ASCENDER Administration Release Notes
ASCENDER Release 8
ASCENDER 8.1210
Release Date: 9/4/24 ASCENDER Update: 8.1210
TSDS
❏ Corrected the issue where TSDS daily email reports were showing incorrect data.
Prior Release Notes for ASCENDER 8
ASCENDER 8.1205
Release Date: 8/27/24 ASCENDER Update: 8.1205
TSDS
❏ Modified the program to temporarily prevent TSDS emails from being generated.
ASCENDER 8.1200
Release Date: 8/21/24 ASCENDER Update: 8.1200
District Administration > Tables > District Information > District Name/Address & Campus Name/Address
❏ Corrected the issue where the program incorrectly generated invalid school year records upon creation. For example, attempting to add a record with a school year of 2025 would result in an erroneous record with the school year '202.
District Administration > Options > TSDS > Domains & Entities
❏ Added this tab to extract Texas Student Data System (TSDS) data and send it to Texas Education Agency (TEA) for Ed-Fi processing. Users can select and save domains and entities, view the status of extracted data, and initiate on-demand data submissions.
District Administration > Maintenance > Non-Employee
❏ Added the Prior Teaching Years field to report the total number of years an individual has previously held a teaching position in one or more educational institutions. For TSDS purposes, this information must be reported for Contracted Teachers.
District Administration > Inquiry > TSDS Level 1 Errors
❏ Updated the domain for studentEdOrgAssociationLoadStep in EDFI_ERROR_LOG_TABLE_LIST to be Student Identification and Demographics.
❏ Updated the error listing to sort and group by School Year to assist in identifying information.
❏ Updated the extract to exclude the EducationOrganization > LocalEducationAgency entity from being reported for Education Service Centers (databases with a %950 district ID).
TSDS Upgrade
Finance Domain
❏ Renamed the ActualExt entity to PriorYearActualExt.
❏ Deleted the BeginDate Data and EndDate Data elements from the PriorYearActualExt entity.
Multiple Extract -6 Errors
❏ Corrected data scenarios that resulted in a TSDS extract -6 error for the following extracts:
- CTE PGM Association
- Discipline Actions Extract
- Enrolled Student Extract
- Prior Year Leaver Extract
- Prior Year Leaver Parent Extract
- Shared Service Arrangement Extract
- Staff Section Association Extract
- Student School Association Extract
- Student Special Education Program Association Extract
- Student Special Education Program Report Period Attendance Extract
TSDS Extracts
❏ Modified the Payroll Extract entity to extract only employees with a payoff date greater than September 1 of the prior year (09/01/(SY-1)) or those with no payoff date.
❏ Updated the daily automatic extract (6:00 PM, Mon-Fri) to use a new TSDSDatabaseAPIs file for extracting and sending TSDS data via API processing. This update allows system technicians to run TSDS overnight extracts on multiple servers and distribute the load processing for databases. Databases will now be extracted simultaneously rather than one at a time.
TSDS Extract Emails
❏ Modified the program to generate TSDS extract emails at 6:15 AM. These emails include the TSDS Extract Error report as well as the Prior Year Actuals, Budget, and Payroll reports.
ASCENDER 8.1105
Release Date: 7/31/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.1105
District Administration > Utilities > Annual Student Data Rollover
❏ Corrected the issue that caused users to get a blank pop-up screen when selecting the Process Status button.
❏ Modified ASDR reports to show the most current date that ASDR was run rather than the current date/time.
District Administration > Reports
❏ Corrected the issue on DA00001 - User Profile Report and DA00100 - End User License Agreement Report that caused incorrect LEA names to populate for some users.
ASCENDER 8.1100
Release Date: 7/3/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.1100
District Administration > Inquiry > TSDS Level 1 Errors
❏ Modified the endpoints to the following domains:
- Calendar - Added the ReportingPeriodExt
- Discipline - Changed the StudentDisciplineIncidentAssociation to be StudentDisciplineIncidentBehaviorAssociation
TSDS Parallel
Nightly batch: AsOfStatusLastDayEnrollment
❏ Modified the program to calculate the AsOfStatusLastDayEnrollment code in the nightly batch using the code from the Summer Attendance Extract.
SummerSchoolIndicator
❏ Updated the program to add data element SummerSchoolIndicator (E3091) to the CourseTranscript entity using Special Consid code R for reporting.
StudentEducationOrganizationResponsibilityAssociation: NonEnrolledStudentUILActivity
❏ Effective 9/1/2023:
Responsibility Descriptors 01 and 02 are no longer valid and have been moved to StudentSchoolAssociation.
StudentDisciplineIncidentBehaviorAssociation
❏ Created extract “P_EXTRACT_EDFI_STU_DISPLN_INC_BEHAV_ASSOC_STG” to extract from entity StudentDisciplineIncidentBehaviorAssociation.
❏ Removed StudentParticiaptionCode element in StudentDisciplineIncidentAssociation.
❏ Moved Behavior entity data elements to StudentDisciplineIncidentBehaviorAssociation.
TSDS Extract: Staff Term Date
❏ Updated the extract to report Staff Education Organization Employment Association the day after an employee's termination date.
Domain: Alternative and Supplemental Services Domain
❏ Updated the program to report begin dates and end dates for the StudentCTEProgramAssociation.CTEProgramService entity.
TSDS: CourseTranscript - api
❏ Modified the CourseTranscript entity to add LocalCourseCode, SchoolId, SectionIdentifier, SessionName and SummerSchoolIndicator to API property tx.CourseTranscriptExtenion.
StudentIdentification - NonEnrolledStudentUILActivity
❏ Added API property nonEnrolledStudentUILActivityDescriptor to the Students entity for the Student Identification and Demographics Domain.
Section.SectionSet - API
❏ Made the following changes to SectionSet for 2023-2024:
Remove:
- PKProgramEvaluationType
- SPEDStudentAgeRange
Add:
- ChildCareOperationNumber
- GradeLevel
ASCENDER 8.1010
Release Date: 6/19/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.1010
TSDS Parallel
District Admin: Extract Error Message
❏ Corrected an issue in Student Education Organization Association that caused the error: “Extract processed but failed with stored procedure error. Please provide server.log file.”
ASCENDER 8.1000
Release Date: 6/5/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.1000
TSDS Parallel
Staff Term Date
❏ Updated the Staff Education Organization Employment Association to send a report the day after an employee's termination date.
ReportingPeriodExt(TX)
❏ Updated the program to send ReportingPeriodExt to TSDS.
StudentIdentification - NonEnrolledStudentUILActivity
❏ Added API property nonEnrolledStudentUILActivityDescriptor to the Students entity for the Student Identification and Demographics Domain.
StudentDisciplineIncidentBehavior
❏ Moved StudentDisciplineIncidentBehaviorAssociation data elements to StudentDisciplineIncidentBehaviorAssociation and discontinued StudentDisciplineIncidentAssociation.
ASCENDER 8.0900
Release Date: 5/22/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.0900
TSDS Parallel
❏ Updated the API to send data to the .InstructionalSettingSet instead of .SpecialEducationEnvironmentSet in the StudentSpecialEducationProgramAssociation endpoint.
❏ Updated the program to remove the DyslexiaScreeningExceptionReason.
❏ Updated the program to add DyslexiaScreeningExceptionReason to StudentEducationOrganizationAssociation.DyslexiaRiskSet.
❏ Updated the TSDS 2023-24 change logs to add new fields for the StudentSchoolAssociation entity.
❏ Added the CampusIdOfResidence property to the StudentSchoolAssociations API.
CalendarEvent Descriptors
❏ Modified CALL P_EXTRACT_EDFI_CAL_DT_STG('2024') to extract CalendarEvent 01 or 02 only.
EducationOrganizationid
❏ Updated the program to add the Campus ID to the StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociation
Staff Domain
❏ Corrected a mapping issue for TotalYearsProfExperience and YearsExperienceInDistrict.
Staff > StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociation
❏ Corrected the issue that caused the Level 1 Error: Validation of 'StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociation' failed. Validation of 'AggregateExtensions' failed. StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociationStaffServiceSets (TX) requires at least one object in the collection.
Student Alternative and Supplemental Services Domain - Student Homeless Program Associations extract
❏ Updated the program with a procedure to extract enrolled students with a row on Registration > Maintenance > Student Enrollment > Demo3, Homeless Status group box.
Student Alternative and Supplemental Services Domain - Student School Food Service Program Associations extract
❏ Updated the program with a procedure to extract enrolled students with a row on Registration > Maintenance > Student Enrollment > Demo1, Economic Disadvantage group box.
Student Alternative and Supplemental Services Domain - Student Program Associations extract
❏ Updated the program with a procedure to extract enrolled students for each of the available programs in the Alternative and Supplemental Services domain that are previously mapped.
EDFI Enrolled Student Ed Org Association
❏ Corrected the issue that caused a -6 Error to display on the EDFI Enrolled Student Ed Org Association Extract extract. It is possible that other scenarios may inadvertently cause the -6 Error to occur. TCC will investigate additional scenarios as they are reported.
StudentEducationOrganizationAssociation.Language
❏ Updated the 2024.2.0 TSDS Upgrade change log to collect data element LanguageUse.
Prior Year Leaver IBC
❏ Updated extract Ed-Fi Prior Year Leaver to report a 4-digit IBC code.
EDFI Staff Ed Org Assignment Association Extract
❏ Corrected the issue that caused a -6 Error to display on the EDFI Staff Ed Org Assignment Association Extract. It is possible that other scenarios may inadvertently cause the -6 Error to occur. TCC will investigate additional scenarios as they are reported.
DistrictAdmin: Extract error for TSDS Days
❏ Modified the report name to Staff Members with Total TSDS Number of Days Employed in Error
❏ Modified the report to include 0 days employed as an error.
❏ Modified the report to include the Employee Status column.
ASCENDER 8.0800
Release Date: 4/16/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.0800
District Administration > Utilities > Annual Student Data Rollover
❏ Modified the utility to clear the Excessive Unexcused Absence date on Registration > Maintenance > Student Enrollment > Demo3 for the new school year when the other Truancy Indicators are cleared.
❏ Modified the utility to clear TeacherPortal table SR_CRS_ASSGN_COMNT in for the new school year.
❏ Corrected TeacherPortal category errors some users received when they did not select the Clear Categories option for a campus when running the utility.
❏ Modified the utility so TeacherPortal Report Card Skills (Elementary Report Cards > Manage Elementary Skills Based Report Cards) will be retained for the new school year.
❏ Corrected an issue with the utility that caused some students to be on the Dropped Student list even though the student had an Active Code = 1 and were fully scheduled at their Next Year Campus.
❏ Modified the utility to add code that will correctly determine if 0/00 default records should be created for specified tables and columns.
TSDS Parallel
❏ Created a scheduled job to remove old API errors until Extract and API are controlled within ASCENDER.
TSDS Extract
❏ Corrected the property for contractedInstructionalStaffFTEExts.
ASCENDER 8.0750
Release Date: 3/22/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.0750
TSDS Parallel
❏ Corrected the issue that caused a -6 Error to display on the TSDS Extract Error Report on the following extracts. It is possible that other scenarios may inadvertently cause the -6 Error to occur. TCC will investigate additional scenarios as they are reported.
- Enrolled Student Ed Org Association Extract
- Student Special Education Program Report Attendance Extract
- Extended School Year Services Attendance Extract
TSDS Extracts
Course Transcript
❏ Corrected the issue that caused some users to receive a “Duplicate record error” when extracting a course transcript when a student has completed 2 courses with the same service ID in the same semester.
❏ Modified the program to extract the 0 descriptor (C067-RegionalDaySchoolProgramForDeaf) to the Student Attendance staging table.
Staff > StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociation
❏ Corrected the issue that caused the Level 1 Error: Validation of 'StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociation' failed. Validation of 'AggregateExtensions' failed. StaffEducationOrganizationAssignmentAssociationStaffServiceSets (TX) requires at least one object in the collection.
Enrolled Student Ed Org Association Extract
❏ Updated the program to increase performance of the extract.
ASCENDER 8.0700
Release Date: 3/1/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.0700
District Admin > Inquiry > TSDS Level 1 Errors
❏ Modified the page to add the latest date from the API transfer.
❏ Updated the CTE Program Reporting Period Attendance extract to perform more efficiently.
TSDS Parallel
❏ Corrected the issue that caused a -6 Error to display on the TSDS Extract Error Report on the following extract. It is possible that other scenarios may inadvertently cause the -6 Error to occur. TCC will investigate additional scenarios as they are reported.
- CTE PGM Association
TSDS Extracts
Teaching and Learning > Course:
❏ Corrected the issue that caused CourseOffering load errors due to missing Course records.
Student:
❏ Corrected an issue with the extract so it will no longer report duplicate students in the error log.
Finance:
❏ Corrected the Finance actuals extract for PEIMS Midyear reporting.
Student Identification and Demographics
❏ Corrected the issue that caused the Student Parent Association extract to show an incorrect record when modifying a student's Primary Contact from a non-parent/guardian to a different contact.
ASCENDER 8.0605
Release Date: 2/19/24 ASCENDER Update: 8.0605
District Administration > Tables > District Information > Campus Name/Address
❏ Corrected the TSDS Ed Org > School extract to not include campuses that are marked Exclude from reporting to TEA on Campus Name/Address.
District Administration > Options > TSDS > Connection
❏ Updated an error message from Connection: Information provided does not validate to TEA for submission year XXXX to Connection: Information provided does not validate to the host specified for submission year XXXX.
TSDS Parallel
❏ Corrected errors on the Finance > PayrollExt Entity caused by not having the Staff > StaffEducationOrganizationEmploymentAssociation Entity due to a missing hire date.
❏ Corrected the following error on the Staff > StaffSchoolAssociation Program Descriptor: 400 BAD Request “Message” Unable to resolve value “url://tea.texas.gov ProgramAssginmentDescriptor#03 to an existing” ProgramAssignmentDescriptor’resource.
❏ Corrected the Student Identification and Demographics : Student Parent Association extract to only extract contacts with Parent/Guardian selected.
❏ Corrected the issue that caused an error when reporting changes to the ESC County District Number field.
❏ Corrected the issue that prevented the TSDS Extract Errors report from functioning as intended.
ASCENDER 8.0600
Release Date: 2/7/2024 ASCENDER Update: 8.0600
District Administration > Tables > District Information > Shared Services Arrangement
❏ Renamed the Shared Services Arrangements Amounts section to Shared Services Arrangement Member Amounts and added the Member District ID field.
District Admin > Inquiry > TSDS Level 1 Errors
❏ Corrected an issue with the Discipline Domain Level 1 Error Report that caused the report to not generate.
❏ Modified the Finance Domain > SharedServiceArrangementExt Entity to extract as follows:
- EducationOrganization
- SSAMemberDistrictId
- SSAType
- FiscalYear
- ActualAmount
- SSAFund
❏ Modified all TSDS Level 1 Error reports to display and print in landscape orientation by default.
❏ Modified the page to add the Extract Prior Year Reprint button.
TSDS Parallel
❏ Corrected the following Level 1 Errors:
- EDFI Student Education Error Transforming Data and Inserting into EDFI Staging Table (EDFI_STU_ED_ORG_RESP_STG)
- Extract processed but failed TSDS Extract Batch Process processed but failed with stored procedure error. Please provide server.log file.
❏ Corrected the issue that caused a -6 Error to display on the TSDS Extract Error Report on the following extracts. It is possible that other scenarios may inadvertently cause the -6 Error to occur. TCC will investigate additional scenarios as they are reported.
- Course Extract
- Course Offering Extract
- CTE PGM Association
- CTE Program Reporting Period Attendance
- Discipline Action Extract
- Discipline Incident Extract
- Enrolled Student Extract
- Finance Budget Extract
- Parent Extract
- Prior Year Leaver Extract
- Section Extract
- Special Programs Reporting Period Attendance Extract
- Staff Ed Org Assignment Association Extract
- Student Discipline Associations Extract
- Student Education Organization Responsibility Extract
- Student Language Instruction Program Extract
- Student Parent Association Extract
- Student Program Extract
- Student School Association Extract
- Student School Attendance Event Extract
- Student Section Association Extract
- Student Special Education Program Association Extract
❏ In order to comply with TEA, some extracts have been modified to no longer extract the TEA deleted 0/00 descriptors. This will cause the API to no longer send the data element.
In testing against the TCC version of the iODS, TCC has discovered some of the data elements are required and will continue to trigger a Level 1 Error.
TCC is waiting on guidance from TEA.
❏ Updated the Budget and Payroll URI Descriptors to correct the following Level 1 Errors:
- Error: EdFi.Ods.Api.Services.Controllers.TX.BudgetExts.BudgetExtsController - MESSAGE: Post System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.ValidationException: Validation of 'BudgetExt' failed. BudgetFunctionDescriptorId is required. BudgetFundDescriptorId is required. BudgetObjectDescriptorId is required. BudgetProgramIntentDescriptorId is required.
- Error: EdFi.Ods.Api.Services.Controllers.TX.PayrollExts.PayrollExtsController - MESSAGE: Post System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.ValidationException: Validation of 'PayrollExt' failed. PayrollFunctionDescriptorId is required. PayrollFundDescriptorId is required. PayrollObjectDescriptorId is required. PayrollProgramIntentDescriptorId is required.
The URI Descriptors for Budget and Payroll were updated follows:
Budget:
Payroll:
❏ Modified the program to include Finance Prior Year Actuals in the Ed-FI Extracts.
ASCENDER 8.0400
Release Date: 12/15/2023 ASCENDER Update: 8.0400
District Administration > Tables > District Information > Fund Balances
❏ Added this new tab to manually enter prior year ending fund balances (3XXX) as reflected on schedule C-1 of the audit to be used for the ActualExtension complex type during TSDS Mid-Year reporting.
IMPORTANT:
- Pilot LEAs will use this tab to manually enter prior year fund balances (3XXX).
- Non-pilot LEAs will continue to handle prior year fund balances (3XXX) in State Reporting.
District Administration > Options > Login
❏ Modified the Password Expiration (in days) field to only allow values 1-180. Zero is no longer a valid value.
District Administration > Maintenance > Non-Employee
❏ Added the TSDS Unique ID button. This functionality works in conjunction with the Texas Student Data System (TSDS). TSDS uses web services for Unique ID and for the Data Transmission Utility (DTU) allowing ASCENDER to interact directly with their Unique ID application to assign Unique IDs.
Before the TSDS Unique ID button can be used in ASCENDER, the LEA's designated TEAL user must obtain web service access.
District Administration > Inquiry > TSDS Level 1 Errors
❏ Added the following three buttons to allow the reprint of the extract reports from the last instance of TSDS Processing. These reports are not resent to the TSDS email distribution lists.
- Extract Errors Reprint - Reprints the TSDS Extract Errors report.
- Extract Budget Reprint - Reprints the TSDS Budget Data Extract report.
- Extract Payroll Reprint - Reprints the TSDS Payroll Extract report.
ASCENDER 8.0305
Release Date: 11/15/23 ASCENDER Update: 8.0305
❏ Updated the EDFI Extract Error report to only report one day of errors.
❏ Added the county district number to the email subject line of the report.
ASCENDER 8.0200
Release Date: 10/10/23 ASCENDER Update: 8.0200
District Administration > Options > TSDS > Connection
❏ Modified the program to validate TSDS credentials upon saving the record. If validation is not passed, the record is not saved and the following message is displayed: “Information provided does not validate to TEA.”
ASCENDER 8.0100
Release Date: 9/11/23 ASCENDER Update: 8.0100
District Administration > Tables > LEA News
❏ Added this page to allow LEA personnel to add and manage important news, announcements, or upcoming events, and display them on the ASCENDER Homepage Quick View dashboard. Each news entry includes a start and end date, a summary (topic), and a description. Additionally, if needed, entries can be limited to a specific audience based on their permission to an application and breadcrumb (menu item).
District Administration > Options > TSDS > Options
❏ Added validation to display a message indicating that at least one email address is required for each distribution list (Finance Extract Distribution List, Personnel/Payroll Extract Distribution List, TSDS Extract Errors Distribution List) if the Connection tab contains information.
District Administration > Options > TSDS > Connection
❏ Added validation to display a message indicating that at least one email address is required for each distribution list (Finance Extract Distribution List, Personnel/Payroll Extract Distribution List, TSDS Extract Errors Distribution List) on the Options tab if this tab contains information.
District Administration > Utilities > Annual Student Data Rollover
❏ Updated the program to add Child Care Operation Number tables to the Annual Student Data Rollover (ASDR) process.
❏ Corrected an issue with the program that caused the utility to stop running and give the user an Execute fail message.
❏ Corrected an error when performing the EXECUTE step that caused the utility to stop and give the user an unexplained error message.
❏ Corrected the issue that caused the ASDR extract to fail when a student has multiple records for the IGC Program (State Reporting > Options Local Program for IGC Reporting) on Registration > Maintenance > Student Enrollment Local Programs.