Introduction:
Michigan’s Online Course Catalog requires a course syllabus to include course descriptions and School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) information. This document describes the process of classifying syllabi using SCED codes.
Details:
- First, review the Secondary School Courses and Prior-to-Secondary Courses websites for SCED related information.
Note: Each of the above documents contain a full list of course classifications and descriptions. Chapter 2 of the “secondary school” document and chapter 1 of the “prior-to-secondary” document referred to above outline the framework of SCED codes. The coding is structured in four elements, course description, course level, available credit, and sequence.
Next, login to Michigan’s Online Course Catalog and then tap Courses from the top menu.
Then use the search filters to narrow results.
Next, tap the Edit button located to the far left of the results table.
At this point, tap SCED Information on the left menu and then select the most suitable option from each drop-down field.
Additional Information:
Elements of the SCED Coding Structure
The table below shows the SCED coding structure elements along with a description and an example of each.
| Coding Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Course Description | The first two digits of a code represent a subject area, corresponding to one of twenty-two general categories. For example, Subject Area Mathematics is coded as (02). The next three digits represent a course identifier, essentially what distinguishes one course from another within the same subject area. | For example, Algebra I is coded as (052). Taken together, the SCED code for Algebra I is 02052. The documents referred to above contain a full list of all recognized SCED courses, coding and description. |
| Course Level | The second element of a course's SCED code refers to its course level. One of four possible letters is assigned to a course to convey its level of rigor: B - Basic or Remedial | The majority of courses that schools offer are general. |
| Available Credit | For secondary courses this refers to the amount of Carnegie unit credits available to a student who successfully completes the course. Credit is assigned as either 1.0 or .50, varying between courses and from district to district. Note: Prior-to-secondary courses, this element is coded differently as it indicates the grade span for which the course is appropriate, represented as a four-character code with no decimals. A course may be appropriate across multiple grade levels or a singular grade. | For example, a course appropriate for grades 7 and 8 would receive the coding 0708, while a course appropriate for only grade 3 would be coded as 0303. |
| Sequence | This identifier refers to whether courses are" broken up" into multiple terms but consist of the same course description. | For example, a district may offer Algebra 1A and Algebra IB, in the first and second semesters respectively, but the course will maintain the same coding and description for each term. The catalog requires that the position of the specific course in the sequence and the total number of courses in the sequence be identified. This can be thought of in terms of a course being "number x out of number y." For example, Algebra 1A would have a position in the sequence of, and the total number of courses in the sequence would be 2. |