FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. Who has access to TUSDStats?
2. Who can see what classified information?
3. What is my password?
4. Why doesn't my password work?
5. Can I access TUSDStats from home?
6. Why doesn't XXX link work?
7. Why don't I get any information back, even after I choose all the options?
8. Why is the information I pull up for my classes/school/students out of date or inaccurate?
9. How often is the information on TUSDStats updated?
10. Why is the same class listed twice?
11. Can I save the data to my machine in a format I can use?
12. Where can I find information on YYY?
13. Can you organize/break out the ZZZ data in a different way?
14. Can you organize pages to print better?

Q1. Who has access to TUSDStats?

A. TUSDStats (formerly known as PAWEB or "the Intranet") can be accessed from the internet.  Areas of TUSDStats that contain confidential information are secured by a password system and industry standard data encryption. 
Q2. Who can see what information?

A. The following access levels currently exist:

General Access

Can access general information on any individual school and the entire district. For example: AIMS, Stanford 9, Attendance, School Quality Survey.

Parental Access

Once parents create a TUSDStats Parental Account, they can access data for their children who are actively attending TUSD schools.

Teacher Access

Can access specific (student) information on that teacher's current and past classes. Data is presented for individual students and also aggregated by class.

Counselor/Librarian Access

Can access all specific information for any individual student at that school. However, this excludes class or grade aggregation.

Principal Access

Can access all specific information for any individual student at that school. This includes all class and grade aggregations.

Special Access

Can access one specific area of information for any individual student at any school. An example is bilingual counselors' access to SDPE information.

Central Administrator Access

Can access all data for any individual student at any school. This includes all class or grade aggregation, and also includes sensitive school comparison data.

All levels, other than general access, are password protected because they give access to confidential information. Improper distribution of confidential information is against Federal law as well as five TUSD governing board statutes.

Q3. What is my password?

A. Principals at each school should have (and also be able to access on TUSDStats from the Information for Principals page) a list of passwords for teachers and counselors/librarians at that school.  Principal and administrative passwords were distributed to them individually.  See also this link for a more complete description of access categories and this one for additional information.  Parents create and can change their own password.
Q4. Why doesn't my password work?

A1. You need to use your mouse to click on the username box to actually get your cursor there. Once there, you should see your username appear as you type it in. Make sure the username you enter is correct (should not have any spaces in it, for example). After typing in your username, hit tab to get to the password box, and then type the password in. You will not see what you type, but as many asterisks should appear as characters you type.  Passwords should not have any spaces in them, either.
A2. If your password contains a special character, you may need to hold down the shift while typing this character in to get it to enter correctly (other than special characters, passwords should be case insensitive).
A3. You may have more than one username and password. This tends to happen to principals/counselors who are also teachers. If you got more than one password sheet, trying using the username and password on the other sheet.

If you continue to have problems, call us at 225-5418.
Q5. Can I access TUSDStats from home?

A. Almost all of TUSDStats is accessible from home.  There are a few employee tasks can only be performed from a TUSD computer.
Q6. Why doesn't XXX link work?

A1. If a link is black, this means it isn't really a link at all, but rather a 'hook' or place for a link. (Real links are usually blue and underlined). It implies that we will get that information out there at some point, or that it was out there but inaccessible while we update it.
A2. This could be a programming mistake on our part. This is especially likely if you get a '404: Not Found Error'. Please tell us about it so that we can fix it as soon as possible.
Q7. Why don't I get any information back, even after I choose all the options?

A. Forms in which you can pick options (school name, year, etc) require you to click on the "Submit" button, which is a gray button usually appearing at the bottom of the page. Sometimes you may need to scroll down to find the Submit button.
Q8. Why is the information I pull up for my classes/school/students out of date or inaccurate?

A. A lot of information on TUSDStats (including what teachers and students are at what schools, which classes teachers are teaching, and which classes students are in) is derived, directly or indirectly, from Sonora/Mojave, the general database system built and maintained by Technology & Telecommunications Services (TTS). The quality of this information depends on the accuracy of the data in Sonora/Mojave at the time of our last update.  We receive Sonora/Mojave updates roughly every two weeks.
For the most part, school administration controls the data that goes into Sonora/Mojave through the person(s) entering and updating that school's information in Sonora/Mojave. The more accurate and up-to-date each school's reporting is, the more accurate and up-to-date information on TUSDStats will be.
Q9. How often is the information on TUSDStats updated?

A. It depends. Information which comes directly from Sonora/Mojave (for example, where a student is currently enrolled) is updated approximately once every two weeks. Information from Sonora/Mojave which requires major reprocessing on our part (for example, quarterly grades and attendance) is updated once a quarter. Data on standardized tests & surveys (for example, Stanford 9 or School Quality Survey) is posted as soon as we have a reasonably clean electronic version available.
Our What's New Page is probably the best place to check for updates in the latter two categories.
Q10. Why is the same class listed twice?

A. Elementary grades are in Sonora/Mojave twice, once for the morning and once for the afternoon, for attendance purposes. Middle and high school classes should not be listed twice--either the course code, the section code, or the time of year taught is probably different.
Q11. Can I save the data to my machine in format I can use?

A. Yes, with Microsoft Excel. Click on the File tab in the upper left-and corner of your browser, and scroll down to Save As. Choose type .htm/.html (should be the default for both Netscape and Internet Explorer), and designate a filename and directory for saving. Once the page is saved, close or minimize the browser, open Excel, and then open the file (you will need to tell Excel to look at all file types). Excel should be able to read the data into an Excel spreadsheet.
This procedure may work with other programs besides Excel, but has not been tested with other programs.
Q12. Where can I find information on YYY?

A. Click Here to see a fairly comprehensive Table of Contents.
Q13. Can you organize/break out the ZZZ data in a different way?

A. Maybe. Some things we have a hard time doing because we have a hard time getting up-to-date, reliable data (for example, GATE/non-GATE breakouts). Some data organizations seems straightforward but turn out to be programming nightmares. And some really are quite easy but just never occurred to us to do.
Ask Here and we'll see what we can do.
Q14. Can you organize pages to print better?

A. Because of the wide variety of computers used to view TUSDStats (and printers hooked up to them), unfortunately, we can't do much about formatting pages to print 'correctly'. Pages that we have found to be consistently wider than 8.5" across we will try to flag as best printed in landscape mode.
However, you have some control over how a page is printed, specifically through changing the font size. (In IE, go to View on the Menu, then under Internet Options play with font settings. Likewise, in Netscape, choose Options from the Menu then look under General Preferences). Sans serif fonts (for example, Arial), will often let you get more information to print across the page, while a smaller font size will get more information both across and down.

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