In FastBridge, Iowa operates a bit differently than other users around the nation. We have automated rosters and user management. No part of rosters and almost no user management is handled in the FastBridge interface. In addition, there are requirements of ELI legislation and the integration of scores collected into the state’s MTSS data system, Student Success. The result is that some of the information and instructions available in the general FastBridge knowledge base are not appropriate for Iowa users. It is important to understand these Iowa differences to avoid accidentally creating problems ranging from annoyance to data loss. This document will identify the major areas of differences and link you to associated resources.

What is it?

A part of Iowa’s Early Warning System (EWS), FastBridge is an assessment system for universal screening and progress monitoring data collection. Iowa has contracted with FastBridge to provide free access to K-6 literacy assessments for all districts and accredited non-public schools that choose to use it. Districts have also been offered an opportunity to buy additional K-6 (math/behavior) and 7/8 (literacy/math/behavior) assessments through their AEA. Districts may contract directly with FastBridge for 9-12th grade assessments.

The literacy and math screening and progress monitoring scores collected in FastBridge are transferred nightly to another part of EWS, which is Iowa's MTSS data system, Student Success. There, the data is used for state reporting (Iowa ELI), evaluation of intervention effectiveness and to provide educators with tools supporting MTSS, such as Healthy Indicator reports.

Where to start

The first stop for help with any FastBridge question or issue are the Iowa specific resources in the FastBridge knowledge base. In the nationwide documentation, you may stumble upon information that’s inaccurate for Iowa.

FastBridge Differences for Iowa Users

System performance, computer, hardware, display, audio, etc.

What looks like a system performance issue may actually be a local hardware or network issue. It’s a good idea to start here.

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Staff access: user accounts, login issues, etc.

Iowa educators access FastBridge via Iowa's Education Portal (EdPortal). Each user’s building/location and user permissions are based on the FAST role assignment entered in the district’s student information system (SIS). Never request a FAST role directly in EdPortal. Assignment data from the district SIS connects to the user’s EdPortal account based on the user’s email address matching. The process for AEA staff access is different and they should not be assigned a user role in the district's SIS.

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Note: when using student logins for computer administered assessments, students log directly into the FastBridge site. Students do not log in via EdPortal. See: Setting Up Student Login Access

Note about FastBridge user roles for Iowa

All users automatically have group proctor capability within their assigned role. There are two user roles that exist in FastBridge but are not used in Iowa. Those are the Master Account Administrator (MAA) and School Manager roles. Iowa districts will not have an MAA due to the nature of the statewide contract and the School Manager role was eliminated due to design flaws that can cause users to lose access. Note: The School Manager role still exists in most student information systems from the early implementation. If assigned, it will automatically convert to a Specialist role in the edPortal.

District/Non-Public School User Role Chart
AEA user roles are listed in the AEA Access to Student Success and/or FastBridge

Rosters: classes, teacher access to students, incorrect student demographics

Students and rosters aren’t added or edited directly in FastBridge for Iowa, as you may see in the nationwide FastBridge resources. Student demographics, school enrollment, class and teacher assignments are sent from the district student information system and updated in FastBridge nightly. Below is a list of the basic information required for students to be visible and available to the correct teachers in FastBridge.

Enrollment in a school that is active in FastBridge with a start date prior to the current date.
Grade level assignment that is enabled for the school.
A valid student state ID that has been entered for 2-3 days, if your district uses the student locate program to populate IDs.
Students are scheduled into at least one class/section, the section is assigned to a teacher, start date prior to the current date. Note: For JMC, this means in the scheduler module with the class scheduled for a period. The homeroom list will not create roster entries.
The teacher assigned to the class/section must have a valid email address.

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Administrative setup: screening windows, benchmarks, assessment availability

The Iowa Department of Education team completes the majority of the district setup in FastBridge for you, including benchmarks, assessment setup, and screening windows. District Managers may see these setup tasks on their To-Do List in FastBridge and the function links will always be available on the side menu but should never make changes. The presets are according to state guidance and requirements and editing can damage data. District Managers - please refer to What’s Permitted on the FastBridge Administrative Menu to ensure understanding of which functions you can safely use, and which you should never edit.

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Universal Screening and Assessments

Early and regular screening ensures identification of students who need additional support while gaps are smaller and relatively easier to address. Universal screening is an important part of Iowa’s Early Warning System (EWS) and MTSS. Iowa schools are required to select and administer a state approved literacy assessment for each K-6 grade level. That assessment is set as the default literacy assessment for the school year and is used for data reporting for Healthy Indicators and Early Literacy Implementation (ELI) requirements. Iowa provides K-6 FAST literacy assessments (math and behavior are optional and supported by the AEA system separately) Iowa provides myIGDIS at no cost for Iowa users as a valid preschool literacy screening assessment. Contact Mary Breyfogle for more information about myIGDIS

It’s important to be aware that for K-6 literacy in particular, there are assessment requirements based on state approval of the assessment and the school’s selection of the assessment as the default assessment for the purpose of state reporting. All of the state approved K-6 literacy screening and progress monitoring scores are transferred to Student Success.

The state has not reviewed or approved any of the following:

7-12 literacy - most data transfers to Student Success
K-12 math - limited transfer of data to Student Success currently
K-12 behavior - no data transfer to Student Success
PK measures - not available in Iowa

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Progress Monitoring and Interventions: PM data collected in FastBridge; interventions and data review in Student Success

Progress monitoring plans are set up and data collected in FastBridge. Intervention plans are entered in Panorama Student Success, which is also where the majority of data analysis should occur. For ELI, the Iowa Department of Education expectation is to track interventions in Student Success. Entering and maintaining intervention information in Student Success is also important for the function of a variety of reporting and evaluation tools. For that reason, we strongly encourage entry of all interventions into Student Success, not just those governed by ELI law.

To avoid creating additional work, we do not recommend entering interventions in FastBridge. While screening and progress monitoring data is transferred nightly from FastBridge to Student Success, FastBridge does not have the ability to transfer interventions entered into FastBridge for display in Student Success.

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Reports

Reports in FastBridge are designed for their nationwide users, and may not always align with Iowa’s requirements or needs. For example, color coding in FastBridge does not align with Iowa’s ELI literacy status, which may be misleading. Do not assume red/yellow/green in FastBridge represents literacy status. Remember that benchmark status is indicated by ! and !! in reports in FastBridge..

Iowa specific reports for ELI student literacy status, Healthy Indicators, and other tools are located in Iowa's MTSS data system, Student Success and updated nightly with data collected in FastBridge. All state reporting is completed via Student Success.

State level requirements and guidance: ELI and Healthy Indicators

The Student Success system is the official reporting location for ELI requirements. Student literacy status determinations are automatically calculated and schools should document and monitor interventions in Student Success.

Early Literacy Implementation (ELI) law requires schools to identify and provide support for students in order for all students to be successful readers by the end of grade three. The main points of ELI are:

Universal literacy screening
Assignment of a literacy status based on screening results
Ongoing parent communication of student status, needs and interventions
Progress monitoring for students who are determined to be at risk or persistently at risk
Intervention using research based instruction for persistently at risk students

Healthy Indicators are not tied to legal requirements and do not contribute to any accountability system. However, they provide MTSS feedback and support for evaluating school and district data using research-based indicators of a healthy system. Healthy Indicator reports are available in Student Success to assist leaders with making data based decisions to support the goal of improving outcomes for students.

Learn more in the helpful links below:

Mixed communications and support

Beware of emails and pop-up announcements. Fastbridge’s parent company, Renaissance, sends emails and posts announcements intended for their nationwide users that are not crafted with Iowa’s specific needs and processes in mind. Fastbridge’s information may be excellent and helpful, but should always be read with an awareness of Iowa’s differences. The Iowa Department of Education maintains an email list to send Iowa-specific communications. Sign up for the email list using the link under resources below.

Do not use FastBridge chat or telephone number. Please do not use the chat feature or phone support number through FastBridge. Your Iowa support team is not available via those methods. Response time from the Iowa team is generally very quick during working hours. Using chat and the phone are likely to delay getting help rather than expedite it.

If you need additional assistance, follow your district's plan for support, usually by contacting your FastBridge District Manager. If your district doesn't have a plan, click on “Submit a Request” or “Contact Us” in FastBridge or email help@fastbridge.org. Don't forget to include as many specific details as possible!

Learn more in the helpful links below:

What’s Permitted on the FastBridge Administrative Menu

Below is a visual of the administrative menu available in FastBridge District Manager accounts. Each menu item in the visual below is marked with a red prohibition (circle-slash) to indicate that the page is not for Iowa district-level use, a yellow or green circle indicates it can be used. Please do not make changes on any page marked with the red symbol on the menu visual below. Changes to these items may create performance problems or even loss of data.

If there is something you think should be changed on one of the pages marked with the prohibited sign, please submit a support ticket.

Common terms/abbreviations for Iowa users

Default Literacy Assessments:

the universal screening tool selected by the district to use for determination of literacy status and data collection for healthy indicator reporting.

Differentiated Accountability (DA):

DA is Iowa's accountability model designed to provide support for public districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and Area Education Agencies (AEAs) when and where they need it most.

DM:

FastBridge District Manager account user.

ELI [Early Literacy Implementation]:

Is driven by Iowa Code to promote effective evidence-based programming, instruction and assessment practices across schools to support all students to become proficient readers by the end of the third grade.

EWS [Early Warning System]:

Identifies at-risk students through data analysis.

FastBridge [Formative Assessment System for Teachers]:

FastBridge is a suite of assessments and an application for data collection and reporting.

Illuminate Education:

Providers of the FastBridge assessments and system.

Healthy Indicators:

Healthy Indicators are broad measures to assess the health of the system.

Knowledge Base (aka KB):

A compendium of articles, videos and resources to assist you with using and understanding the FastBridge system, your data, the assessments and the Iowa-specific processes.

Literacy Status:

An element of ELI, the literacy status determination is based on the student’s most recent screening score and previous literacy status.

AP - Adequately Progressing Literacy Status

AR - At-Risk Literacy Status

PatR - Persistently At-Risk Literacy Status

MTSS [Multi-tiered Svstem of Supports]:

An every-education decision-making framework of evidence based practices in instruction and assessment that addresses the needs of all students.

Outside of the window:

Administering a universal screening assessment outside of the state defined screening window.

PM:

Abbreviation for Progress Monitoring

Roll over:

Refers to date when the FastBridge system changes to the next school year. Tip: The district’s SIF must also be rolled over to send the new school year data for the reload to occur.

Screening window:

The four-week block of time set aside three times a year to screen all students. Dates are set by the state for Fall, Winter, and Spring.

SIF [Schools Interoperability Framework]:

The data pipeline that sends information from the district SIS to FastBridge.

SIS [Student Information System]:

All districts have either JMC. Infinite Campus or Powerschool. All student demographic, Classroom User account information, and roster information comes from the data entry in the district SIS

Student Success:

Iowa's Early Warning (EWS) and MTSS system. K-6 data collected in FAST is transferred to Student Success nightly. Interventions, progress monitoring graphs, reports and other data tools to help support MTSS, ELI, and Differentiated Accountability are located in this data system.

Support Request (aka ticket):

Used for system issues or questions beyond what users can answer using the resources available in the knowledge base. Anyone with access to FastBridge can submit a support request by clicking Support in the upper left corner but please follow your district’s plan for support, usually by contacting your FastBridge District Manager before submitting a support request.