PowerSchool 7.6 Release Notes PowerSchool Student Information System

Transcription

1 PowerSchool Student Information System

2 Released December 2012 Document Owner: Documentation Services This edition applies to Release 7.6 of the PowerSchool software, and to all subsequent releases and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions or updates. The data and names used to illustrate the reports and screen images may include names of individuals, companies, brands, and products. All of the data and names are fictitious; any similarities to actual names are entirely coincidental. PowerSchool is a trademark, in the U.S. and/or other countries, of Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliate(s). Copyright 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. All trademarks are either owned or licensed by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. Other brands and names are the property of their respective owners.

3 Contents Introduction... 4 Installation Notes... 4 PowerSchool System Requirements... 5 PowerSchool Components... 5 Documentation... 6 New Features/Enhancements... 8 PowerSchool... 8 Resolved Issues State Reporting State Reporting Platform Known Issues Page Changes Contents 3

4 Introduction The 7.6 release of the PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS) includes new features, enhancements, and resolutions to previously identified issues. Installation Notes The installer setup files for this release are available for download from PowerSource. If you are upgrading from PowerSchool 7.5.x through you will need: PowerSchool 7.6 Application Installer If you are upgrading from PowerSchool 7.0.x through you will need: PowerSchool Database Scripts Updater PowerSchool 7.6 Application Installer If you are upgrading from PowerSchool 6.x or performing a new installation, you will need: PowerSchool Database Installer PowerSchool 7.6 Application Installer Note: If Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) is enabled on your system, an update to the latest SIF adapter is required. Consult the latest SIF documentation for information on updating to SIF version Note: If you are already running PowerSchool, you need to be on version or higher in order to install PowerSchool 7.6. The PowerSchool Application Installer is available at Downloads > PowerSchool > PowerSchool Installers > PowerSchool 7.x > PowerSchool 7.6 > PowerSchool Application [version] installer (Windows). The PowerSchool Database Scripts Updater is available at Downloads > PowerSchool > PowerSchool Database > PowerSchool Database 11.2 > Database Scripts Updater [version]. The PowerSchool Database Installer is available at Downloads > PowerSchool > PowerSchool Database > PowerSchool Database 11.2 > PowerSchool Database [version]. The PowerSchool installer allows you to manage your PowerSchool deployment. It installs the database and application for a specific server, and it configures per-server settings such as database and web server ports, passwords, and file paths. Introduction 4

5 PowerSchool System Requirements If this is the first time you are installing PowerSchool, review the Hardware and Software Requirements for PowerSchool 7.5.x and the Installation and Upgrade Guide for PowerSchool 7.x, available on PowerSource, before installing this version of PowerSchool. The Hardware and Software Requirements for PowerSchool 7.x are updated periodically, and contain information on supported software and browser versions for a release. Review this document before installing updates to PowerSchool. General Recommendation Pearson strongly recommends that SSL be enabled on your PowerSchool server to ensure all data passed between your server and Pearson technical support remains secure and private. If SSL is not enabled, data moving between your server and Pearson is unencrypted. PowerSchool Components PowerSchool is comprised of several software components, each versioned independently from one another. This allows for greater flexibility of component updates as new features and bug fixes become available. Some updates may include dependencies between components. These dependencies will be communicated and built in to the component update installers to prevent PowerSchool from being configured incorrectly. The following table identifies the version number for each PowerSchool component for this release: Component Version Number PowerSchool Server 7.6 PowerTeacher ReportWorks PowerScheduler Oracle 11g Schoolnet 14.2 Introduction 5

6 Component Version Number State Reporting Report SDK 1.9 Java 1.7 Documentation Be sure to check out the updated online help. Assistance is just a click away! PowerSchool 7.6 Documentation on PowerSource Location Support > Documentation > PowerSchool > Release Notes > PowerSchool Release Notes > PowerSchool 7.x > PowerSchool 7.6 Support > Documentation > PowerSchool > Release Notes > PowerSchool Release Notes > PowerSchool 7.x > PowerSchool 7.6 Support > Documentation > PowerSchool > Installation, Upgrade, Backup, and Configuration Guides > PowerSchool 7.x Installation and Configuration Guides Support > Documentation > PowerSchool > Data Dictionaries > PowerSchool 7.x Data Dictionaries Title PowerSchool 7.6 Release Notes New Features in PowerSchool 7.6 Installation and Upgrade Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Data Dictionary Tables for PowerSchool 7.x Grading User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Import and Export User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Documentation 6

7 Location Support > Documentation > PowerSchool > API Title Localization Administration User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Plugin Management User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x PowerSchool Parent Portal User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x PowerTeacher Portal User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Reports User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Scheduling User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Schoolnet User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Student User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x System Administrator User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Visual Scheduler User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x Zip file of the PowerSchool User Guides Zip file of the online PowerSchool API Developer Guide Documentation 7

8 New Features/Enhancements PowerSchool 7.6 includes new features that have been highly requested by customers, including Import for Student addresses, Storing Grades enhancements, and Single Sign-On enhancements. Your feedback has been invaluable to Pearson, and helps each new release meet and exceed the expectations of our customers. The following tables display a complete list of new features and enhancements available in PowerSchool 7.6. PowerSchool The new functionality provided in this release includes: Feature Data Import Manager with support for Student Addresses Data Import Queue Description The Data Import Manager is the first phase of ongoing improvements to import, export, and data management in PowerSchool. This release includes the ability to import student addresses using the new Data Import Manager. Data Import Manager provides a guided workflow for the import process. Import mapping templates can be saved and reused for common imports. Administrators can download a text file containing any records that failed to import. Note: The ability to import into additional areas will be added in future PowerSchool releases. The data import queue allows administrators to view in-progress or completed import jobs performed with the Data Import Manager. Storing Grades Enhancements Several enhancements have been made to the Permanently Stored Grades process. Workflow and user interface improvements. Additional filter options. Course Setting to exclude from storing. Advanced Credit storing option. New Features/Enhancements 8

9 Feature Manual Historical Grade Entry Enhancements Description Added Course and Section number to the Historical Grades > Multiple New Entries page. PowerSchool Installer Enhancement Added the ability to skip the server configuration screens when updating PowerSchool. Single Sign-On Plugin developers now have the option to use SAML as the single sign-on protocol in addition to the OpenID protocol. New Features/Enhancements 9

10 Resolved Issues General Fixes Issue Archive logs are created excessively when running the Data Mart job to refresh standards grades Attendance comments will not allow double quotes in Multi-Day Attendance page Attendance shows as not taken for co-teacher AutoSend includes a comma at the end of each record Course prerequisites are not displayed in Internet Explorer 9 Dependent sections are ignored when using alphanumeric section numbers Error when updating Access Accounts Description When running the Data Mart refresh job to refresh standards grades, the archive logs are created excessively and use a considerable amount of disk space. This issue is now resolved. When entering attendance comments in the Multi-Day Attendance page, the comment will not save as expected if double quotes are included. This issue is resolved. When recording single-day attendance for multiple sections, only the lead teacher is recorded as having taken attendance but the co-teacher is still listed as not having taken attendance. This issue is resolved. When exporting using AutoSend, an extra comma is placed at the end of each record. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When attempting to view course prerequisites while using Internet Explorer E9, no course prerequisites are displayed. This issue is now resolved. When enrolling a student into a class with dependent sections, any dependent sections with an alphanumeric section number are ignored. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When updating Access Accounts for a student with a null ldapenabled field, an error may appear. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article Resolved Issues 10

11 Issue Error when updating Security Settings for a teacher Incident Actions saved to single offender Incident categories cannot be resorted when using Internet Explorer 9 Drag and drop disabled for Incident elements when using Internet Explorer 9 Long startup times on servers with large number of standards Multi-Day Attendance page fails to display when student name contains a double quote Office visits sort by month but not year Only one record returned when searching the Terms table in DDE/DDA Description When updating the Security Settings for a teacher with a null adminldapenabled or teacherldapenabled field, an error may appear. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When saving an incident with multiple participants, each of whom is assigned an action, all actions are saved under the same participant. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When using Internet Explorer 9, administrators are unable to change the sort order of categories for Incident Management. This issue is now resolved. When using Internet Explorer 9 to create or edit Incidents, users are unable to drag and drop Incident elements from one area to another. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article If a server has a large number of standards, the startup task to initialize standards can take an excessive amount of time to complete. This issue is now resolved. If a student s name contains a double quote (as sometimes used with nicknames) the Multi-Day Attendance page will fail to display. This issue is now resolved. When viewing Office Visits spanning multiple years, items are sorted by month but not by year. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When searching the Terms table in DDE/DDA by the ID field, only one record is returned even though multiple records exist with the same ID. This issue is now resolved. Resolved Issues 11

12 Issue Re-aggregate Attendance screen times out Substitute login fails when viewed in other locale Teacher status changed to Current after import Term dates incorrect after using Copy Master Schedule TMPDALX tables accrue in PowerSchool 7 Unable to upload a custom page using Internet Explorer 9 Users unable to log in after 999 users View Entire Year Schedule doesn t show all classes if term is set to the full year Description When running the Re-Aggregate Attendance function (California only) no indication of progress is displayed. This issue is resolved. Now the page is updated with current progress as PowerSchool recalculated backfill attendance for the selected students. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When viewing the Substitute login screen under a locale other than the default, users may be unable to select a school and/or teacher. This issue is now resolved. When importing into the Teachers table, any teacher included in the import will have their status changed to Current even if Status was not included in the import. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article When using Copy Master Schedule, the term dates in the destination year will be updated to reflect the starting and ending dates from the source year. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article An issue in PowerSchool 7 can result in TMPDALX tables that persist indefinitely which can increase the size of the database and backups. A new Special Operation, Purge DALX Temp Tables, allows unused TMPDALX tables to be removed. When using Internet Explorer 9, administrators are unable to upload custom pages through PowerSchool Administrator. This issue is now resolved. If the number of concurrent users is set to a value larger than 999, some users will be unable to log into PowerSchool. This issue is resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article After clicking View Entire Year Schedule for a student, not all classes are shown if the current term is set to the full year. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article Resolved Issues 12

13 PowerTeacher Gradebook Issue Attendance icon in PowerTeacher Gradebook does not minimize when minimizing the Navigation bar Scores for default assignment categories are unpublished Students appear dropped after reenrolling Unpublished assignments are displayed in calendar applications Description When minimizing the Navigation bar in PowerTeacher Gradebook, the Attendance icon is not minimized. This issue is now resolved. Assignments associated to the default assignment categories will not have their scores published. This issue is resolved. Scores are now published by default for the default assignment categories in PowerTeacher Gradebook. If a student drops a class, then re-enrolls at a later date, the student will continue to appear as dropped in PowerTeacher Gradebook. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article PowerTeacher Gradebook assignments that have not yet been published are displayed in other calendar applications. This issue is now resolved. This issue relates to Knowledgebase article Resolved Issues 13

14 State Reporting Arizona State Reporting Updates PowerSchool 7.6 includes Arizona state-specific updates. For more information, see Arizona state-specific release notes available on PowerSource. Tennessee State Reporting Updates PowerSchool 7.6 includes Tennessee state-specific updates. For more information, see Tennessee state-specific release notes available on PowerSource. State Reporting Platform The following features for State Reporting Platform are available in this release: Administrators now have the ability to restrict access to SRP state reports based on user security group membership. Access restriction is set on a per-report, per-security group basis. The feature is disabled by default. The default configuration will allow all users to access all reports. Legacy reports can now be sorted and grouped together with SRP reports on the state report page. Previously, Legacy reports could only be sorted and grouped separately either above or below the SRP section on the state report page. The report designer has the option for the default report output message to be suppressed, in case of blank output. The output can be configured to be either a blank row without header or just a header row. By default, SRP reports that produce a comma separated value (CSV) or otherwise delimited text output do not insert quotes around the field text. Now the option is available to have fields surrounded by double quotes in CSV or delimited report outputs. The Teacher Safe indicator line on the state report run page will be disabled if no teacher safe reports are deployed on the PowerTeacher Portal for that state or province. This indicator will be displayed on the state report run page only if there is at least one teacher safe report deployed on the PowerTeacher Portal. SRP reports can now be generated in an Excel output. State Reporting Platform 14

15 Known Issues There are no new known issues introduced in this release. Page Changes The following is a list of page changes. If you manage your own customized built-in PowerSchool files, review the list for added, updated, and deleted files. Key: + = New page = Changed page - = Removed page + web_root/admin/help/how_to/im_10_data_import_manager.html + web_root/admin/help/how_to/st_66_student_test_results.html + web_root/admin/help/how_to/sy_94_state_report_security.html + web_root/admin/security/editstatereportsecurity.html + web_root/admin/whatsnew/release_7_6.html - web_root/admin/help/how_to/st_42_test_scores.html - web_root/admin/help/how_to/st_66_student_test_scores.html web_root/admin/attendance/backfill/regenaggregation.html web_root/admin/constraints/menu.html web_root/admin/courses/edit.html web_root/admin/courses/new.html Known Issues 15

16 web_root/admin/faculty/editpw.html web_root/admin/faculty/more2.html web_root/admin/facultylist/functions.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/gr_04_hist_grades_setup.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/gr_05_perm_store_grades.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/im_01_quick_import.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/im_03_adv_import_options.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/in_08_sign_in.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/ltk_01_localization_administration.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sc_11_sections.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sc_13_master_course_list.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sc_87_visual_scheduler.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/st_10_student_page_layout.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sy_85aa_plugins.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sy_88_pearson_applications.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sy_90_roles_admin.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sy_91_schoolnet.html web_root/admin/help/how_to/sy_93_coteaching.html web_root/admin/help/index.html web_root/admin/help/toc_import_and_export.html web_root/admin/help/toc_students.html Page Changes 16

17 web_root/admin/help/toc_system_administrator.html web_root/admin/importexport/home.html web_root/admin/pearsonapps/home.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/constraints/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/coursecatalog/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/coursegroups/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/faculty/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/menu_task_nav.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/requestsetup/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/sections/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/students/menu.html web_root/admin/powerschedule/tools/copymasterschedule.html web_root/admin/sections/edit.html web_root/admin/sections/menu.html web_root/admin/security/home.html web_root/admin/smframe/menu.html web_root/admin/studentlist/counselor/massprintresults.html web_root/admin/studentlist/counselor/menu.html web_root/admin/students/more2.html web_root/admin/students/morecustom.html Page Changes 17

18 web_root/admin/students/previousgrades.entry.html web_root/admin/students/testlist.html web_root/admin/systemsettings/security.html web_root/admin/teacherschedules/menu.html web_root/admin/tech/copymasterschedule.html web_root/admin/tech/copymasterschedulepreflight.html web_root/admin/tech/home.html web_root/admin/tech/specop.html web_root/admin/tech/storegrades3.html web_root/admin/whatsnew/release_7_0.html web_root/admin/whatsnew/release_7_1.html web_root/admin/whatsnew/release_7_2.html web_root/admin/whatsnew/release_7_5.html web_root/public/help/how_to/pa_03aa_test_results.html web_root/teachers/classattendance-mobile.html web_root/teachers/help/how_to/pt_04c_student_information.html web_root/teachers/help/index.html web_root/teachers/menu.html web_root/teachers/smframe/menu.html Page Changes 18