TestHound Release Notes

• Fixed an issue causing the Download Vendor File Button to be unavailable

• Fixed an issue causing page to display an error when clicking on student names from the District > Student view

• 23-24 Accommodation Updates- The new online accommodations have been injected into all Texas districts.  The accommodations include Word Prediction, Spell Check, and Proctored Administration.

• All updates were related to internal work or work on SSO

• Fixed an issue causing Performance Tracker files to not work

• All updates were related to internal work or work on SSO

New Features/Updates {Value Added to Customers}

Report Enhancement/Master Material Updates- In an effort to embrace more of the online methods of testing, the Master Material needed an update.  Based on user feedback, test tickets needed to be tracked just like test booklets. 

 MSS/Copy To/Updates- In Multi-Session scheduling, the ability to copy one test to another test needed a few updates to make it more intuitive to the users.  Test Booklets did not always copy over and the copy to destination has been updated to use a 12 hour clock rather than military time.

Services/Documentation- TestHound utilizes both Windows services, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages, and console applications to provide file and database processing. The processing code is installed on two AWS servers. The documentation for each of the services is linked here: https://educationadvanced.atlassian.net/l/cp/P9Da5KXr

Sys Admin/Subject to Grade Association- When new states are added and don’t differentiate accommodations for subjects, have a way to set up. (Ex Florida, Arkansas)

POC TestHound Next Gen Authentication- created a proof of concept and pattern setting for authentication using OKTA in the Blazor WASM project so that users can securely access the application with appropriate permissions and roles.

Connection Strings Evaluation – closing- evaluated all of the Connection Strings in TestHound and ensured that each Connection was closing. Each connection was reviewed to confirm that the format involved the implementation of a “Using” statement in the code. The “Using” statement provides support for garbage collection and ensures that the database connection is closed when the method terminates whether there was an exception thrown or not during execution. It also enhances efficiency of the connection pool by ensuring that connection objects are returned into to pool to be reused.  There were approximately 20 connections that were not utilizing a "Using" statement.

Executable/PTPrecodeService- Converted the Performance Tracker Test Registration Service to a Console App.

Data Report Updates- added additional functionality to the data report and metrics used by TestHound.

Archive/Review list of tables- created a list of tables that will need to be evaluated and have a decision made on what actions need to take place on each table during the archive process.

Login to Okta- Set up the ability to login to TestHound using OKTA.  This is only applicable to the developer group right now.

Unit Testing in Blazor APP- integrated B Unit testing into the new TestHound Blazor application to ensure quality and reliability of code.

Update PT wording- Updated the “Upload Data” drop down menu to include the current year so users would not be confused over if we were prepared to process their test results files.

Bugs

System allows for deletion of test while kids are in it- When using MSS, it was possible to remove a test that had students in it.  Closed the loop to not allow that to happen.

Add by grade not working- South Grand Prairie HS- Added new processing functionality to a stored procedure to assist in handling campuses with a large amount of data.  The new stored procedure gave the process of adding students by grade level some increased performance.

New Features/Updates {Value Added to Customers}

Reports: Create room accommodations report in Matrix form in MSS- this has been a heavy customer-requested report.  Back in Classic TestHound there was a version of the room accommodations report that was printed in a matrix style.  This report was not possible in the new multi-session scheduling platform due to multiple sessions, times, and days.  After much discussion with the users, we were able to create a new report that will address the same need they were solving with the old version.

POC TestHound Next Gen Authentication- we created a proof of concept on using Okta to authenticate users in our new version of TestHound that uses Blazor WASM.

Master Box Report/update- We updated all states to use the same version of the Master Box Report.

Maintenance Tasks- worked with the Infrastructure team to identify all of the tasks involved in the nightly TestHound Maintenance package. This is part of the performance evaluation that TestHound is currently undergoing.

Review Maintenance Plan- worked with the Infrastructure team to ensure the maintenance tasks were running as expected. This is part of the performance evaluation that TestHound is currently undergoing.

Executable/PTExclusionService- Took the Performance Tracker Exclusion upload service and converted it to a Console App so it can be added to the TestHound Data Dog monitoring logs.  This is part of the performance evaluation that TestHound is currently undergoing.

Interim Grade Level Campus/District subject- The Interim Grade Level report needed to have “Mathematics” rather than “Math” as a subject.

Bugs

MSS/Remove By Course does not work- In multi-session scheduling, you were able to add students by Course and select (All Courses) but when removing by the same method, no students were removed.  That has been fixed now.

Auto Pilot Download option disappearing for demo districts- Trainer accounts will need to have Auto Pilot files processed through the SSIS package so the Download Option will appear.

District Attribute report showing wrong value for ASL video- The Test Attributes values were updated in the fall, but one value at the district level was missed.  For ASL video, it was still showing “Show ASL video” and “Do Not Show ASL video”.  This was updated to the YES/NO values for this year.

Boxed Booklet menu erroring out-Sumner County Schools TN- The boxed booklet menu for Tennessee was still referencing an older Florida page that was migrated earlier in the year.

Unboxed booklet button not working- After updating the inventory module earlier in the year to make it more adaptable to every state, the unboxed booklet icon was using an older column, which was returning 0 results.  This was updated.

New Features/Updates {Value Added to Customers}

TX District Roster File- The District Texas Tide Roster was updated to include an updated header and an additional Action column.

TX Roster File- Campus The Campus Texas Tide Roster was updated to include an updated header and an additional Action column.

Delete Sessions in Report Viewer- Updated report viewer to delete sessions to improve overall performance in TestHound.

Bugs

Inventory/TN TCAP 3-8- the Transfer tab was not showing the transferred material at the campuses. This was caused by the out of district transfer process that does not actually apply to Tennessee yet.

FL Inventory/Fast PM- district received two different inventory lists. Had to review them to see if modifications needed to be made.

BEST EOC/District ID- The district ID for the Florida Best EOC report needed to be the 2 digit district ID.

District Report/Test Attributes Wrong Students- When generating the district test attributes report, districts were not receiving the expected data. Updated queries to ensure the requested data was produced on the report.

In addition to updates to the application, TestHound also implemented Redis to assist in session management.

New Features/Updates {Value Added to Customers}

Interim Grade Level Report Update- made two updates to the Interim Grade Level report to match the new requirements by Cambium.  Updated the subject Math to Mathematics and changed the field name to Interim Grade Testing rather than Interim Off-Grade Testing.

Accommodation Report/Best EOCs- created a new EOC Additional Student Information Report that will populate online accommodation values for the Florida BEST EOC tests.

TH Data Report- an interface in the system admin to run metrics based on some of the most requested metrics.

Bugs

SEIS/Campus End Points

MSS/Copy To students with no room- updated a parameter in Multi-Session Scheduling when attempting to copy students from one test to another.  When students were copied from one session but some of the students did not have an assigned room, the students were not moved over as expected.

Reports/ selected value set to 0- updated the report drop-down parameters to eliminate errors encountered by customers.

New Features/Updates {Value Added to Customers}

Data Integration/Arkansas- added the data integration module to Arkansas.  Accommodations cannot be sent to third-party vendors and/or downloaded.

Master Accommodations Report Update- Increased the performance of the master accommodations reports.  This will be noticed most when a district heavily uses Auto Pilot notes in the accommodations.

Data Integration/Tennessee - added the data integration module to Tennessee.  Accommodations cannot be sent to third-party vendors and/or downloaded.

Bugs

Update SEIS naming convention- The SEIS (California Accommodations) file was being forced to have the extension .csv.  We updated the process to reflect the extension of the submitted file.

Auto Pilot Map Setup Issue- The new California accommodation setup process was implemented into all new districts rather than just California, so we had a constraint to only allow the process for California districts.

Error Received TestHound Auto Pilot Map – PEER- Auto Pilot maps were timing out.  After re-indexing, the page, performance issues were resolved.

STAAR Alt 2 - Auto Align Error- The Auto Align function was not working as expected when districts had a combination of “self-defined” material and checklist uploaded material.

Middletown City - Ohio - Student Accommodation Page- The subjects for Ohio had to be associated with grades.  This error occurs when new states are opened.  A new page will be added to the system admin to assist in this setup.

ALT queries verification- the STAAR ALT EOC’s queries were modified after identifying a constraint in a query that was preventing all students to be identified as expected.

New Features/Updates {Value Added to Customers}

TX ALT Inventory- Texas ALT inventory module needed to be created and verified to support the current layout of material

TN ALT Inventory Module- Tennessee ALT inventory module needed to be created and verified to support the current layout of material

Bugs

On-demand file processing not working properly for Tier 2- Students- the nightly student's file processing was working as expected, however, the manual on-demand file processing was failing. The unique constraint that was added to the student's table was causing the failure. Once that was fixed and updated the manually added files began processing as expected.

Missing information from campus Attribute report- Speech-to-text was not showing up on the campus-level Test Attributes report. The accommodation was being called and constructed but not added to the data table. This was updated.

New Features/Updates

Data Integration/Console App- The data integration component was running as a Windows service and was converted to a Console App.

Other Designated Support report update- Campus Version- The Other Designated Support report required a few updates.  1) The Attribute was changed from Other Designated Support to STAAR Non-Embedded Supports, 2) STAAR was taken off of the subjects, 3) an Action Column was added and populated with ADD for any students with a Non-Embedded Supports

Other Designated Support report update- District (Same as the campus version but can generate for all campuses for a particular test administration)

Data Request – Generated a set of metrics for the current year and previous years to be used in a few areas for marketing.

Bugs

Data Integration: Some files were created blank overnight- Some of the queries were timing out before the files would generate.

Software Change - Error when Deleting Transfer

Above Grade Level Report Not Generating- the correct .rdlc was not deployed.

Above Grade Level Wrong Logic- after the .rdlc was deployed, we discovered a logic issue in the query.

New Features/Updates

Reports/STAAR 3-8 above grade- The district and campus level has a new report called Above

Grade Level. This report will give the students in grades 3-8 that is enrolled in a test for a grade

level higher than their current grade level.

CA Auto Pilot/ UI Interface- To have an Auto Pilot function for California, some modifications were

made. When the user uploads the SEIS file, their map is automatically created and alerts are

automatically approved.

Spelling Assistance/Accommodation Update- Spelling assistance is not allowed for math or

Algebra. The accommodation has been removed from the district maps as well as the master

Auto Pilot map for Texas.

Test Attributes TX/District- The district-level test attributes service was updated to remove

Spelling Assistance

Bugs

Large district Inventory trouble- Still stemming from the leading 0’s on the kindergarten

books. Large districts had deleted the packets but orphaned the books. This had to be manually

cleaned up.