP Courses

CRDC Dual Enrollment

All Dual Enrollment (College) courses

CRDC Distance Education

Logic: All online courses

CRDC IB Course

Logic: All IB courses

CRDC Course Category

ODA will provide definitions for Other Academic

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