Release Notes

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Version 2.5

Gradebook Auto-save on Score Grid Teachers no longer have to click Save on the Scores page in the Gradebook to save their grades.
  • The Save and Cancel buttons no longer exist.
  • The system automatically saves every grade a teacher enters after they click out of the box, or press TAB or ENTER. The box turns yellow, and the system saves the entry.
  • The system automatically updates average columns after a teacher enters each grade.
  • The upper-right corner of the page now displays messages about the grade you enter.
    For example, if you enter a letter grade in a Text Comment field that requires a number, the "Invalid entry" message appears.
Hide Progress Columns On the Scores page, teachers can now select to view either progress columns or term grade columns. This way, it is clear which grades a teacher is currently viewing or working with.

To change the grades columns on the Scores page, use the Grade Columns drop-down to click Post Columns - Term or Post Columns - Progress.

Section-based Average Mode Teachers can now apply a different average calculating method to each course section. For example, a teacher might define in the user preferences that he or she weights averages by categories only. Then, he or she might apply the "weight by category and assignment" method to one course.
  • To define a weighting method to one course, go to the Gradebook tab. Select the course section, and click the Details side-tab. At the Average mode, select the mode you want to use to calculate averages for this course section.
  • If you do not define an average mode for a specific course section, the system uses the mode the teacher defined in his or her user preferences.
Health Immunization Mass Input Immunizations entry in Health view is simplified with the enabling of mass update. Health care professionals can mass update dose dates for all immunizations on the page.
  • To update immunization dose dates, click the Student tab. Select the student, and click the Health side-tab, then Immunizations. At the bottom of the Immunizations page, click Mass Edit button The page displays a text box for the appropriate dose for each immunization. To enter the dates, type the dates or click the Calendar to select the dates, and click Save.
Schedule On-screen Student Schedule Matrix You can now view your school's student schedules in a matrix format. Use the matrix to quickly see where a student is at a certain time of the day.
  • To view a student's schedule matrix, go to the Student > Schedule > Matrix tab in School view. At the top of the page, you can select which school's schedule you want to view, if the student is a secondary student. Also, select which term you want to view the schedule for.
  • The system highlights the box of the current day and period, alerting you of the class the student is currently attending.
  • For schools with rotated schedule, section track ID will appear in each matrix cell.
  • Same section the student taking shares the same color across all cells.
Special Education New Forms (Massachusetts) The Transition Planning form has been added. This form replaces the Transition Chart.
  • To access the form for a student, click the IEP tab, select the student then click the Forms side-tab. You can print a blank form, or create a new form to fill in the information online.
  • The form consists of two pages. Page one contains information about any courses or courses of study suited for a student's post-secondary experience, and any employment opportunities that might help them achieve their post-secondary vision. Page two provides areas to enter the Action Plan.
IEP Accommodation Change IEP Accommodation entry has been enhanced so that you can now define accommodations by content area.
For example, if you enter that a student has a 'needs frequent breaks' accommodation from the Scheduling/timing accommodation category, you can define that this accommodation is for English and Language Arts only.

To enter an accommodation in the Special Education view, click the IEP tab. Use the Details side-tab or the Accommodations side-tab to access accommodations.When you add a new accommodation, select the Content area from the drop-down menu. Then, to filter the list of accommodations, select the Accommodation category from the drop-down menu. Any accommodations in that category appear. After you select and save the accommodation, it appears on the IEP and displays the associated content area.

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Version 2.4

Daily Attendance Input Multiple homerooms for daily attendance It is now possible for staff members to have two separate homerooms. When both homerooms are specified there is now a dropdown menu on the Daily Attendance page which allows them to enter daily attendance for both homerooms.

The report Daily Post Verification was updated to display the secondary homerooms. For those staff members who have multiple homerooms, the homeroom corresponding to each entry will appear alongside their name (EX: Smith, John - Rm302).

Security Self-Serve Password Recovery The system is now capable of automatically resetting a user's password. On the login page, users can click on the I forgot my password link and, if the correct e-mail address and security question response are entered, an e-mail is sent containing a new password. The user is prompted to change this password on their first login.

Users must have a valid e-mail address and security question response in the system in order to use this feature. This information can be entered on the Security tab in the Set Preferences popup window. The system can also be configured to automatically prompt for this information immediately after logging in.

The following district level security preferences have been added to control the behavior of this feature:

  • Disable - if checked, self-serve password recovery will be turned off
  • Setup mode - determines if the system should prompt the user to enter their e-mail address and security question response after logging in
  • Attempts allowed - the number of failed password recovery attempts allowed before the user's account is locked
Attendance Class Attendance Posting Class attendance can now be posted in the same way that you post daily attendance. A preference called Post mode controls whether posting is disabled, allowed once per class, or allowed multiple times per class. This preference is available under the Class Attendance category of the preferences detail page.

To complement this feature, two class attendance post reports have been added to the School view, Attendance tab on both the Class Office and Class History side-tabs. The Class Attendance Post History report shows the class attendance posts for a given section within a specified date range. The Class Attendance Post Verification report can be used to audit the posts for a given date and period across all sections.

Admin Improved Logging The following operations are now logged in the Tool Log:

  • Schedule build
  • Schedule load
  • Study hall load
  • End-of-year rollover
  • Transcript average calculation (school view)
  • Transcript credit calculation (school view)
  • Grade posting (school view)
  • Mass update
  • Update gradebooks from transcript
  • Transcript merge drop/adds
  • Initialize calendars
Each log entry contains the date, time, duration in seconds, and the user that ran the operation. For certain operations, additional information is available in the LogDetails column. The Tool Log can be accessed from the District view, Admin tab, Logs side-tab.

Schedule Student Workspace Enhancements The following student schedule workspace enhancements have been made:
  • The Student workspace student schedule fields preference has been added. This school-level preference can be used to change the columns displayed on the workspace.
  • Similarly, the Student workspace master select fields preference can be used to change the columns displayed on the section picklist. This preference is also school-level.
  • An Add... link is now displayed next to unfulfilled requests to quickly add the associated section to the student's schedule.
  • Track ID and House code filters have been added to the section picklist.
Core Text Field Edit Window The icon now appears to the top-right of all unlimited text fields. Clicking on this icon opens a popup window containing a larger area for editing the text value. This popup window can be maximized to full-screen if desired. If spell-check is enabled for the field in the data dictionary, the icon appears in the bottom right-hand corner.
Workflow Enhancements Workflows have been enhanced to provide better form integration. In addition, multiple forms can now be collected on a single workflow phase.
Special Education Tab Reorganization The tabs and side-tabs in the special education view have been changed to provide a more intuitive organization of data. The table below describes the changes to each tab.
Tab Old behavior New behavior
Student tab, IEP side-tab Provided access to all related IEP data (e.g., goals, services) within the side-tab Provides access to the workflows and forms belonging to the selected IEP
Student tab, Workflows side-tab Displayed all workflows for a student (across all IEPs) Removed; workflows for a given IEP can now be viewed within the IEP side-tab
Student tab, Forms side-tab Displayed all forms for a student (across all IEPs) Removed; forms for a given IEP can now be viewed within the IEP side-tab
IEP tab Side-tabs provided access to all IEPs and related data (across all students) Side-tabs provide access to data belonging to the currently selected IEP
Global tab - New tab; provides access to all IEPs and related data
Form Manager A new interface for managing special education forms has been added. It can be accessed from the Forms link within Student tab > IEP side-tab, or from the IEP tab > Forms side tab. Notable features:
  • Organizes all special education forms on a single page
  • Offers the ability to print blank copies of all forms
  • Forms can be created, modified, and printed
  • The padlock icon appears next to all forms that are locked for entry
Improved Goal Objective Entry The benchmarks field on the goal detail page has been replaced with a table containing one row per objective. Objectives can be created, modified, and deleted directly within this table (no popup window).
Goal and Objective Banks The ability to update, modify, and select from a bank of IEP goals has been added. On the goal detail page, the Goal Bank Selection link can be used to select an existing goal from the bank. The Add To Goal Bank link adds the current goal to the bank.

Both user and district level goal bank entries are supported. All users can add goals from both the district bank and their personal bank. Only users with the Manage district goal bank privilege can add to the district bank. By default, this privilege is part of the Special Education Manager role.

A list of goal bank entries owned by the current user is available on Global tab, Goal Bank side-tab. Privileged users can access a list of district goal bank entries on the Admin tab, District Goal Bank side-tab.

PLEP A and B Accommodation Tracking (Massachusetts) The ability to select accommodations from a picklist has been added to the PLEP A and PLEP B subtabs on the Massachusetts IEP form. The accommodations added can be viewed and queried across students on the Global tab, Accommodations side-tab. Additional accommodations can be made available on the picklist by adding to the Accommodation Types and Accommodation Categories reference tables.
Improved IEP Team Member Entry The team definition page has been enhanced to allow entry of team members directly on the page without a popup window. In addition, the team can now be defined from both the Form Manager and the various IEP workflows.
Improved Date Tracking The following dates are now available on the Attributes subtab of the IEP form:
  • IEP signed date
  • Last IEP review date
  • Next IEP review date (moved from student detail page)
  • Last IEP evaluation date
  • Next IEP evaluation date (moved from student detail page)
  • Referral date
  • Initial eligibility date
  • Last eligibility date
These dates are updated automatically during the appropriate workflow phase.
IEP Response Page (Massachusetts) The Print response page only checkbox has been added to the printed IEP form.
Maryland Updates The Maryland IEP form has been updated to comply with MSDE's July, 2007 specification.
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Version 2.3

Core Template Editor A new interface for editing template definitions has been added. It can be accessed from Tools > Templates in the District View by clicking on the icon on the detail page for a template. This new editor provides the following features:
  • Quick field and relationship ID lookup
  • The ability to easily insert picklist and property XML tags
  • A Format button to properly indent the definition
  • A Validate button to identify any errors that may exist in the definition
Workflow Design A tool for creating and modifying workflows has been added in the District view, Tools > Workflow Definitions. This visual designer makes it easy to define and connect workflow phases and outcomes.
Conduct Multi-Add A new checkbox--Shared Incident ID--has been added to the conduct office input multi-add page. If checked, all incidents created will be assigned the same ID. Otherwise, a unique ID will be generated for each.
Build/Schedule Feedback Analysis The Workspace tab, Analysis side-tab has been revamped with a new interface that provides better assistance during the build process.
Teacher Assignments The ability to filter by courses and teachers by grade level and snapshot has been added to the teacher assignment sheet. (The teacher assignment sheet is available in the Workspace tab, Assignments side-tab.)
Load Studies The study hall load can now be limited to a specific term or selection of students. Students can be specified by either grade level or snapshot.
Load Students By Group The Load Students By Homeroom option has been renamed to Load Students By Group. The following improvements have been made:
  • Any student field can now be used to match section platoon codes. (Previously, only homeroom could be used.)
  • The option is now also available in the Build View, Workspace > Sections.
Rule Definitions The following rule definitions have been introduced or updated:
Type Rule Change Description
Course Term Restriction New Restricts term usage for a course. For a single course, it is now possible to specify the number of sections allowed for a particular term.
Room Unavailable Updated Multiple rooms can be selected
Teacher Unavailable Updated Multiple teachers can be selected
Engine Improvements The following performance enhancements have been made to the schedule engine:
  • Smarter look ahead for teachers and rooms when scheduling a section
  • Improved repair process when there are no rooms available for a section
  • Improved validation and feedback information
Special Education FTE Calculation (Massachusetts) The ability to calculate service full-time equivalencies has been added to the Special Education view in the Admin tab, FTE side-tab. FTEs are calculated on a monthly basis from the frequency, duration, and cycle values on service records. The following complementing reports are also available:
  • FTEs By Month
  • Schedule 11 Pupil Membership Summary
New Forms (Massachusetts) The Chapter 688 Referral form has been added. It can be accessed from the Transition tab of the IEP detail page.
Meeting Management The following meeting management improvements have been added:
  • Meetings can now be added with a type of Other. If Other is selected, a free-text entry field can be used to specify the purpose of the meeting. This value will appear on both the meeting invitation and attendance sheets.
  • The IEP Meeting Schedule report has been added in the Special Education View, Student tab. It displays IEP meetings within a specified date range for all or specified case managers.
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Version 2.2

Core Dynamic
Pick Lists		 Users can now directly type or copy/paste values into text fields when selecting related records or reference codes. A list of matching records will appear as you type and the value will be completed for you automatically once an exact match is found. This feature is available on both detail pages and list pages (via the Modify List option).

For example, when setting the Next School on a student you can begin typing a school name and a list of matching records will appear. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move to the desired school and then press the enter key to select it. You can also select a record by clicking it with the mouse.

Note that you can still use the icon to open a pick list window as before. However, dynamic pick lists provide faster data entry if you already know what value you want to select.

Spell Check The Data Dictionary now allows you to enable any* field for spell checking. A field flagged for spell checking will display a small abc button in the upper right hand corner of the input field. Clicking on the button will check the spelling of all words in the field and highlight any misspelled words in yellow. Users will be able to select a correctly spelled word from a list of suggestions or add the word to the spell check dictionary.

* Only character and text fields can be spell-checked.

Query Enhancements The list of operators and the input control on the query page are now based on the selected field.

For example, when a field like Date of birth is selected the list of operators does not include the Begins with operator because that operator is not appropriate for a date.

Also, when a field like Include in GPA is selected the input control will be a checkbox rather than a textbox .

Advanced Query Users can now create queries using SQL (Structured Query Language) syntax. Select Query... from the Options menu and click on the Advanced Mode > > link. Advanced queries can be saved, shared, and set as favorites in the filter drop-down just like standard queries. Contact your X2 administrator for help creating advanced queries.
Quick Report Enhancements Quick Report has been enhanced to include many new features including:
  • Grid lines
  • Rows shading
  • Varied fonts
  • Custom sorting
  • Grouping and statistics
  • Totals
User Validated Addresses Address line 1 will now display the icon if it has been marked as user validated.
Admin School Owned Reference Codes A reference table can now be marked as School owned. Codes within that table can then be set to belong to a specific school rather than the entire district.

For example, if the Schedule Teams reference table is marked as school owned then one school could have codes like Blue, Red, Green, and Orange while another school could have codes like Bears, Beavers, and Bobcats. Users in each school would only see the team codes that belong to their school.

Go to Admin > Reference in the District view to configure school owned tables and codes.

Dependent Reference Codes Fields in the Data Dictionary that are associated with a reference table can now filter the list of available codes based on the value in another field.

For example, you could set the Treatment code field to be dependent on the Primary complaint code field in the Health Log table. You could then specify the treatment codes that correspond to each symptom code. The result would be that users could only select treatments of Bandage or Cleanse for a symptom of Bruise but could select Aspirin or Rest for a symptom of Headache.

Dependent reference codes are configured in the District view. First go to Admin > Data Dictionary > Fields and select a field to enter the dependency. Then go to Admin > Reference > Codes to specify the dependent value for each code.

System Reports Updated All non-customized system reports have been upgraded to engine version 1.0.2.
System Logs The SIS now permanently records all user sessions and the tools (reports, exports, imports, and procedures) run by each user. This information can be sorted and queried to help diagnose performance problems. Go to Admin > Logs in the District view to view either the Access Log or the Tool Log.
Schedule Populate Homerooms The Populate Homerooms report has been replaced with the Populate Homerooms menu option that can be run from both the Student and Staff lists in the School view.
Course Visibility Courses in the district course catalog can now be restricted to specific schools. If a course is not visible to a particular school then it cannot be added to that school's course catalog. Go to Schedule > Courses in District view and view the details for a course. Click on the School subtab and choose the school visibility type - either exclude or include - and select the restricted schools.
Build Teacher Assignments Teacher assignments can now be set faster and easier on the master schedule by using the new input grid. Go to Workspace > Assignments in the Build view and enter the section counts for each teacher/course combination. The master schedule is automatically updated based on the section counts and term codes specified on the grid.
Rule Management Users now can manage rules directly from the Course, Student, Staff, and Room lists in the Build view rather than having to go to the Rules list. Click on the Rules side-tab under any of these lists to access the rules for the current record. Users can create new rules directly from the side-tab by selecting Add... from the Options menu. Creating a new rule is done via a wizard which filters the list of available rules to only those appropriate for the selected record.

Rules can now be copied. Select Copy... from the Options menu on any rule detail page.

Rule Definitions The following rule definitions have been introduced, updated, or deleted:
Type Rule Change Description
Course Group Exception New Specifies a list of courses that can be excluded from a house, team, or platoon grouping.
Pattern Exceptions Deleted This rule has been replaced with the more flexible Pattern Set Restrictions rule (see next rule).
Pattern Sets Restriction New Restricts pattern usage for a course. For a single course users can specify the number of sections allowed for a particular subset of patterns.
Term Link New Specifies a list of courses in which a student must be scheduled during the same period across the specified terms.
Room Proximity New Defines a room's proximity to other locations so that teachers will be scheduled in nearby rooms to minimize the travel time between classes. This rule works in conjunction with the new concept of location described below.
Reservation Updated Multiple rooms can be selected as well as multiple courses. Options have been added to indicate if room and course combinations are exclusive.
Teacher Avoid Student New Specifies a list of students that cannot be scheduled with a particular teacher. This rule has the same effect as Student - Avoid Teacher but allows data entry from the opposite perspective.
Dovetail New Specifies a list of partial cycle courses that should be scheduled in a manner to minimize the number of periods in a teacher's schedule.
Request Enhancements Several enhancements have been made to improve managing student course requests including:
  • There is a new preference to allow schools to manage requests for incoming students (based on a student's next school). Go to School > Setup > Preferences in the School view or District > Schools > Preferences in the District view and select the Schedule category. Select the Allow build year request edits checkbox to enable this feature.
  • The student request pick list now allows the user to filter courses by grade level. Note that grade levels must be entered in the course catalog for this filter to take effect.
  • The student request list now displays the school year context and total credits requested.
  • The Global > Requests list in the Build view now has filtering options for which students and courses to include.
  • Students now can request a course for a specific term. Go to Request > Details and specify a Term code.
Multi-Entry for Days & Periods Users can now created multiple days or periods all at once. Go to Scenario > Days or Scenario > Periods in the Build view and select Add... from the options menu. This option is also available in the School view under the Schedule > Days and Schedule > Periods.
Pattern Management There is no longer a global pattern set associated with a scenario. The global pattern set is now calculated by the build engine based on the patterns for the courses to schedule.

Patterns can now be copied from one school to another. Go to Global > Pattern Libary in the Build view and select Copy Patterns... from the Options menu.

Repair Schedule The build engine will now automatically attempt to "repair" a build if the current section cannot be scheduled. The repair process attempts to reschedule previously scheduled sections in order to make room for the current section.
Locations The build engine now considers the physical locations of rooms when building sections. The engine will attempt to schedule teachers in nearby rooms to minimize the travel time between classes. This feature is particularly useful for large schools that have multiple buildings or wings.

Users can specify the Location code for a room by going to Rooms > Details in the Build view.

Users can specify the Location code for a teacher by going to Staff > Details in the Build view. In additional to the location code, teachers can be limited to the specified location by selecting the Use preferred location only? checkbox.

Other Enhancements There are numerous other enhancements in the Build view including:
  • The Refresh options under the Course, Student, and Staff lists will populate the list with information from the previous year's schedule attributes.
  • Course and staff attributes can be populated based on values in the master by going to Workspace > Sections and selecting Populate Schedule Attributes... from the Options menu.
  • The Initialize Sections... option under Workspace > Sections will now highlight the any extra sections that should be deleted based on section counts in the course's schedule attributes.
  • The student list can be filtered based on schedule information, such as schedule percentage, by selecting Student Schedule Verification... from the options menu.
  • The number of inclusion students allowed for inclusion sections can now be limited based on a preference. Go to Scenario > Preferences to set the Inclusion ratio (%) value.
  • Content term codes are now enabled or disabled based on a preference. Go to Scenario > Preferences to select the Use content term code checkbox.
  • Individual sections can now be excluded from the build process. Go to Workspace > Sections > Details and select the Exclude from build checkbox.
  • Individual student schedule records can be locked during the load process. Go to Workspace > Schedules > Details and select the Lock schedule checkbox.
  • Course sections can now be balanced by term. Go to Courses > Details and select the Balance by term checkbox.
  • The Workspace > Feedback list now has filtering options for which types and levels of messages to include.
  • Users now have full access to previous year scenarios.
Special Education New Forms (Massachusetts) The following Massachusetts special education forms are now supported:
  • The Transition Grid has been added as an additional tab to the IEP form. It can be printed by selecting Transition Grid from the reports menu.
  • The Specific Learning Disabilities Statement has been added as a new tab to the Eligibility Determination flowchart. It is entered during the Determine Eligibility phase of the Initial Referral and Re-evaluation workflows.
IEP Indicator If allowed by the district, special education students are now identifiable in both the gradebook and on student pages with the IEP visual indicator . When clicked, the indicator opens a popup window containing information from the student's active IEP. The information displayed is based on a template that can be customized by your X2 administrator.

Two new district preferences have been added to control the behavior of the IEP indicator:

  • Allow on student pages - if enabled, the IEP indicator will appear along with any other alerts (legal, medical, or other) in the breadcrumbs area.
  • Allow in gradebook - if enabled, the IEP indicator will appear next to the student's name in the gradebook.
Go to District > Setup > Preferences in the District view and select the Student category to set these new preferences.
Special Education Register The Special Education Register report displays a list of students along with information from their active IEPs on the specified report date. It can be run from the student list in the Special Education view. The students appearing on the report are determined by the list's current selection.
IEP Progress Reports Progress Reports can now be printed for a batch of students by running the report from the IEP list in the Special Education view. The report includes IEPs from the list's current selection.
Meeting Management The following enhancements have been added to the Attendance tab on the IEP meeting detail page:
  • Excused checkbox - team members can now be marked as excused from an IEP meeting. When invitations are printed, waiver forms are generated for excused team members.
  • Print invitation checkbox - this checkbox can be unchecked for team members that do not require invitations. Separate invitations will not print for these team members. They will, however, appear on the attendance sheet.
Team Management The Special education role field has been added to the staff detail page in the Special Education view. When added to an IEP team, this value is used by default as the staff member's role on the team.

An individual can now be designated as a team chairperson by setting the Chairperson checkbox when adding or modifying a team member.

"My Cases" Filters The following filters have been added to both the Student and IEP lists in the Special Education view:
  • The My Cases filter displays students or IEPs managed by the user.
  • The My Current Cases filter is the same as above, with previous IEPs omitted.
MCAS Accommodation Tracking (Massachusetts) The ability to select MCAS accommodations on the Assessment tab of the IEP form has been added. The accommodations added can be viewed and queried across students on the IEP tab, Accommodations side-tab.

To complement this functionality, the Accommodation Directory report has been added. It displays a list of students receiving one or more selected accommodations. It is also available in the IEP tab, Accommodations side-tab.

IEP Transfers The IEP Transfer workflow is now available in the Enroll in Special Education wizard. It can be used to bring a student that is already on an active IEP into the special education view. It is useful for special education students who have transferred into the district with an active IEP.
Workflow Conversion The Convert Workflow... option has been added on the workflow checklist page. It can be used to convert between compatible workflows (e.g. from a Review to a Re-evaluation, and vice-versa).
Maryland Support The Maryland State Department of Education's July 2006 IEP form is now supported. Related forms and workflows have also been added to supplement this form.
Student Alerts There is new alert type for students called Other that can be used for alert information that is not legal or medical. Other alerts will appear with a icon in the breadcrumbs or on the student roster in the gradebook. Go to Student > Details in either the District or School view and click on the Alerts subtab to manage these alerts.
Journal Users can now log all points of contact with a student through the use of journal entries. For example, the journal could be used by guidance counselors to track meetings with their students. Go to Student > Documents > Journal in either the District or School view to manage journal entries.
Side-tab Reorganization The side-tabs under the student list across the various views have been reorganized to minimize the total number of side-tabs and to improve logical grouping. The following table highlights the changes:
Old Organization New Organization
  • Enrollment
    • Enrollment
    • Schools
    • Programs
  • Fees
  • Events
  • Groups
  • Documents
  • Workflows
  • Forms
  • Membership
    • Enrollment
    • Schools
    • Programs
    • Groups
  • Transactions
    • Fees
    • Events
    • Workflows
  • Documents
    • Journal
    • Forms
    • Documents
Gradebook Auto-Capitalize Letter Grades Lower-case letter grades will automatically be converted to upper-case when saved.
Absences Post Column Columns in a transcript definition can now be specified with the type Class Absences for collecting absence totals based on class attendance. These values can be populated when running the Update Post Columns wizard rather than entering them by hand.
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Version 2.1

Schedule Course Catalog Districts can now use preferences to enforce ownership of course catalog attributes. Go to District > Setup > Preferences in the District view and then select the Schedule category to set the following preferences:
  • Auto update school courses - if selected then changes to district courses will be pushed automatically to school courses
  • Course field ownership (16 individual preferences) - determines if a field is owned by the district or the school

You can refresh school courses with values from the district courses. Go to Schedule > Courses in the School view and select Refresh school course catalog... from the Options menu.

All reports including report cards, transcripts, and GPA now use attributes from the school course catalog.
Secondary School Association Attendance Schools can now decide how attendance is managed for secondary students. Set the Attendance management type on the Student > Enrollment > Schools > Detail page to one of the following options:
  • None - the secondary school cannot take daily attendance for this student
  • Sole - only the secondary school can take attendance for this student
  • Shared - both primary and secondary schools can take attendance for this student

Schools can also set the default behavior for attendance management via the Secondary school management preference. Go to Setup > Preferences in the School view and select the Daily Attendance category to choose one of the above options.

Also, secondary school association can be limited to a date range rather than the entire school year.
Conduct and Health Schools can now enter conduct incidents and log health visits for secondary students on the days those students attend that school.
Mass Creation You can now create secondary school associations for multiple students or staff. Go to Student or Staff in the School view and select Create Secondary School Associations... from the Options menu.

You can now roll-over secondary staff data to the build year based on the current year records. Go to Staff in the School view and select Rollover Staff Schools for Build from the Options menu.
Core User Defined Filters You can now manage your own filters on list pages. Click the button next to the filter drop-down list. You can add saved queries and snapshots to the filter list and then use the up and down buttons to specify the order in which they appear. The item at the top will be the default filter when you first visit the list.

You can also decide to add a query or snapshot directly to the filter list when you save it. Select the Save as favorite checkbox and, optionally, the Move to top checkbox from the Save As window.

Personnel MEPID Import (MA DOE) The Massachusetts Department of Education MEPID import can be run from Tools > Imports in the District view. View the details for the MA DOE MEPID import and select Run... from the Options menu.
EPIMS Exports (MA DOE) The Massachusetts Department of Education EPIMS exports can be run from Tools > Exports in the District view. View the details for either the Staff Record or Work Assignments export and select Run... from the Options menu. Contact your X2 administrator for help setting the necessary aliases in your Data Dictionary.
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Version 2.0

Infrastructure Java 5/Tomcat 5 Version 2.0 is built on the latest Java 5 release as well as the latest Tomcat 5 release. Although there are no visible changes, "under the hood" there is a much more reliable infrastructure. Using Java 5 and Tomcat 5 provides better memory management and improved overall performance of the application server.
Report Server The X2 SIS can now be configured to offload reports to a separate Tomcat instance that acts as a dedicated report server. The report server runs reports in a completely separate process and can even be configure to run on a separate machine. This ensures that users do not suffer a performance penalty when large report jobs are run.
Admin Report Format Improvements Several enhancements have been made to report formats that make customizations easier. These changes include auto-conversion, bean paths, and alias support.

Auto-conversion allows you to treat every field as if it were a string. This feature removes the need to convert dates, times, logicals, and numeric values to an equivalent string.

Bean paths remove the need for using "getter" to access related properties. The following table compares the old way of getting related properties with the new bean paths.

Old Syntax New Syntax
$F{person}.getDob() $F{person.dob}
$F{person}.getPhysicalAddress().getCity() $F{person.physicalAddress.city}

Aliases allow you to reference a field via its alias rather than its bean name. This improves readability since you can now use $F{a:DOE 10} rather than $F{fieldB025}. This feature also facilitates the sharing of reports among districts. As long as two districts define the "DOE 10" alias it doesn't matter if one district stores its values in field B025 and another stores its values in field A016.

Contact your X2 administrator to register for report training in order to learn more about these new features.

Report Availability The report detail page has been split into three sub-tabs: General, Navigation, and Schools. The Navigation sub-tab now allows you to specify which views to include for each navigation ID. For example, you could make a report available on the student list (student.std.list) in the Health view but not in the School or District views.
Workflows Workflows define the phases (steps) of a particular process, the possible outcomes for each phase, and the users who are responsible for completing each phase. Workflows are defined in the District view under Tools > Workflow Definitions and Tools > Workflow Roles.

Workflows are a core tool that can be used with any type of process. Initially, workflows have been implemented for IEP processes in the Special Education view and for conduct referrals that can be used by teachers and discipline administrators.

Users can view their open workflow tasks on the homepage in the Tasks window. If you do not have a Tasks window on your homepage then customize your homepage preferences (see above).

Create User Accounts Wizard The Create User Accounts option has been upgraded to a wizard with additional features for setting default values and generating passwords. This wizard can be run from the contact, staff, and student lists in both the District and School views.
Reset User Passwords You can now reset the passwords for multiple users at once. Go to Admin > Users in the District and select Reset Passwords... from the Options menu. There are three options for the password format:
  • Mnemonic - a random three-digit number is surrounded by two four-letter words, one of which is capitalized (for example, "tree548BEAR" or "SAND110dock")
  • Numeric - a random n-digit number where n is specified by the user (for example, if n is 5 then some passwords might be "65831" or "58499")
  • Constant - the same user-specified value is assigned to all users in the current selection (for example, "password" or "12345")

X2 does not recommend resetting user passwords to a constant value due to the inherent security risks.

Data Dictionary IDs are displayed on the default field sets and templates for tables and fields in the Data Dictionary. These IDs are used when designing imports and exports and when customizing templates. Also, relationships and their IDs are shown for each table.
Log Viewer You can now view the application log by going to Admin > Logs in the District view. The log viewer allows you to filter messages that match a particular string. For example, you can filter by "2006-10-01" to see all messages that were logged on October 1.
Core My Homepage Renamed My Homepage has been renamed to Home to save horizontal space.
School-Level Announcements The homepage now supports school-level announcements. School announcements only appear on the homepages for users at that school. School-level announcements must be created in the School view.
Homepage Preferences The various windows on the homepage (Announcements, Student Search, Calendar, etc.) are now displayed or hidden based on the user's preferences. Select Set Preferences from the settings bar and click on the Home tab.
Alerts The default student template now has an Alerts sub-tab for managing student alerts. This sub-tab replaces the options for Edit Legal Alert... and Edit Medical Alert.... Students can have unlimited alerts of either type.
Handheld Device (PDA) Support Data from the SIS can now be downloaded to a handheld device or personal digital assistant (PDA) and accessed using X2 Mobile. Access via a handheld device is controlled by a new privilege. Contact your system administrator for help configuring your handheld device to work with X2 Mobile.
Person Merge Duplicate person records can now be merged using the Merge Records wizard. The wizard allows you to select what related data should be merged and what, if any, should be deleted. This wizard can be run from the person, contact, student, staff, and user lists in the District view.
Template Enhancements Templates can now specify default values beyond what the Data Dictionary defines for a field. These default values can be applied for new records only or for records that have a blank value in that particular field.

Templates can now display properties in bold, underlined, and italic fonts when used in "column" mode. Previously this was only allowed in "form" mode.

Families Family support has been added to the SIS. Go to District > Families in the District view to manage the list of families and their members. Families are the cornerstone of the Family view (see the notes on Public Portal below).

Families can be automatically populated by matching people based on common fields like last name, home phone number, or street address. Go to Tools > Procedures in the District view and run the Create Families procedure. The procedure provides an option to preview the results before actually creating the family records.

Public Portal New Views There are two new views in X2 - the Student view and the Family view. Together these views define the public portal. The default roles for the users accessing these views are Student and Family, respectively. Similar to the gradebook, there are special privileges that grant an administrator access to any student's or family member's portal pages.
Academics The Academics tab in both the Student and Family views displays a student's current schedule along with grade and attendance summaries. Also included are the assignments for each course, the student's scores, and other assignment statistics (such as class average, high score, and low score).

Note, the assignments and statistics are populated based on the teacher's gradebook. If teachers are not using the X2 gradebook then the assignment list will be empty.

Activities The Activities tab in both the Student and Family views displays a student's extracurricular activities. These activities are referred to as groups in X2. Each group can have a staff advisor, multiple student members, and multiple events. Group events can appear on the calendar (see below).

Groups can be managed at three levels by three distinct types of users:

  • An administrator can create groups and manage its members and events by going to School > Groups in the School view. An administrator can manage the group membership for an individual student by going to Students > Groups.
  • A staff member can manage the members and events in the groups that she advises by going to My Info > Groups in the Staff view .
  • A student can manage the members and/or events in a group to which he belongs by going to Activities > Members or Activities > Events in the Student view. A student can only manage the groups that he has bean explicitly allowed to manage.
Calendar The Calendar tab in both the Student and Family views displays the class assignments, activities, district and school events, and personal appointments in a monthly view according to the user's preferences. School session days are displayed with a white background and non-session days are displayed with a gray background.

Preferences can be configured by going to Calendar > Preferences. The list of available calendars is displayed and each one can be included or not, each with its own color. Class assignments can be filtered by category (for example, tests and quizzes) or all can be displayed.

Go to School > Events in the School view and District > Events in the District view to manage school and district level events, respectively. A student can also create personal events by going to Calendar > Events in the Student view.

Virtual Locker The Locker tab in the Student view is a preview of the virtual locker feature. This feature allows a student to store files for easy transport between school and home. A future release will include more functionality including a polished user interface and district preferences on limiting the amount of data stored per user.

X2 does not recommend enabling this feature for general use at this time since there are no limits on the amount of data a user can store. This feature has been provided only as a preview for demonstrating the potential uses of the public portal. Contact your system administrator for help configuring your security roles to prevents students from using this feature.

Gradebook Footnotes Teacher can now define custom footnotes that can be set on a score to provide additional information. Go to Tools > Footnotes in the Staff view to manage the list of footnotes. Footnotes are used on the Gradebook > Scores page. Select a score and press control+N to open a footnote pick list ("N" for "notes"). Alternatively, select a score and then choose Lookup Footnote from the Options menu. Footnotes appear in a green subscript after the score. Hover the mouse over the footnote to display the associated comment.
Private Assignments With the introduction of the public portal, teacher assignments are now visible in the Student and Family views. Assignments are considered public by default. A teacher can hide an assignment from the public portal by selecting the Private indicator on the assignment detail page.
Publish Statistics With the introduction of the public portal, assignment statistics such as class average, high score, and low score are now visible in the Student and Family views. Statistics are visible by default. A teacher can hide statistics from the public portal by unchecking Publish assignment statistics under gradebook preferences.
Performance Enhancements The rendering (display) time for the Gradebook > Scores page has been significantly improved in Internet Explorer. Displaying 120 assignments for a class of 25 students now takes approximately 5 seconds compared to over 11 seconds in prior releases - a 51% performance gain.
Read-Only Access To Scores The Gradebook > Scores page can now be accessed by a user with read-only privileges. Prior releases required that users had certain update, create, and delete privileges to view this page.
Substitutes Taking Attendance Substitute teachers can now take daily and class attendance for the teacher they are replacing for the day. Substitutes must have their own user account which must be linked to their corresponding staff record. Also, substitutes must be selected on the teacher's attendance record for the day. Substitutes will only see daily and class attendance information for the teacher's classes; assignment and grading information will not be available.
Special Education IEP Workflows Workflows have been defined for the Initial Referral, IEP Renewal, and IEP Renewal with Reassessment processes in the Special Education view. By default these workflows conform to Massachusetts standards but can be modified to work with other states.
Massachusetts Forms The following forms have been added to the Special Education view:
  • Eligibility Determination
  • Evaluation Consent
  • Extended Evaluation
  • Individual Education Plan (IEP)
  • Special Education IEP Renewal
  • Special Education Referral
Personnel Data Model Updates There are many new professional development data elements tracked for a staff member including:
  • Courses
  • Course Work
  • Sections (with Meetings and Enrollment)
  • Plans (including Personal Goals and Aligned Goals)
  • Activities
  • Reviews
MEPID Exports (MA DOE) The Massachusetts Department of Education MEPID exports can be run from Tools > Exports in the District view. View the details for the MA DOE MEPID export and select Run... from the Options menu. The export can be run in Request, Lookup, or Verification mode.
Credit Staff Accruals Staff accruals can now be mass credited by going to Attendance > Staff Accruals in the Personnel view and selecting Credit Accruals... from the Options menu.
Multi-Race Support for Staff Staff now have the same multiple race support as do students. Click on the Ethnicity sub-tab when viewing a staff member's details to see the list of races as well as the Hispanic indicator. Contact your X2 administrator for help populating this data based on existing values in the staff ethnic code field.
Schedule Load Sections by Homeroom Many elementary schools and some middle schools have a master schedule that is simply based on homerooms. Schedules such as these can now be easily loaded by going to Schedule > Master in the School view and selecting Load > Load Students by Homeroom... from the Options menu.
Workspace Enhancement The student schedule workspace (go to Student > Schedule > Workspace in the School view) has several enhancements:
  • The section pick list has additional filter controls for course number and team code
  • The size of the section pick list has been increased
  • Course requests can be edited via a popup window
New Reports Two new reports, Unscheduled Room and Unscheduled Teacher, have been added to both the Build and School views. These reports show by period which rooms and teachers are free, respectively.
Health Medications Side-tab A Medications side-tab has been added under the Student tab in the Health view. Also, the student side-tabs have been reorganized to match the order of the tabs.
Incomplete Screenings Filter The default filter for the Screening > Screenings list in the Health view shows incomplete screenings only. An incomplete screening is one that has been flagged for a follow-up and has not yet been completed.
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