February 4, 2013
Dear Customers,
The New Year has rolled through, and School Data Solutions has rolled out major enhancements to Homeroom. This release contains many new features that makes Homeroom a much more robust solution.
New Widgets can now be officially classified as “beta”, letting you test-drive new features with live data. This should help improve our ability to get rapid feedback from you on new features that are not yet ready for wide use. Beta widgets are only viewable by “beta users.” This unique role can be assigned via Datashop by a Homeroom Administrator. Please contact us if you have any questions.
The display of charts and graphs in Homeroom continues to evolve and improve. You can now view charts on your iPad, or any other non-Flash device. The brand-new Charts Viewer Widget (currently in beta for a limited time) has the most useful charts conveniently pre-loaded, and is visible on Spotlight Tabs. The Charts & Graphs Widget has been renamed Charts Builder and placed in beta status. This widget remains unchanged. In a coming release, this version will be replaced by a completely redesigned Charts Widget which will provide a host of new features and a wide range of charting possibility. We’re hard at work on it and as soon as it’s ready we will begin rolling it out.
Assignment level data is now on the Student Spotlight Tab (and also on the new Guardian Dashboard), via the brand-new Gradebook Viewer Widget (beta). This widget is in beta for now, while we work to refine the data. This will be of great interest to Parent and Student Users. Educators with Students in the District can switch to the Guardian Role and use Homeroom exactly like a Parent would. Several Districts are already part of the initial launch of Homeroom for Parents and Students, please contact us if you would like to join.
The Risk Assessment Widget (beta) allows for quick identification of students needing intervention.
The CAA/CIA Widget download function now contains additional demographic and service data.
The Student Assessments Widget has received a new look and feel more akin to its counter-part, the Assessments Widget. Assessments can now be selected by school year or by subject area.
The entire Student Spotlight Tab can now be printed on a single document! The output is customizable and widgets with historical data have the option to include previous years.
The Assessments Widget continues to make strides. Item Analysis Charts show question and answer level data, including performance by learning target. State scores can be re-uploaded in Datashop, so that Basic scores are integrated with other scores. Assessment Sets now have two powerful new features: Advanced Ordering & Sorting and Advanced Filtering. These allow for much more fine-tuned viewing of Assessment Set data. Assessment Set data is now downloadable in Excel format, and its layout is more like the much-loved widget presentation.
And as usual, we have carved-out time to take care of some of those nasty little bugs that keep us from doing what we most love, making all these wonderful enhancements! More improvements are listed below, as well as things we are still working on. Please continue to inform us when things don’t look or work right, especially with beta functionality.
Thank you,
School Data Solutions
Minor Improvements
Multiple Widgets
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“Withdrawn” is shown next to Students who have left the District during the current School Year. Their profile also shows the withdrawal date.
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When selecting a student group, classes are ordered by period, and grouped by term.
Attendance Widget
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Inferred presents are no longer indicated by green check marks. When we integrate School Schedules, the marks will return and will be accurate.
CAA/CIA Widget
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The Choose a Student Group button is no longer missing after refreshing the Widget.
Smart Student Groups
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Classes that we missing are now listed.
Etcetera
- Error Pages (404, etc.) now look more presentable.
Assessments Widget
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In IE9, the page sometimes scrolls up for a small number of users (full screen mode helps).
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On the School View Tab, the Performance Level Information popovers sometimes have incorrect data.
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Sometimes strand results cannot be seen.
CAA/CIA Widget
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In IE9, the page still sometimes scrolls up for a small number of users.
Charts & Graphs Widgets
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Some attendance data is missing.
Logins & Links Widget
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Some logins don’t work.
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Some logins don’t display correctly.
Improvements in development
Multiple Widgets
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Honor user-defined heights for widgets.
Assessments Widget
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On the school aggregates tab, allow for some teachers to be hidden.
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Show every score that a student has on an assessment.
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Add a percentage breakdown chart for assessment sets.
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Item analysis data cannot be downloaded or printed.
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For large student groups, the item analysis chart can be very wide, and scrolling hides the question info or the learning target info.
Attendance History Widget
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Show the number of absences for the year and for the last two weeks.
CAA/CIA Widget
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Only show the widget to high school employees.
Charts and Graphs Widget
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Filter-out assessments that have no data for the selected student group.
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Make charts more printer-friendly.
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Allow charts from strand elements.
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For charts showing multiple assessments, display the assessments in the order that they were chosen.
Profile Widget and QuickProfile Popover
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Show parent information.
Reporting Widget
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Create widget to display usage metrics.
Smart Student Groups
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Add filters for: student names, graduation status, demographics, and SLPs.
Student Assessment Widget
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Show every score if the student took an assessment multiple times.
Student Learning Plan Widget
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Allow menus to contain more choices.
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Let communication entries be edited.
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Lock records so that only one person can edit them at a time.
Multiple Widgets
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Allow permissions to be more granular.
Signing-In
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Give a helpful message to users who login but don’t have any roles assigned to them.
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