For Iowa schools, classroom user (teachers) accounts, rosters, and students demographics are controlled through data entered in the district’s Student Information System (SIS). District Managers can use the instructions below to view the roster information received from your SIS and loaded into FastBridge during the most recent nightly update, including which records did not successfully load due to errors.
The file will contain the roster information that was received from your SIS the previous day. Any changes made in your SIS today will not be visible in FastBridge (or the roster file) until the following morning.
Downloading the Data File
- Log into FastBridge via EdPortal
- Make sure you're on the District Manager tab
- Click Student Info
- Select Upload Student Roster
- Check the Upload Time column to confirm that a roster has been loaded. The top row in the table is the most recent file.
In the example below, 2018-12-05T01:39:41.533 means 12/05/18 at 1:39am (ignore the milliseconds).
Note: Please submit a support ticket in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org if the most recent file date is more than a day ago during the school year.
5. Click Validation Result link under the Validation Status column to download a copy of the roster file.
If you see a green check mark instead of Validation Result link: it means that your file has been uploaded successfully without any detected errors and you will need to carefully click the download icon under the Action column instead. Don't click the trashcan instead!
6. The roster file downloads as a .csv file that is best viewed in Excel. Once you click the link, you may receive a pop-up dialogue box for downloading or opening the roster file, otherwise locate the downloaded file and open with Excel. The options/process depend upon the browser and your system settings.
7. Use the filter functions - usually Data > Filter - available in Excel to filter for particular teachers, students, grades, courses, teacher ids, etc.. You can also filter by errors in the first two columns on the left. See the Errors in the data file section below for more information. This will help to pinpoint any data issues that may need to corrected in your SIS.
Common examples of filtering the roster file for troubleshooting:
- Missing student in FastBridge: Filter by the first/last name. Look for an error message, incorrect building/grade/teacher. If student is not in file, check your SIS for accuracy of school and course/section enrollments.
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Student is showing under incorrect teacher in FastBridge: Filter by student name and teacher name. Note the course and section details. Ensure student is properly exited (with a date) from that course/section in your SIS.
- Existing teacher's account disappeared: Filter by local teacher id to look for other staff with the same id.
The student will have a roster row for each class and each teacher assigned to the class in the roster file. All currently classes scheduled will create roster rows.
Errors in the data file
The FastBridge system validates the data in the roster file against existing data during the nightly updates process. If any data conflicts are found, the roster row with the error is rejected and the error is documented in columns A and B of the roster file. Looking through these errors may give you clues as to why teachers and students are missing in the FastBridge application. Below are the errors descriptions (column B in the roster file), cause and next steps.
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Error Description (column B)
|
Possible Causes
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District Next Steps
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<schoolName> - does not exist in State - IA and district <districtName>
|
The building name entered in your student information system (SIS) does not match the building name in FastBridge. The system will reject all roster lines for the building as unrecognizable. |
Submit a support ticket in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org. Include: district and building names EXACTLY as they appear in your student information system (SIS). The building name will be updated in FastBridge to ensure it matches; there is no need to change your SIS. |
| District does not exist in state - IA |
The district name entered in your student information system (SIS) does not match the district name listed in FastBridge. The system will reject all roster lines as unrecognizable. |
Submit a support ticket in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org. Include: district name EXACTLY as it appears in your SIS. The district name will be updated in FastBridge to ensure it matches; there is no need to change your SIS. |
| Invalid input for StudentID |
The Student State ID field is blank in the roster file. It is either not entered in your student information system (SIS) or the update was not received by FastBridge. *See special note below regarding missing student state ids. |
Enter the student's state id in your student information system (SIS). If the state id has been in your SIS for 48-72 hours, submit a support ticket in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org. Include: Student first and last name, district, building and confirmation that the state id has been entered in your SIS. |
| Student Birth Date is not valid |
The student's date of birth is missing or incorrectly formatted. |
Enter or correct the birth date in your student information system. |
| Invalid input for teacher email |
The staff member's email address is blank in the roster file. |
Enter the staff member's email address in your student information system (SIS). Please use their school email. |
| Invalid input for <TeacherID, TeacherFirstName or TeacherLastName> |
Teacher's name and/or local teacher id field is blank in the roster file. |
Enter the missing data for the staff member in your student information system (SIS). |
| Grade Not Enabled |
That grade level is not enabled for the building in FastBridge. |
Confirm the grade level and building are correct for the student. If the building grades have been reconfigured in the district, submit a support ticket in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org. |
| Duplicate |
This error is due to a change in the student's name. FastBridge recognizes that a different name was associated with the student state id previously. This is generally due to adoption or the correction of a typo. |
Submit a support ticket in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org. Include: student's previous first and last name EXACTLY as it was entered in your student information system (SIS), as well as the student's new first and last name exactly as it is entered in your SIS. The support team can send a request to the FastBridge techs to update the name and allow the student to load into FastBridge. |
*Missing Student State ID
If the student's state ID was automatically populated in your student information system via the state SLF locator program, there may be a 2-3 day delay in the loading of the student's state id into FastBridge. This is because the automatic population of the student's state id in your SIS doesn’t stimulate your SIF to send an update notification to the FastBridge system. There is a backup process that should pick up the missing ID within a week. If there are time constraints and it needs to be visible in FastBridge more quickly, please submit a support ticket in FastBridge with the necessary information and we can try to refresh the ID using your SIS data so it will be loaded in the next nightly roster update.
Notifications that are informational only
The error messages below are not actually errors. They describe a change in data and the roster row with the message is successfully loaded into FastBridge.
| Change Warnings (column A): Column B text varies. Format will be as follows: [Column:[name of column here] [Old Value = 'old info here'] [New Value = 'new info here'] | Indicates specific demographic data was changed in FastBridge based on new information in the roster file. |
| Switched School (column A): Switched school for <studentLastName, studentFirstName>. Scores will be transferred from <previous school name> to <new school name> | Indicates that a in-district school transfer occurred. |
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Still need help?
Follow your district's plan for support, usually by contacting your FastBridge District Manager. If your district doesn't have a plan, submit a support request in FastBridge or by emailing help@fastbridge.org (which also creates a support request). Don't forget to include specific details such as the name of the building, grade level, teacher, assessment and the student(s) first and last names. Do not use the chat feature or phone support number through FastBridge, as your Iowa support team is not available via those methods.