The GKIDS Roster Upload Process Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Is the new Roster Upload process required of districts, or can students be manually entered in the GKIDS database as in the past? The roster upload process is optional. A decision should be made at the system level regarding how students will be added to the GKIDS database. If a district chooses to use the roster upload process for the initial entry of students into the GKIDS database, teachers will continue to have the ability to enter and manage student records. Who can upload rosters? Only a system-level GKIDS user can upload a roster. (Charter schools are an exception in that the school coordinator is in effect the system coordinator.) If you have the Manage Roster Upload menu item, then you have the correct permissions to upload a roster file. What if I want to designate someone in my IT or Data Collections department to upload the roster? This is possible. You will need to create a new system level account for that person. There is not a separate account classification just for roster upload permissions and access. The new user account can be created via the Manage Users menu. Be aware that if a new account is created for this purpose, the designee will have all the permissions of the system-level user creating other accounts, seeing various reports, etc. You can change the password of this new account at a later date if you want to prevent that person from logging in. Alternatively, you can have this other person provide the roster file and you, the system test coordinator, can upload the roster using your account. Do I upload a roster file for each school or for the district as a whole? There is no strict requirement either way. Since the file is to be uploaded by a district-level user, it will likely be easier to upload one district file containing kindergarten students for all schools, though. Are students automatically assigned to a teacher? No. Teachers still need to select students for their rosters using the same process as used for selecting students from the pre-population list in past years. That is, the teacher will choose the Manage Students menu item and then click Roster Upload Search to find a list of students that can be selected for his/her class list. What are the file requirements for the roster upload? The data requirements are the same as specified in the Pre-ID Data Collection File Layout as provided by GaDOE. The file itself must be a plain ASCII text file (not MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, etc.). If you are not sure about the file format, please consult with someone on your IT staff or call the Georgia Center for Assessment (GCA). To avoid any complications with uploading the file to GKIDS, it is recommended to: 1) Only use letters, numbers, dashes or underscores for the filename. Avoid special characters such as *, %, @, etc. in the filename. 1
Prior to Upload: 2) Use a filename with an extension (e.g.,.txt) Please verify that all of your schools are in the GKIDS database before you upload the file; otherwise students at missing schools will not be imported. You can see a list of schools by clicking Manage Users and choosing Manage Existing School Coordinators. This page will show an alphabetical list of schools and school coordinators at those schools. If a new school is not on this list or the school code has changed, then you will need to contact GCA to have the school added/updated. Why is there a 2-step process for rostering? Once you upload your roster file, GKIDS will begin the 2-step process. The process is automated and you only need to upload your roster file and monitor the status (as indicated by a color coded status). Due to the complexities of reading and processing a data file, the GKIDS system will first do a Step 1 preprocessing check that will look for major problems with the data file. Such major problems might be that a non-text file (e.g., a PDF, a spreadsheet) was accidently uploaded, or there is something structurally wrong with the file. If the file passes the Step 1 checks, then the GKIDS system will proceed to Step 2 to try to import the individual student records in the data file. How long will the import take? Import times are dependent on many factors and definitive times cannot be given. Files are processed in a first-come-first-serve fashion. If a large district with 5,000 or 10,000 students uploads a file just before you, or if there are many uploaded files ahead of your file in the queue, then it may take 30-40 minutes or more before processing begins on your file. If you have files waiting to be processed, the status page will update every minute showing you the current status of the roster file processing. What sorts of problems might I encounter with the rostering process? Generally, there are two major reasons the roster process may not process completely: 1) the file is rejected for not meeting structural requirements and 2) the data itself may have errors that prevent a student from being imported. Reasons a file may be rejected: 1) Not plain text file (e.g., a MS Word, MS Excel, PDF, or other type of file) was uploaded 2) File not in correct format (e.g., does not adhere to the layout specified by GaDOE) 3) District/system code in the roster file does not match the district you are logged in as (for example, did you move districts and are using your old account from the previous district?) 4) File appears to contain Social Security Numbers Reasons a student may not be imported: 1) GTID incorrect 2) GTID already in the database 3) Wrong grade (not KK) 4) Wrong gender (not M or F) 5) Wrong birthdate format (not yyyymmdd) 6) School is not in the GKIDS database (is this a new school?) 2
Table 1. Errors/Messages that will prevent the file from being processed. Status Color Error/Message Cause Resolution File does not appear to be a plain text file. File will not be processed. Data line is not the correct length. File will not be processed. This file appears to have SSN data. File will not be processed. Syscode or schcode is not valid. File will not be processed. The system code in the file appears different from the user that uploaded the data. File will not be processed. You may have uploaded a MS Word document, spreadsheet, PDF, or other non-text file. The file must conform to the layout and all lines must be of the same length. One or more lines is too short or too long. File should not contain Social Security numbers. The system code is not 3 digits and/or the school code is not 4- digits. The system code in the data file is not for the system your GKIDS account is assigned to. Did you move to another district and are still using your old GKIDS account from the previous district? Or is the district code in the file in error? Please upload a file in plain text format. Please check the file layout. Look for lines that have extra characters, spaces at the start or end of the line, or even blank lines. Remove SSNs and upload the file Check/fix the data file and upload the file Verify your account and/or system code and upload the file 3
The following are errors and messages you may see if data for individual students is invalid. It is important to note that only the student record in question is affected. GKIDS will attempt to import the other student records in the file. School xxxx not found. A school in the roster file is not in the GKIDS database. Is this a new school? Has the school code changed? Student name appears invalid. Birthdate not valid format. Student name is blank or contains invalid characters. Birthdate should be a sequence of numbers in Contact GCA to have the new school added. You can reupload the file after that to attempt importing the students for the new school. Correct the errant name and upload Correct the errant birthdate and upload YYYYMMDD format. Gender not M or F. Gender must be M or F. Correct the errant gender and upload the file Ethnicity not H or N. Ethnicity must be H (Hispanic) or N (non- Hispanic) Grade is not in correct format. Grade must be KK. Race contains spaces or Valid values for race invalid characters. are N, I,S,B,P,W GTID is not valid. GTID must be 10 digits (digits only) and cannot start with a zero. SRC code contains an invalid character. Failed to import student with GTID xxxx because that GTID is already in the GKIDS database. Student with GTID xxxx error prevented this student from being imported. SRC does not contain a valid code as specified in the layout file. A student with this GTID is already in the GKIDS database either in your district or at another district. An unidentified data error prevented this record from being imported. Correct the errant ethnicity and upload Correct the errant grade and upload Correct the errant race and upload Correct the errant GTID and upload Correct the errant SRC and upload If you are attempting to import roster file again, you may see this message for any students that were imported the first time. 4
What do I do if I have some students that did not import? First, determine why the student did not import based on the information/message in the above table(s). You can also look at the details log and see where, based on the line number in the file the invalid data was located. If the GTID is indicated as being taken or in the GKIDS database already, then no further actions can be taken for that student. The student is already in the database (either from being manually entered, or uploaded in a roster file from another district). These records will be grouped together in a separate table at the end of the status report. If you do correct invalid data (birthdate, gender, etc.), you can upload the file again, but please note that any students that were imported the first time, will NOT be reimported this second time AND you will see a log message for each of those students indicating that their GTID is already in the database. Teachers also have the option to update individual student records through the Manage Users tab as they have done in years past. NOTE: It is recommended that if an updated file is uploaded, all records which were successfully imported in a prior upload be removed from the file to prevent the duplication of records with the same GTID and resulting in an error message for each such record. Can I upload a file more than once or upload a different file? Yes. There is nothing preventing the same file or different files from being uploaded. However, please note that if you upload the same file again, the import will be attempted, and you will likely see a number of error messages about student records that were not imported because the GTID was already in the database. For example, suppose you have 1000 students in your roster file that you upload initially and all 1000 imported correctly into GKIDS. Now, suppose that two weeks later, you have 5 new students enrolled in your district and you create a new roster file with all 1005 students (the original 1000 plus the 5 new). When the new file is uploaded, the 5 new students should import (if there are no data errors and they were not already in the GKIDS database from another district), but the other 1000 are already in the GKIDS database and will generate 1000 messages in the log details indicating that students could not be imported. As a reminder, it is recommended that if an updated file is uploaded, all records which were successfully imported in a prior upload be removed from the file to prevent the duplication of records with the same GTID, resulting in an error message for each such record. How often may a roster be uploaded at the system level? There is no limit to the number of files which may be uploaded from a system. However, frequent uploads will likely result in a number of error messages indicating duplicate GTIDs for student records successfully imported in a previous upload. It may be helpful to consider system-wide uploads at the beginning of the year, after Labor Day and prior to the end of the GKIDS Readiness Check administration window in your district. Students who enroll in your district after the first day of school may also be manually entered into the GKIDS database by teachers. NOTE: Unlike many learning management platforms, the upload of rosters into the GKIDS database is NOT a nightly or weekly automated process. As an older database, the GKIDS system was not originally designed for an upload process and does not currently have the ability to run this automated 5
process. Automatic recurrent data refresh processes are on the roadmap for development with the new GKIDS 2.0 data collection tool for the 2019-2020 school year. How do teachers acquire the imported students onto their class list? As described in more detail in the GKIDS Administration Manual, the teacher will click on the Manage Students menu item and choose Uploaded Roster Search. Any imported students at that teacher s school that have not been assigned to teacher class lists already will appear in a listing. The teacher clicks the checkbox next to any students in his/her class and clicks the submit button to acquire the student(s). (For those districts that participated in Prepopulation in past years, note that the process for teachers to acquire students is the same.) If a student does NOT appear on the roster search list, this is due to one or more of the following: 1) Student was not in the uploaded roster file initially 2) Student was not imported due to invalid data or already being in the GKIDS database at a different school 3) Student is already on another teacher s roster and must be released The teacher can use the Student Search option to search for a GTID to see if the student is already in the database and/or on another teacher s roster. The teacher can also use the Add New Student option if the student cannot be located in GKIDS. 6