District Auto Pilot

If you would like to delete an association you have made with an accommodation, and remap that accommodation to a new association, you can delete the previous mapping in the table and then choose the accommodation in the external accommodation box and remap it from there.

1. Find the association in the table you wish to delete and remap. (you can use the search boxes in the table to help you find the association).

2. Once you find the accommodation association, use the trash can to delete the mapping from ALL the subjects it is associated with).

3. After you have deleted the mapping for all the subjects in the table, it will appear back in the external accommodations box where you typically map new accommodations.

4. You can now remap the accommodation to the new TestHound accommodation you choose.

5. Remember to publish the changes to the campuses by clicking the Evaluate button and clicking Publish.

Campuses will need to accept the Auto Pilot alerts on their homepage to apply the changes to the students.

• NEW! TELPAS Accommodations (TX) have been added in Auto Pilot. Districts can now map any incoming TELPAS accommodations from their vendors to TestHound. This may require deleting previously null/voided accommodations and remapping them to the new accommodations. If your vendor sends accommodations for TELPAS, you may need to adjust your map to associate these with the new TELPAS accommodations in TestHound.

• The DTC will see a Last Published Date on the AP landing page beside each map name

• Ability to export the mapping table to an Excel file

• Add accommodations to students from multiple vendors

• Lockdown accommodations for students updated via Auto Pilot

• The ability to turn off vendor notes

• Being able to search the map for external accommodations or TestHound mappings

• Mapping more than one external accommodation to one TestHound accommodation simultaneously.

• Downloading the vendor file to aid in researching errors.

• Mapping partial data from the vendor file and publishing that to campuses while waiting to map the other data.

• Auto Pilot Email notification for district users who elect to receive an email alert when there is a Mapping Error

If you are not using the automatic feed option from your accommodation vendor, or you need to add an additional map that you will manage manually, you will prepare a file of accommodations.  Once you have prepared your file, click to upload it into TestHound.  If you need assistance on how to create the file, please click below to download the template.

Once the file is ready for upload, click on the map you created, (please refer to the question titled “ How Do I Create A Map”) for directions on how to add a map. Click the Upload icon to upload your file.

A new window will open. Click Choose File and browse to where you have saved the integrated accommodation file. Save as a CSV Then click Upload.

This brief video below will walk you through the steps of setting up your Auto Pilot Map to receive data from your accommodations vendor.

Setting Up Your Auto Pilot Map

To create a new Auto Pilot map, click on New Map (blue box with white +).

You will be prompted to enter a title for the accommodation mapping.  Type in a title, and then select Submit.

After creating a name for the mapping, you will be returned to the Accommodation Mapping table. 

Next, select the Auto Pilot mapping title that you have created to edit the map settings.

After the mapping process is complete, you will be able to modify the map settings. To begin, click to select the accommodation vendor and map settings.

From the Vendor drop-down select the appropriate vendor or manual upload if your district will be submitting a file.

• Process Auto Pilot Feed Data should be On.

• Process Vendor notes will be defaulted to Off. Select "on" if you wish to process vendor notes.

• Auto Publish Data should be On.

Once the selections are complete, click Update.

Once your map or maps are created, you will need to adjust your Auto Pilot settings.

To begin, click on your accommodation mapping table page.

• Force Auto Pilot Accommodations locks down the approval screen for campuses so that accommodations cannot be selected/changed when approving accommodations individually in the Auto Pilot alert.

• Block Manual Accommodations for AP Students locks down the student accommodation page for students that have accommodation data being submitted via Auto Pilot so that accommodations are only added or removed based on the data being received. Campuses can’t make changes to a student who has accommodations in Auto Pilot. The notes box on the student accommodation is not locked down by selecting this option and can be used to track information as needed.

• The default for approval options is set to Allow for the approval of all or individual students. This will allow for the approval of accommodations on an individual basis or all at once. Districts will also need to select the desired approval method for Auto Pilot data.

• Require individual student approval will only allow for the approval of accommodations on an individual basis.

• Automatically approve all students upon Data Publish will approve all student accommodations automatically when the nightly file runs. If this option is selected Auto Pilot alerts will show approved.

Once the selections are complete, click Update.

To modify the name of your map, click Edit.  Once you have modified the name of your mapping click Submit.

You will be returned to the Accommodation Mapping table. Next, select the Auto Pilot mapping title that you have created to begin associating subjects and accommodations from your accommodation vendor to what is in TestHound.

From time to time you may have an external accommodation that is sent from the vendor that does not have a specific match in TestHound. If this happens you may need to create a local accommodation. This will allow you to match the incoming external accommodation to a locally created TestHound accommodation.

Click on the Accommodations tab in your District Management Menu. Then select New.

Next, select the desired subject(s).

Select the Type of accommodation.

Then you will need to type what the accommodation is in the Title box. Then click submit.

The locally created accommodation will then show in the main accommodations list.

Click on the Auto Pilot link to navigate back to Auto Pilot and the local accommodation will show in the Test Accommodations list to be selected for mapping.

*Best practice is to use the TestHound accommodations that are initially created in the system, and utilize AP notes to add any additional information. However, on rare occasion there may be times when you need to create a local accommodation using the steps above.

Yes, you can have more than one mapping profile.  Most often this is done when a district is using one system for SPED and 504, and a separate system for LEP.

Once you have the data file, it takes approximately one hour (per accommodations warehouse) to map your accommodations in TestHound. Once the initial mapping process is complete, the bulk of the work is done. Mapping is an ongoing process and will need to be monitored frequently, but won't be as comprehensive as the first mapping.  Only new accommodations have to be mapped throughout the year as meetings are held.

The best practice for the Auto Pilot toolkit is an "all-in" or "all-out" approach.   Including only specific campuses or specific grade levels makes usage of the toolkit difficult to implement and opens a district to the possibility of incorrect accommodations information. 

There is no additional charge from TestHound for you to upload files from separate accommodations warehouses.

If you are uploading files from separate accommodations software, you will need to complete the mapping for each of the separate files, unless it is possible for you to combine them into one file. 

District users will need to associate the subjects in the Auto Pilot upload to existing subjects in TestHound.  Using the External Subjects and TestHound Subjects drop-down menus on the Subject Assoc tab, match subjects from your upload to the subjects in TestHound.  Once you have matched the subject areas, click Submit.

Please note that external subject areas can be mapped to multiple TestHound subject areas, i.e. Reading to English and Reading to Reading/ELA.  We recommend this for vendors who do not specify English as a subject.

1. Select Auto Pilot and then click on an Auto Pilot map name.

2. On the Subj. Assoc tab you will see the External Subjects (from your accommodation vendor) on the left and a drop-down menu for TestHound Subjects on the right.

3. From the box below External Subjects click on a subject name (Reading, Math, Science, IEP, 504, etc.) and choose the corresponding subject from the TestHound Subjects drop-down menu.

4. Select Submit to create the association.

5. Once an external subject is mapped you will see an asterisk (*) next to the subject area.

6. NOTE THAT IF THE VENDOR DOES NOT HAVE ENGLISH AS A SUBJECT, you will need to map Reading and Writing to English to cover the high school accommodations in TestHound. Reading and Writing should also be mapped to their own to account for elementary and middle school subjects. So those subjects will be double-mapped.

Mapping Accommodations Video

Once the subject associations are complete, district users will need to associate accommodations from the Auto Pilot upload to TestHound.  This process can be completed for all subjects using the ALL Acc tab or done by individual subject areas.

Using the External Accommodations and TestHound Accommodations drop-down menus, match accommodations from your upload to the accommodations in TestHound.  Once you have matched accommodations, click Submit.

If an accommodation from the Auto Pilot upload does not match in TestHound, the district user can go back to the main accommodations page and create a new TestHound accommodation to match what is being imported.  This commonly occurs when an accommodation exists for one or two subjects, but not all.

How to Add AP Notes When Mapping

District users may also enter accommodations notes.  To enter an accommodation note during the mapping process, type the note in the Notes box and then hit submit. 

To add notes after mapping has been done, users will need to click on the blue box on the appropriate accommodation line in the table to add or edit a note. The empty blue boxes indicate no notes have been added. Blue boxes that include lines indicates notes have been added.

More than 1 external accommodation can be mapped to a TestHound accommodation.  For example, extra time (same day) and extra time (end of the day) can both be mapped at one time to Extra Time.  Simply highlight both accommodations in the external box and choose the matching accommodation in the TestHound box, and hit submit.

If you map an accommodation incorrectly, simply click on the trash can item on the right-hand side of that line to remove the mapping.  The accommodation will return to the External Accommodations drop-down menu and you will now be able to map it correctly. The accommodation will have to be deleted for all the subjects to which it is mapped in the table.

After the mapping process is complete, click to evaluate your file and determine if there are any errors.  A data analysis window will open.  If any errors are present, a Mapping Error message will be displayed.  You will need to click Close and return to the mapping associations to correct the errors.

You will be able to map partial data from the vendor file and publish that data to campuses, but there will still be data you will need to complete before all data can be processed and published out to campuses.  This allows you to map what you can and send that out to campuses but wait on other data you might need to double-check before mapping and publishing.  Campuses will receive the data you mapped and will have a message stating there is still a mapping error at the district level to be completed.

Once all errors are corrected, click to evaluate your file again.  If no errors are found, click Publish to push accommodations out to campuses.

Once the accommodations have been published, a window will open as confirmation.  Click Close.

The date of the last publication of accommodation data, manually or automatically, will appear on your Auto Pilot page associated with each vendor map profile.  If you published your mapped accommodation data manually, you will see an Auto Pilot - Last Ran message showing that the data was a manual publish.

Once you have mapped accommodations, they appear in the mapping table below.  You can easily search the map for an external accommodation, or a TestHound accommodation to see how they are mapped and change them if necessary. Use the search fields at the top of the mapping table to search for accommodations.

Note: As a district user, you are able to export a report of the currently mapped Auto Pilot accommodations to Excel or PDF from the All Acc tab and individual subject tabs for each mapped vendor file with an export icon at the top right of the Assoc. Count table.

This is a case where the accommodation exists in your 3^rd party accommodations software for a subject or subjects but does not exist for the same subject or subjects in TestHound.  In order to map the accommodations and clear them out, you will need to return to the regular Accommodations screen and add the missing accommodations for the subject(s) needed.   Once this is accomplished, the accommodations can be mapped successfully and they will disappear from the drop-down menu.

This is a situation of errant data being entered by someone in the district into the 3^rd party accommodations software.  While it is cause for concern, the Auto Pilot toolkit has helped you identify the problem so that it can be resolved. 

The first step is to reach out to someone in your district that oversees the sub-populations and ensure that data is corrected.  Obtain a copy of your most recent accommodations data upload and sort by the incorrect data to discern which groups of students have the incorrect information and get those departments to correct the data in your 3^rd party accommodations software. 

The best practice is to correct the issue in the software and then either do a manual upload or wait for a fresh data feed from the nightly automated upload (if it is established) to correct the bad data before continuing with the mapping process.  However, if time is of the essence, you can go to the subject tab of the incorrect data in the map and map it to [Null-Void] and it will not affect any of the students for whom it exists.  It will go ahead and map the correct subjects and you can now complete your mapping.

Simply use the trash can icon on the right-hand side of the screen for the lines you need to remove.  You will need to remove the mapping for all subjects it is mapped to. They will now appear back in the drop-down menu and you can re-map them correctly.

The most common data alerts are due to students that are not marked correctly for the population in your Student Information System (SIS), or because they do not exist in TestHound. 

If I student is not marked correctly, compare the information from the alert to what is in your SIS and have the corrections made.  Once this is complete, you can evaluate and publish the data again to apply their accommodations to their campus.

If a student does not exist in TestHound, they may not yet have appeared in the nightly upload file, or they may have withdrawn from your district.  If the student does not exist in TestHound after 3 work days, reach out to support for assistance.

Clicking My Account in the Home bar will allow you to update your account profile, manage settings, and make changes to your security questions and answers. 

If you would like to receive an email to alert you when there is a mapping error, click Settings, and be sure to select the box under Auto Pilot.

To create a new Auto Pilot map, click on New Map (blue box with white +).

You will be prompted to enter a title for the accommodation map.  Type in a title, and then select Submit.

After creating a name for the map, you will be returned to the Accommodation Map table.

Next, select the Auto Pilot map title that you have created to edit the map settings.

After the mapping process is complete, you will be able to modify the map settings. To begin, click to select the accommodation vendor and map settings.

From the Vendor drop-down select manual upload as you will be submitting a file.

• Process Auto Pilot Feed Data should be OFF.

• Process Vendor notes will be defaulted to OFF.

• Auto Publish Data should be OFF.

Once the selections are complete, click Update.

You will need to create a CSV file with the following headers:  DistrictID, CampusID, LocalID, Subject, Accommodations, and Notes, be sure to use this order and don't put spaces in the titles.  The file should be a complete file for all campuses in the district, do not do individual campus uploads. Each upload overwrites the previous one. If you have already done an upload and you do a subsequent upload, any students not included in the subsequent file who were in the previous one, will be flagged in the Removed from AP alert at the campus level.

In the subject column place the subject of the test the student will be taking online, (i.e. Reading, Math, etc.). In the Accommodations column, if the purpose is to identify testing online, place Online Test Delivery as your accommodation. 

(If the purpose is to identify virtual and or hybrid classroom students, you will first go to the accommodations tab in your district menu, create a local accommodation called virtual/hybrid accommodation and choose  Instructional Delivery for the accommodation type, then place Virtual/Hybrid (or whatever you named it) in the accommodation column in the file.)

Ensure the file is saved as a .csv file.  Once the file has been created, you will need to select Upload Accommodation Data from within the map and then browse for and upload the accommodation file that has been created.

After your file has successfully uploaded you will need to map subjects, i.e. English to English, Science to Science, etc.

In your All Accommodations tab, you will need to map Online Test Delivery to Online Test Delivery or if you are mapping students to virtual classes you will map virtual/hybrid to virtual/hybrid, etc. to the corresponding TestHound accommodation.

Next, click the Evaluate/Publish student data button.

The campus level will see the new changes in Auto Pilot.

Accommodations will need to be approved.

After approving student changes you will be able to filter students that have online test delivery within a test administration.

Review the video below for steps on cleaning up your accommodations map.

Auto Pilot Cleanup Summer Accommodations Session

Directions: This process will clear out all accommodations for all students. (Those not managed  by Auto Pilot and those that are.) : to clear out accommodations only for students managed by Auto Pilot, load a blank file (with the same headers) into the current vendor map.  Publish, and process all alerts at the campus level.

To continue clearing ALL accommodations for ALL kids, even those not in Auto Pilot, continue:

Step 1: Turn off any vendor files currently coming in.

Step 2: Create a new Auto Pilot Map (name it Clear Accommodations)

Step 3: Create an Auto Pilot file with every student in the district.  You will need the student's campus numbers and local ID numbers.  It may be easiest to get a list from your Student Information System.  This can also be gathered from TestHound by going to Students (View All) and Then copying and pasting all of the students to a new Excel sheet.(directions below)  

Make your Header Row of the file: 6 columns are needed)

To get the information from TestHound (instead of the SIS): Go to Students, View All, Highlight and then Copy all of the students. Paste them in a blank Excel document.  You will need the Campus ID and the StudentID columns, Copy the Campus ID column and paste it into the template, then copy the StudentID column and paste it into the template.

In your file Use one subject – Math

Put in one Accommodation- NONE

Step 4: In the District Accommodations Menu- add a new accommodation- NONE- Make it an  AF.  Then apply to the subject: math.  Submit and continue adding the None accommodation for all subjects.

Step 5: Upload the new Auto Pilot file you created. (File must be saved as .csv)

Step 6: Map one subject (Math) to each subject in TestHound subjects.  Math to Reading, Math, to Science, etc. You can map it multiple times so do each subject.

Step 7: Map the accommodation NONE to NONE

Step 8: Publish the map

Step 9: Approve Auto Pilot alerts at each campus (make sure you turn on the option to “Approve All”)

Step 10: You can turn back on your Auto Pilot nightly map, go to the Accommodations Tab and delete NONE, and then delete the Auto Pilot Map “Clear Accommodations”

The following steps should be completed when trying to troubleshoot accommodation issues. Campuses should check their Auto Pilot alert to be sure they have viewed/accepted the student accommodations.

At the district level, verify that the vendor file ran and if there is a mapping error to be corrected. Check the date in the message. (If it says Published-Yes with Mapping Error, that means there are additional accommodations that need to be mapped.)

If there are mapping errors, click on the map name on the Auto Pilot page, and then click on All Acc.  Click inside the external accommodations box for things that need to be mapped. 

Map the accommodations in the external accommodations box to corresponding items in the TestHound accommodations box. Click submit after each one and continue until they are all gone and the box is empty. You may want to check the individual subject tabs as well for any additional accommodations. When finished, click the evaluate student data icon (it looks like 2 arrows in a circle), then click publish. This will publish the updates to the campuses.

Campuses will need to check their Auto Pilot alerts and view/accept them to complete the process.

If this does not fix the problem, it could be an issue with how accommodations are mapped. The DTC should check mappings to see if there is an accommodation mapped incorrectly. If so, it can be deleted using the trash can icon and remapped to the correct accommodation. (You must delete the accommodation association for all the subjects associated with the specific mapping). After fixing problems, be sure to evaluate and publish again. Have campuses check their alerts and approve.

If you still have accommodations not showing, or showing incorrectly, the file can be pulled at the district level to see exactly what was sent by the vendor. Use the download icon beside the map name. The file can be searched to see what was sent by the vendor.

TestHound utilizes three types of accommodation notes:

1. Manually entered notes: Notes are manually added to a student on a subject-by-subject basis, typically by a campus admin or specialist. Navigate to a student, click the accommodation triangle, and add the accommodations. (Manual accommodations should not be added for students in the Auto Pilot file).

2. Auto Pilot notes: Notes created by a district admin during the process of building the specific map. The note is associated with an individual association and is applied to every student that gets that specific accommodation. While mapping, click in the notes box before you submit the mapping to add specific information for campuses. Campuses can include those notes when they run accommodation reports.

3. Vendor notes: Notes that are included in the vendor Auto Pilot file, are assigned to a specific student on a per-subject basis. Not all vendors sent notes in their Auto Pilot file. There are two types of vendor notes.

   1. The vendor can send a student note on a per-accommodation basis. In this case, each accommodation note for a specific subject is concatenated into a single string and assigned to the student on a per-subject basis.

   2. The vendor can send a single note for a student on a per-subject basis. In this case, the record in the file will contain DistrictID, CampusID, StudentID, Subject, and the Note. The Accommodation field will be left blank. You will not map vendor notes, nor will you see them unless you pull the file or navigate to a student page that has them.

Below are a few Best Practice tips to use when changing accommodations vendor(s):

• When you are ready to stop receiving files from your previous vendor, at the district level be sure all accommodations have been mapped and published. Then Download the accommodations file(s) so that you have a copy for your records.

• Next, have the Campus Testing Coordinators accept all Auto Pilot Alerts at the campus level for each campus.

• Campuses that have a “Removed from Auto Pilot alert” may leave the Alert unaccepted for students who the campus coordinator is unable to verify should no longer receive accommodations.

• Campuses that have students in the “Removed from Auto Pilot” where the campus coordinator can verify the student should no longer receive accommodations or have verified students in the alert are no longer on campus may accept the alert, which will remove the student's previous accommodations from TestHound.

• When you are ready for the new vendor to send accommodations and to stop receiving accommodations from the previous vendor, after all, campus alerts have been accepted, navigate to your District Management Menu, click on Auto Pilot, Click on Map Settings, and turn the map settings from the vendor name to manual, change all settings to off and submit.

• Create a map name for your new vendor(s). Next, navigate to the map setting, select your new vendor from the dropdown, then turn all settings for the new vendor on so that your new Auto Pilot file can come in.

• Once the file has come in, you can map your Auto Pilot subjects to the TestHound subjects and then map the external accommodations to the TestHound accommodations. After mapping, you can publish your map.

• As new accommodations replace the old ones, they will come in through the Auto Pilot alerts at the campus level.

• Throughout the school year (as new meetings occur) accommodations will transition from the old vendor to the new vendor. This process will take the school year fully to complete.