=================================================================== == STUREC(c) Windows XP v0.95 == == BUILD DATE: 09/07/2010 == =================================================================== 09/07/10 - When you are entering MSDS data for adults on the M. panel, please just enter through the JULy data and answer Yes to enter September data. 09/02/10 - In response to request we have added a "Demographics Lister". Find it at Menu:7.5.6. 08/31/10 - Some more 'adjustments' to the StudentRecord Maintenance collection based on some actual user input from the CEPI website. Use this collection to report all of your summer graduates. Menu:7.5.1. and select this year. Then option 7. Other Collections | 1. Record Maintenance | "E" Export then select cycle 4. Rec.Maint. This will get all of the graduates dated from July 1st. Any graduates with dates prior to 07/01 should have been included in your EndOfYear cycle submission for 2009-2010. 08/30/10 - An adjustment on last Friday's update regarding the specifications for the StudentRecordMaintenance collection. 08/27/10 - We learned yesterday, much to our chagrin, that the new guidelines regarding Hispanic and Racial Ethnic Coding has been revised. STUREC(c) now reflects the newly intepreted revision. 4. Hispanic is back in as a selectable Ethnicity AND you still need to answer the question "Does the student consider himself/herself to be Hispanic?" in place of the old Multi-Racial question. We also found out that the schema published for the StudentRecordMaintenance export can not be used yet. We are supposed to use last year't schema. This update reverts that collection to the 2009-2010 schema and rules. 08/25/10 - Modified a little annoyance that would ask you if you wanted to drop all un-exited classes when you answered the 10/30 day rule question. Modified the RecordMaintenance collection to include Adults and if the date you run the export is between September 1st and the 27th, you will be asked if you want to adjust the "AsOfDate" to 08/31/10. Only graduations submitted before September first will be included in the 09-10 calculations, otherwise they will be included in the 10-11 calcs. Ask your local district expert if this is important to you. 08/24/10 - Repaired a little annoyance that could insert the incorrect MSDS CountDate for some returning students. Found and fixed a problem with the new Racial Ethnic Codes. There is no longer a code 4. Hispanic. If you use the [?] Help for the ethnic code and chose either 5 or 6, STUREC(c) would report a code numerically one less than what you selected. Example, you chose "6" from the list, but "5" was displayed on the screen. If you entered the code directly, there is no problem. 08/20/10 - A little fine-tuning for our friends using Pinnacle. 08/17/10 - Fixed the data selection process for an obscure report that has never worked and is over five years old. If this was not a problem for you, you don't need to worry -- and if it was a problem, it is now fixed. Beginning this year, you no longer identify an adult student in the MSDS system via the "F" ProgramParticipation group. However, STUREC(c) would throw an error if you tried to select a participation from the list. Now you will not even encounter the ProgramParticipation group with an adult. If you need to change some basic demographic data for a student, example: multiple birth order, you must Zap the current MSDS cycle record first. With the student on the screen, press SD then select the cycle. When the local task menu appears, press "Z" and answer Yes you want to Zap the current cycle record. Basically any data that you cannot get to via one of the MSDS menu options you will need to Zap the cycle record then let STUREC(c) rebuild the record with the underlying data in your master file. Zap does not appear on the menu any longer because we had to make room for the new ECSpecialAssessment group. Unless you have 3-5 year olds in spc.ed. please do not worry about this. 08/13/10 - Upon bad advice, we used last year's schema for preparing the EarlyRoster export. Recently CEPI changed its collective mind and apparently decided to go with the new schema after all. This update uses the correct schema for EarlyRoster. 08/12/10 - Fixed a problem encountered when trying to run Enrollment Counter for a list at Menu:5.5.1. 08/11/10 - Fixed a little problem that only affected our friends at Public Service Academies. If you are not a PSA, don't worry about this one. 08/10/10 - Fixed a typo in the printed report of Section 107 Follow-up that would print zeros or incorrect values for the HSC summary line. 08/09/10 - Fixed a math error on our part caused by the nice folks at CEPI adding a new 'group' in the middle of the old groups which are part of the MSDS system. It only affected districts that were trying to enter JULy adult data in group "M" using this new version. Fixed a 'screen-slop' regarding the new Racial Ethnic Codes. 08/01/10 - Start of another new school year. I'm sure you are all aware of all the 'little' changes that CEPI made to our beloved MSDS reporting sytem this summer. We learned of the draft changes on July 15th. Believe me folks, those little changes are not as 'little' as CEPI would like us to believe. At least not for us. Last year we spent the entire summer rebuilding the SRSD reporting system into the MSDS reporting system. An interesting challenge. We were under the mistaken impression that they knew what they were doing and the database and structure would remain stable. Not so! They removed a little here, added a little there and moved some stuff around. Just when we had everything working pretty good, the rules got changed. Ugh. Anyway, this year's version 0.95 has 'most' of the changes incorporated. The 'Request for UIC', the 'Fall General Collection', 'Record Maintenance', 'Supplemental Nutrition' and 'Early Roster' collections have been tested and sevaral validation tools report success. We use "XML Notepad 2007", "Altova XML Spy" and "Stylus Studio 2009" as our checkers. XML Notepad is available for FREE from Microsoft, the others are inexpensive and all can be found on the Internet. I'm sure we will discover some gotcha's as we approach the Fall count, but hang in there with us and we will all get through this with honor. I have tested with mostly made-up data for this Fall, well, because I don't have any 'real' data yet to test with. If you find something not behaving as you expect, please let me know right away (and send your data) so that I can 'fix' it right away, eh? We have put a lot of thought and effort into making STUREC(c) nearly as smart as you are, but it is only a machine! It really cannot think. What it does is it follows rules. You may not know the 'rules', but they're there. For instance, in the SD panel (MSDS) the items are coded with letters of the alphabet. The alphabet is a list, this list has rules. The rule is that the letter A comes before the letter B and the letter E comes after the earlier letters in the list and before the later letters in the list. Often times STUREC(c) will expect you to follow the rules and do things in the order presented. For example, you should visit option B before you do C and then do D after you're done with C. If you will follow this simple sequence, the data entry / verification of the special MSDS data will go much smoother for you. This may seem awfully 'sequential', and it is! Sometimes doing things in a sequential manner makes it easier for us humans to understand. When we do one thing then do the next thing it may come together and produce expected results. Often times menus are arranged like this. With the more important things higher in the list (lower number). Look at the FTEREC Menu for example. Item 1. is Audit worksheet, this comes before 4. Create print file and item 5. Print bedsheet reports comes after 4, create. The same theory is at work in the MSDS Reporting menu where item 1 is Create a new worktable, 2 is print the errors then the third item is to create the export file. It's as easy as 123. Take a minute and look at the menus that you are already familiar with and you too will see the symmetry and sensibility of the order to most of them. You're right, some menus appear to have no 'rhyme-or-reason' and some of them don't. We had to put the options to do jobs you need somewhere. A good example of this is Menu:6. Miscellaneous function. These items are just that; miscellaneous, no special order, no rhyme-or-reason, just jobs to do. Menus are just a tool for you to communicate with the software to select the job you need and with the appropriate parameters to accomplish your task. =================================================================== ----> If you are not using the compressed backup method offered <-- ----> through STUREC(c), every day, please don't call us with <-- ----> any questions related to data corruption! You alone must <-- ----> take responsibility for your data. If you are regularly <-- ----> using the compressed backup method through STUREC(c), we <-- ----> will do our best, and may be able to help you recover <-- ----> from disaster. You are welcome to upload your compressed <-- ----> backup archive to us for safe off-site storage. This is <-- ----> is a FREE service and can be accessed at the conclusion <-- ----> of the backup process (Menu:7.7. Run Backup Procedure) <-- ----> <-- ----> If you are not using the compressed backup method <-- ----> available through STUREC(c), any data recoveries we <-- ----> perform on your behalf will be billed at $ 120.00 / hour <--