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| ISAT Student Data Wizard | Questions and Answers | |
| ISDW Home | ||
| 1. What is the ISAT Student Data Wizard? |
The ISAT Student Data Wizard is a server-based system designed to streamline and simply the process of analyzing Illinois School Achievement Test (ISAT) data.
The ISAT Student Data Wizard allows school officials to upload their raw ISAT data, from which are created:
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| 2. Who created ISAT Student Data Wizard? |
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The ISAT Student Data Wizard is a collaborative effort of a number of developers and consultants, including Bill Butts,
Mark Drone, Abe Loveless, Chris Watkins, Rem Woodruff, Scott Walthes, and Uwe Holz .
It is based on an original design by Bill Butts. Programming was done by Bill Butts, Mark Drone, and Abe Loveless.
Queries and reports are designed from the suggestions and recommendations of practicing educators.
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| 3. Why was the ISAT Student Data Wizard created? |
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Over the past several years, a great deal of educator time and effort has been
invested in trying to make sense of the raw ISAT data that school districts receive from the Illinois State Board of Education.
School personnel spend countless hours importing the data into spreadsheets and then devising assorted methods of looking at the data (such as pivot tables, filters, etc.).
The ISAT Student Data Wizard was developed to help busy educators by-pass the technical challenges of manipulating the data by using the power of a relational database system and the simplicity of a web browser.
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| 4. How does my school acquire the ISAT Student Data Wizard? |
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See the information about ordering and having someone contact your on the main page. click
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| 5. How much does the ISAT Student Data Wizard cost? |
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Several options for subscriptions and configurations are available. See the costs and ordering information here.
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| 6. Why is there a charge for this software? |
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Software development requires a great deal of time and effort.
In order to continue to provide useful software and services that meet the
needs and fulfill the requests of the educational community, the organization
is charging a nominal fee for the software in order to fund further development and new projects.
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| 7. What is the license agreement? |
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A sample licensing agreement is available at (coming soon)
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| 8. What are the requirements to install and run the ISAT Student Data Wizard? |
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The system has been designed to install on an SME (E-smith) server.
The SME (E-smith) server is an open source server operating system that is available free-of-charge. The server software will install on very basic hardware in minimal time. Many school districts in Illinois are currently using SME/E-smith servers. The ISAT Student Data Wizard installs quickly and easily with a few simple commands issued at the server console. Once installed, the system is completely browser based and requires little maintainence. Installation should be done by technical support personnel. If technical support personnel are not available, remote installation is available. Please see the "Installation of the ISAT Student Data Wizard" at ISDW 2003 Install Documentation | download pdf.
Training is available. Please contact the authors via email at support@isdw.org.
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| 9. Since the ISAT data is viewable with a standard web-browser, how can I be assured that the data is secure? |
There are mechanisms in place that help ensure that the data is not publicly viewable and that the information cannot be viewed by network traffic capture techniques. These methods include:
Be advised that any challenge-response method of protection is only as secure as the ability to limit access to the username(s) and password(s) used to authenticate to the system.
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| 10. Is there a version of the ISAT Student Data Wizard for Windows and/or Novell servers? |
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No. The ISAT Student Data Wizard has been designed exclusively for the SME/E-smith server in order to take advantage of its reputation for security and reliability.
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| 11. Can I customize ISAT Student Data Wizard? |
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The source code (software) itself may not be altered. Any attempts to alter the source code is in direct
violation of the software licensing agreement.
There is currently a set of "Demographics" reports that allow filtering of data based on demographic criteria. Future releases may include user-customizable reports that can be designed via the browser interface.
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| 12. Why are there only a given number of reports available? |
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The developers made every effort to create reports that would be the most useful to busy educators
who may not have the time (nor the inclination) to learn how to structure their own queries.
By using a "canned" set of reports, the end-user can concentrate on what to do with the data rather
than how to torture the data until it confesses.
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| 13. I want to print the reports in color, but the tables cells don't show up. How can I make my browser print the colors? |
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You may have to change the browser options to allow this. With Microsoft Internet Explorer,
click the "Tools" menu, then the "Options" selection. Look for the "Advanced" tab and scroll
down until you find the "Printing" section. Check the box next to "Print background colors
and images". Then press [Apply] or [OK] to finish. The cell colors should now print.
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| 14. I want to print the reports in "landscape view". Is there an EASY way to do that? |
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Actually, it is quite easy to change the printing orientation from the Internet Explorer browser. The trick
is using the "Print Preview..." selection from the "File" menu.
Click this link to see a graphic diagram of how this is done. Once you set the print orientation
to landscape, any reports that you send to the printer will be printed with that view during that particular
session. To change the setting back to "Portrait", open the "Print Preview..." window again and make the
switch.
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| 15. When loading our data I accidently loaded the 5th grade 2 times. Is there a way I can remove them and reload or remove the duplicates? |
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The best way to solve this problem is to upload the student data file (*.STU) again and repeat the process (except for the "loading the 5th grade 2 times" part). The server software is designed to remove the grade-level tables if the data file is reloaded. All other tables (such as usernames, school names, etc.) are preserved.
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