Courses

Course Reference: Roster

Courses refer to the classes students take throughout their school day. All courses are associated with an identifying code. DPI assigns a Roster code, but each LEA will also assign a local course code to any course offered in their system. Local schools/districts will also define the curriculum associated with their offered courses, the organization of subject matter for each course, and the related learning experiences each course will provide. Courses are available in the School Roster Detail of the WISEdata portal. Depending on grade level or program associations, certain courses may have specific reporting requirements.

Course data collected at the school level. Schools will be able to set up and submit Course Offerings data only once they submit Grading Period and Session information to Roster.  As a Roster Endpoint, the ‘Courses’ entity represents the organization of subject matter and related learning experiences provided for the instruction of students on a regular or systematic basis. Note - This endpoint is populated by DPI. Schools will use the Course listing created by DPI to select the appropriate course codes for submission.

LEAs now have the ability to view, filter and export the entire Courses list within the WISEdata Portal. Simply click on the Resources menu, and then click the Courses tab. 

You can also download a complete spreadsheet of the DPI course catalog by clicking the blue buttons below. This download will include: a Roster code, a title, a subject area, course description, rigor level, any possible Program associations, and a SCED code.

*The column descriptions below apply to the 2024-25 course .csv file ONLY. Filters to search this page are currently unavailable to work properly for both years, so use the .csv file to obtain course information.

When reviewing the downloaded data, the CSV column headers are as follows:

1. The first column in the Roster Course List is the 'School Year'.
2. The second column is 'Roster Code'.
3. The third column is the ‘Course Title’.
4. The fourth column contains the ‘Subject Area’.
5. The fifth column displays ‘Course Description’.
6. The sixth column is ‘Rigor Level’.
7. The seventh column is ‘CTE Course’ to denote whether or not the course is part of Career and Technical Education.
8. The eighth column is ‘CTE Cluster’ which defines the industry or occupational focus that may be associated with a career pathways program.
9. The ninth column 'CTE Department' which serves as a reference for school districts in determining CTE courses. The CTE department typically includes various sub-disciplines or pathways, each focusing on a specific area of career and technical education. Courses with a specific CTE Department must be instructed by a licensed CTE educator in the specific discipline, e.g. Agriculture and Natural Resources Education.
10. The tenth column is 'AP/IB Program' which denotes whether or not the course program is AP or IB.
11. The eleventh column is the ‘World Language’ category, added primarily for DPI use in creating Annual World Language reports but is available to vendors for transparency.
12. The twelfth column is ‘Arts category’ which is used to identify which courses are included in the Art subcategories on the report card.
13. The thirteenth column is 'SCED Code'. 
14. The fourteenth/last column is 'Course Status' which contains the course codes that were archived (Deprecated) or newly added (New). 

USES: This data element links a course to a particular subject matter and curriculum and the school/agency that offers it. The user will select the appropriate course code, and then DPI will link that code behind the scenes to the sessions, grading periods, student, etc...

FAQs, Details, and Points to Note

1. FAQs: For more specific information and use cases, see the Roster page.
2. Non-credit Activities: Non-credit activities and schedule segments which take place during the regular school day, such as school clubs, study hall, tutorials, and guidance, may be submitted to Roster but are NOT required.
3. SCED Course Codes: A SCED Course Code is a unique identifier assigned to a course and consists of three parts, a Subject Area, a Course Identifier within that Subject Area, and the Course Level. This is an alphanumeric field. The course code will utilize the NCES/SCED standards where applicable. The first two numeric characters reflect the subject area, the middle three numeric characters reflect the specific course identifier, and the last alpha character reflects the course level.
   • DPI encourages a thorough review of the course content by the faculty to determine the most appropriate match. 
4.  Wisconsin Course Codes: Wisconsin-created course codes all contain an alpha character in the 3 position of the former CWCS course code column.
5. Career Education Courses: A Career & Technical Education (CTE) course offering is expected to be taught by a licensed CTE instructor. These CTE courses will have a CTE flag on the course characteristics.
   • Starting with the 2024-25 school year, the Courses download displays DPI identified which CTE departments can teach what courses. This information is located in Column I (CTE Department) on the Courses download. 
   • Non-CTE versions of CTE course offerings have been available since the 2021-22 school year. Schools offering these courses without a licensed CTE instructor should submit the non-CTE versions of the course offerings.
6. Roster Course Rigor Level Decision Diagram: For help in determining course rigor level assignment, view this decision diagram.

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