21.7.0.0 Release Notes

Data

School Group and School Cluster Security Role File Support Available

The custom user role file can now support the role of school cluster with the role code of schoolCluster and the Cluster Code to designate which groupings of schools users can access in the platform. This management initially requires you to set up your school groups through a school cluster file to indicate how schools are grouped on the site. You must submit a support ticket to allow your district to use this new user management through file support.

Interventions

Updated Minimum Character Requirement for Intervention Progress Monitoring Titles

When adding Progress Monitoring results in Interventions, you can have as few as five characters in the title rather than the previous minimum of ten characters.

Online Testing

Schoology Grade Passback Supports Rubric Scored Item Types

Schoology Grade Passback from Performance Matters supports both machine-scored and manually-scored (also known as rubric-scored) assessments. This functionality allows you to administer Performance Matters tests seamlessly within Schoology with grades writing to Schoology Gradebook. This feature should be available to you if you have the Performance Matters and Schoology integration turned on for your sites.

• You must enable the grading option before students take the test.

• You must select the grading category.

• Students must take the assessment while logged in on the Schoology LMS. Students cannot take the test via Performance Matters OLA directly.

• After scoring the assessment, student results for the rubric-scored tests are sent to Schoology with the following light build.

Schoology Grade Passback

Online Testing

New Text-to-Speech Tool

TextHelp is the new default text-to-speech solution for online testing. It provides improved functionality and extension options, including:

• A following-along visual indicator.

• The ability to control speech speed.

• The ability to magnify the words being read.

• No character or word limit.

• The ability to read randomized answer choices.

• The ability to support Natural Language Math ML.

Use text-to-speech

Online Testing

Student Online Testing Style Updates and Improvements

The Online Testing experience has updated styling, including: 

• A newly styled Sign-In page that aligns with similar pages in the Powerschool line of products.

• Updated Test List page with a simpler layout for improved navigation by removing panels and adding a color scheme to the test statuses.

• A new header bar with an updated connection status readout on hover and your Powerschool initials which now serve as a menu when clicked. 

• A new easy-to-navigate toolbar inside a toolbox icon.

• Updated page navigation with new back and next buttons, a new location for the submit button to prevent students from accidentally selecting it when selecting tools, and a sleek updated question navigation bar.

• Removal of the Navigation box in the instructions page at the start of a test.

• Updated modals for locked tests, teacher authentication, and more.

• Line reader, Screen Magnification, TTS, and Color Contrast, all of which are available in the new Accommodations Modal in the menu under your initials.

• The ability to navigate to and select the toolbar via the keyboard. 

Basic test takingOnline testing experience

Permissions

Updated Item Editor Instruction Block Permissions

When adding an instruction block in the item editor, you will notice that the Proctor, Test Constructor, and Tutor permissions are no longer available. Although we had legacy plans for these permission types, it turns out that the only permissions that impact visibility are Student and Scorer.

If you select Student, the contents of the instruction block are available for students when taking tests online. Selecting Scorer allows the rubric to display when scoring items with human scoreable interaction types.

Reports

Updated the Label of the Student Detail Local Test Results Tab

The Test Results tab of the Student Detail report previously displayed the results for tests administered through the platform under a tab labeled as Local. That label has been updated to Common. This change unifies the language of assessments administered in the platform and distinguishes them from third-party assessment results uploaded in the site from a file.

Student details

Student and Parent Portals

Print Option Added in the Student and Parent Portals

For customers who use the Student and Parent Portals, a print option is now available to generate a PDF export of the student's information. Initially, this will not include any data in the Teacher Feedback tab, but this functionality will expand to include teacher feedback in a future release. With this release, the print option generates all student information to be exported for the student. Further development will allow users to choose the specific information to print from a modal.

Student and Parent Portals