Cumulative Record

Discipline Update 9.0.0

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:00 -0400

Discipline Version 9 is now available! This release (the ninth major update in as many years) includes numerous improvements and two new add-on components that allow you to extend the functionality of your account in exciting new ways.

Classroom Managed Incidents Add-On

Allow your teachers to report discipline incidents that occur in the classroom without sending a referral to the office. Administrators can now specify which actions are available for teacher use and even create document templates that correspond to these actions. New reporting options will help you analyze office referrals and classroom managed incidents separately. This feature will accommodate several new workflows:

The recording of minor incidents for schools implementing PBIS.
Documentation of steps taken by a teacher prior to writing a referral.
Direct access to detention and other consequences by teachers.

Classroom Managed Incidents can be enabled in the new Add-Ons Settings panel. A $99 USD charge will be added to your 2012/2013 invoice.

Document Translation Add-On

Create Document Templates that print in a different language than your account default. Your referral details will be converted to the document template language when you print the document.

Document Translation can be enabled in the new Add-Ons Settings panel. A $99 USD charge will be added to your 2012/2013 invoice.

Improved Action Scheduler

You can now specify the default start and end time for each administrative (and classroom) action. For example, if you set the default time for lunch detention to 12:00 to 1:00, that time will be used when you assign that consequence.

Calendar Access for Teachers

In addition to the Referral History, teachers can now access referrals they have previously written using the Calendar.

More Accessible Report Options

Report filtering and range options have been moved into a new report properties menu above each report. These options were previously accessible from the Reports menu, or hidden in the report header.

Other Improvements

Added an option to turn off year-ago data in system reports.
Added Section 504 Plan status to student information.
Added support for Early Childhood grades.
Changing a student’s IEP or 504 Plan status now updates all referrals for the current school year with the new status.
Improved Calendar permissions. Now you can grant view and edit permissions separately.
The Grade Analysis chart is no longer weighted by student enrollment.
Improved support for special characters.
Improved Student Import compatibility with popular student information systems.
Improved Student Import error checking.
Removed some NCES code support.
Removed security settings.
Fixed an issue where charts would not print in Google Chrome.
Fixed an issue caused by incorrectly set system time.

Depreciated Browser Support

Please upgrade your browsers to Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 10, Chrome 16, or Safari 5. Support for earlier versions of these browsers has been depreciated and will not be supported in future updates.

Discipline Update 8.2.1

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:54 -0400

The Referrals Written by User and Referrals Processed by User tables are now generated using the date written and date processed, respectively. This change more closely matches user expectations than the previous method of using the incident date.

Data Based Decision Making Training

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:52 -0400

Virtuoso Education Consulting is offering a new training on data based decision making with EducatorsHandbook.com:

Your team will learn to use a 5 step problem solving process to: identify strengths and prioritize disciplinary concerns, develop effective intervention plans for students not meeting behavioral expectations, and utilize data to determine responsiveness to interventions implemented with fidelity.

This is a great opportunity to enhance your EducatorsHandbook.com Discipline implementation by teaching your staff the skills they need to incorporate office referral data into their decision making process. Contact Virtuoso Education Consulting for details and ask about a free consultation.

Discipline Update 8.2.0

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 10:13 -0400

This update significantly improves page load times and resolves several performance bottlenecks. Specifically, the Dashboard report now loads up to 45% faster for users with large data sets while most reports are 10-20% faster for all users.

Other Improvements

Changed the way dates and times are formatted in various tables to ensure proper sorting in third-party applications.
Fixed an issue where the Complete Referral Data table would not return results under certain circumstances.

Discipline Update 8.1.3

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:57 -0400

Fixed an issue where special characters entered by Firefox users would not display correctly.
The system now reports the date and time a referral was last edited as well as the user who performed the edit.
Added a last-modified attribute to the incident element of the Discipline REST API.

Discipline Update 8.1.2

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:25 -0400

Fixed an issue that caused permissions to display incorrectly for users with custom access.

Discipline Update 8.1.1

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:23 -0400

Restored printing for Internet Explorer 7 users.

Discipline Update 8.1.0

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 10:06 -0400

EducatorsHandbook.com is pleased to announce the release of Discipline Version 8.1.0. This release includes several enhancements to improve usability and speed. Specifically, these improvements will make importing students easier; offer more flexible workflow options, particularly for secondary schools; and improve overall responsiveness.

This release has changed the way user preferences are stored. Administrative users should update their Inbox Preferences (under Settings) to ensure new referral notifications continue to work as expected.

Improved Student Import

The student import function now supports a variety of import formats, including: Microsoft Excel (.xlsx and .xls), OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods), Comma Delimited (.csv), and Tab Delimited (.txt).

The import function has also received numerous improvements, including:

better file detection,
more robust error checking,
automatic detection of incorrect student numbers,
automated management of student race values,
better detection of PS and PK-3 grades,
better detection of duplicate student rows,
and improved error reporting for missing or invalid values.

Improved Inbox and Notification Settings

The Inbox Preferences now support non-consecutive grades and student name limits for the display and notification of new referrals. This will greatly improve the office referral workflow for schools that share referral responsibilities among multiple administrators.

Improved Speed

Several improvements have been made to improve speed and resource use for most functions. A new charting core has reduced page generation times of the reports by up to 80%, while a new caching routine has provided similar gains for the referral forms.

Referrals Processed by User Table

The Reports function now offers two user table choices: Referrals Written by User and Referrals Processed by User. The new tables will help schools better allocate administrative resources.

Other Improvements

Implemented a work around for an issue that causes file uploads to hang in Safari.
Fixed a bug that would cause imports to fail if the import file contained empty rows below the student data.
Fixed a bug that caused an unexpected logout when a high number of import errors were encountered.
Fixed a bug that would cause Tags with special characters to function incorrectly.
Fixed a bug that could lead to orphan Calendar entries under certain circumstances.
Added an Action histogram to the User report.
Attempting to add a student who was previously unenrolled will now re-enroll the student automatically.

Discipline Update 8.0.3

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:41 -0400

Changes to the Discipline REST API.
Restored printing of documents from the Referral History in Google Chrome.

Discipline Update 8.0.2

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:09 -0400

Increased font size on printed documents.
Improved support for email addresses with nonstandard characters.
Improved how the Referral Trending chart handles incorrectly set school year data.
Improved Users & Groups editing.

Discipline Update 8.0.1

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 09:53 -0400

Fixed an issue where the check all box on the User Table screen would not appear.

Discipline Update 8.0.0

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:00 -0400

EducatorsHandbook.com is excited to announce Discipline Version 8! The focus of this release is more robust data tracking and improved data compatibility with district systems. We have added more than a dozen new data structures and enabled direct access to this data through an exciting new interface.

Discipline REST API

The new REST API provides a standard communication interface that allows you to access your data in exciting new ways. Initially, the new API will enable direct communication with district applications. Long-term, the API will become the foundation for future applications that make it easier than ever to manage your office referral workflow.

Download the Discipline REST API Specification

Major Event Tracking

The referral form has been updated with fields for major incident categories, zero tolerance enforcement, weapons, student injury, and police involvement. In addition, changes to the scheduler now make it easier to document long actions.

Improved Grade Analysis

The Grade Analysis chart now displays the number of referrals per enrolled student for each grade level. This change greatly improves the utility of the report for schools with an uneven enrollment distribution.

New IEP Filter

Reports and tables can now be filtered to show only students with an IEP.

Streamlined Referral Process

The referral form has been updated to allow administrators to send referrals to the inbox, rather than processing them immediately.

Other Improvements

Referrals written at the same time will now be treated as a single referral incident.
Improved description and comment formatting for the referral form and reports.
Ability to summarize more than two actions in the reports and the Process Referral sidebar.
Improved list editor for Administrative Actions.
Improved access to multiple accounts with the revised login form.
Added an Employee ID field to the Users & Groups function.
Added a Referrals by Position table.
Reorganized tables and expanded multiple tables for feature parity with the new API.
Added new document template codes to reflect expanded data fields.
Improved document formatting.
Fixed an issue that caused incorrect text alignment on charts.

The Great Behavior Game 1.0.4

Sat, 22 May 2010 16:52 -0400

Improved game board interaction in older versions of Internet Explorer.

Discipline Update 7.0.3

Tue, 18 May 2010 11:53 -0400

Fixed an issue affecting percentile calculation on some reports.

Fun and (Behavior) Games

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 09:00 -0400

EducatorsHandbook.com is pleased to announce the immediate availability of The Great Behavior Game, an exciting, free service that helps teachers cope with the ever-increasing challenges of classroom behavior.

The Great Behavior Game combines five decades of research and modern classroom technology into a fun and easy-to-implement package. The game helps teachers create a positive learning environment by focusing on appropriate student behavior, encouraging competition among peers and allowing the classroom teacher to focus on the lesson.

Using a behavioral technique called non-contingent reinforcement, The Great Behavior Game increases student recognition beyond what is possible with traditional classroom management systems. During game play, a game board with a game piece for each student is projected on the board where all students can see. Students automatically earn points for on-task behavior while the teacher plays the role of referee by awarding bonus points and point penalties as necessary. This model ensures that all students have an opportunity to participate – even high performing students who may otherwise go unnoticed.

Interested individuals can register for a free account by visiting www.educatorshandbook.com.

Discipline Update 7.0.2

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:13 -0400

Improved document printing in all browsers.
Fixed a bug that caused the {user:position} document template code not to print.

G-CASE and the Apathetic Student

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:31 -0400

Austin Jackson will be presenting with Eric Landers from Georgia Southern University at G-CASE 2009 at the Savannah Marriott Riverfront. Our talk is titled “Motivating the Apathetic Student Toward Success” and will be held at 10:45 in the Johnson room on Thursday, November 12th.

Discipline Update 7.0.1

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:00 -0400

Improved report printing in Internet Explorer.

Discipline Update 7.0.0

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:00 -0400

We promised big changes in 2009 and today we are announcing our biggest product update yet: Discipline Version 7. This release includes the most significant change to our report engine in six years and introduces a revolutionary new tagging system. The update also includes some of our most popular subscriber requests to make this the best version of the EducatorsHandbook.com Discipline service ever. You will never look at your referral data the same way again!

All New Report Engine

The report engine has been re-written from the ground up to give you even more access to your referral data. Use the new report header to analyze your referrals along a variety of parameters with the click of your mouse. Categorize your referrals with Tags, which allow you to segment your referral data in powerful new ways.

Referral Trending

The Referral Trending chart gives you a more accurate report of the frequency of referrals over time by factoring in the number of days per month.

More Informative Process Referral Function

The updated Process Referral function includes the new Referral Trending chart and a list of upcoming consequences to help you make even better decisions about student referrals.

Unprocessed Referrals Added to the Referral History

Teachers can now view referrals sent to the administration that have not been processed.

Write Multiple Referrals Simultaneously

Administrators can now write referrals for multiple students at the same time.

Other Improvements

An Action Distribution has been added to the student report.
Deleting a referral will return you to the report or calendar day you were viewing, rather than the first page of the Referral History.
The Most Frequently Referred and Most Frequently Referring tables will only show currently enrolled students/active users on standard reports.
Improved grade report to show grades with zero referrals.
Improved reliability of administrative action scheduler.
Improved referral form rendering for Internet Explorer 6 users.

Safari 4

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:50 -0400

We are pleased to report that the EducatorsHandbook.com Discipline service works great in Safari 4, which was released by Apple today. If you are a Safari user, head on over to the download page to get the latest version!