Revised 03/07/2011 Pasco STAR v4 Student Information Area: Working With Data Sets (Grouping, Filtering, and Exporting) Skills Discussed in this Document Are: Grouping, Filtering, and Exporting From Inside the Student Information Area The data set a user sees upon entering PS v4 depends on that person s access level. That is the maximum number of student records a user can access. For example: Teacher Level: A teacher s initial data set includes all students assigned to them in TERMS. School User Level: A school user s initial data set includes all of the students at their cost center. District User Level: A district user s initial data set includes all of the students enrolled in Pasco County. When working with data sets there are three basic things a user will want to do: 1. Group to get counts. 2. Filter down to specific subgroups or individual student history. 3. Export for use in local custom database applications. A. Grouping to Obtain Counts How It Is Done: Above the column headings there is a row with the following prompt: Drag a column header here to group by that column variable. To group records in a grid (get a count) drag and drop the desired column header into the Grouping Row. This row is located above the Column Header Row. PS v4 will respond instantly and provide a count. See graphics below. Note: Multiple column headers can be placed into the Grouping Row and they can be arranged in any order desired. - Continued on Next Page - 1
In this example (working at the district level) the Race column header is dragged and dropped into the Grouping Row. Notice the student counts by Race. More than one column header can be dragged to the Grouping Row. Below the R (PMP Reading Standard Met) column header was dropped into the Grouping Row behind Race. Notice that the grid counts look the same as before the R column heading was added. 2
To see the counts for R it is necessary to expand the row out. To expand out any row simply click on the + sign located to the left of a grid row. Clicking on + signs eventually expands subgroups out to individual student records. See graphics below. Note: The Race: A (Count=1793) (Continued on the next page) row indicates that there are 1793 Asian students in this data set. The R: (Count=161) row indicates that of the 1793 Asian students there are 161 who do not have a Reading PMP status assigned to them in TERMS. That field is blank. The R:N (Count=330) (Continued on the next page) row indicates that there are 330 Asian students who have not met the PMP Reading Standard. Also notice that this row is expanded out to show the records for those 330 Asian students. 3
B. Grouping in Conjunction with Simple Filtering How It Is Done: Many times users are asked to get student counts based on NCLB groupings, FCAT scores, absences, and etc. This can be done easily in PS v4. Let s say that a user needs to get the count of all your students who are Hispanic, SLD, and Free Lunch. To do this the user must filter and group the found set of student records. Here are the steps. 1. Locate the blank field below the header for the Race column and enter the letter H. H is the letter code for Hispanic. 2. Locate the blank field below the header for the PX (Primary Exceptionality) column and enter the letter K. K is the letter code for SLD. 3. Locate the blank field below the header for the FRL (Free, Reduced or Paid Lunch) column and enter the letter F. F is the letter code for free lunch. Entering these three criteria according to the above steps instantly refreshes the grid and returns a data set with Hispanic students who are SLD and are on free lunch. See graphic below. Drag and then drop the Race column header into the Grouping Row to get a count. For the example below there are 557 students that are Hispanic, SLD (K) and on free lunch in the data set. 4
C. Complex Filtering Building a complex filter is not for the faint of heart. It is a function that is available to allow motivated users to filter (search) on multiple criteria for one or more variables. How It Is Done Suppose a user needs to find all students who have 6 or more absences and are on either free or reduce lunch. To do this a user must use the Create Filter feature. 1. Move to the lower left corner of the webpage and click on Create a Filter 2. The Filter Builder box opens. 3. Start building the filter by clicking on the + sign at the right of And. This will create the first criteria or code string for the filter. 5
4. By default PS v4 creates the following string, ID Equals <enter a value>. ID is the field (variable name) and represents the student ID number. Equals is the operator. <enter a value> is where the user enters the desired value. Both the field name ( ID ) and operator ( Equals ) can be changed by clicking on them. Also note that the gray circled X is a removal button. Click that and the filter code string to the left of it is deleted. 5. Click on the field name ID and then select ABS, which stands for days absent, from the dropdown. 6
6. Click on Equals and then select Is greater than or equal to from the dropdown. 7. Enter the number 6 for the value. 7
8. At this point the filter has one line of code. It translates to: the days absent field value must be greater than or equal to 6. 9. The filter needs one more line of code. This line must tell PS v4 to also include both free and reduced lunch students in the found set. To create the new code line click on the + sign to the right of And - Continued on Next Page 8
10. Click on the field name ID then select FRL (Lunch Status) from the dropdown. 9
11. Click on Equals then select the operator Is any of from the dropdown. 10
12. Enter the first value f for free lunch. 13. The first value for FRL is f (free lunch). Now the second value r for reduced lunch is needed. Click on the + sign located to the right of the operator Is any of. 14. The Filter Builder now looks like this. 11
15. Enter the value r for reduced lunch. 16. The finished filter looks like this. The entire filter code string reads: Find absences that are greater than or equal to 6 and where lunch status is any of free or reduced. Clicking on the OK button engages the filter and your found set returns inside the Student Information grid. During the building process a link was created at the lower left of the web page. Clicking on this link reopens the Filter Builder dialog box. From there the filter can be modified as desired. 12
The check box located to the left of the filter allows the user to enable or disable the filter without deleting it. The check box is a like a toggle switch. Checked it is on, un-checked it is off. If the filter is not already saved, clicking on the Clear link deletes the filter permanently. D. Saving Complex Filters for Future Use As mentioned before, creating a complex filter can be challenging. That is why PS v4 allows users to save their filters for future use. Once a filter is saved it can be reused over and over on demand. Note: If cookies are enabled in the user s browser, PS v4 will remember the last session state and save all changes made in the Student Information area. The next time the user logs in the Student Information area will look exactly like the user left it last time. This includes any filter created in the last session. How It Is Done 1. After the filter is created move to the top right of the web page and locate Save Filter. 2. Use the Filter Name field to name the complex filter and then click on Save Filter. Wait a few seconds to allow PS v4 to save the filter and refresh the web page. The web page will flicker when it refreshes. 13
3. The saved complex filter is now in the My Filters dropdown. To enable the saved complex filter just select it from the My Filters dropdown. 4. PS v4 will take a few seconds to refresh the web page. Now the saved complex filter has been enabled and the resulting data set will reflect the filter s criteria. 5. To delete a saved complex filter simply select it from the My Filters dropdown. Give the web page a few seconds to refresh and then click on the Delete Filter button. The filter will be deleted and removed from the My Filters dropdown. - Continued on Next Page - 14
E. Exporting Data When exporting data the user has two format options. Excel Spreadsheet PDF Document How It Is Done Before the user can export data (records) he/she must select (highlight) the student records within a grid that he/she wants to export. This can be done several ways. Hold down the Shift key and select straight down a grid of records. Hold down the Command key and jump over unwanted records. This allows the user to select records in a grid that are not directly above or below each other. Use the Select All or Select all on the page buttons. Once the records have been selected (highlighted) click on the Export to XLS for Excel Spreadsheet file format or Export to PDF for PDF file format. Below are steps for exporting to an Excel Spreadsheet. 1. Begin by selecting the desired student records to be exported and then click on the Export to XLS button. 2. It will take a little time for the exported Excel file to download. Be patient. When it does arrive a dialog window will open. It will prompt the user to either open the file or download the file to your computer. For the purposes of this example I chose the default setting: Open with Microsoft Excel and clicked OK. 15
3. Excel opens the exported file. Now the data can be manipulated, charted, or imported into a database solution of choice. 16