We're pleased to announce that Centre / SIS v. 2.5.1 has been released. This version is a result of diligent and determined review of our source code on the part of our development team, led by Mathew Boytim.
The number of changes in Centre / SIS seems to make a minor point (.1) increment release inconsistent with the amount of work undertaken. Much of the work reflects meeting the expectations from requests by our clients to make Centre / SIS much more dependable, consistent and accurate ó and this was given the highest priority.
Our clients tell us that when state funding, stakeholder relations, or your job depends on the accuracy of the data of your student information system, they want to us make sure that everything in Centre works as well as possible. New features must follow accuracy, not lead.
Primary change areas are grades, transcripts, attendance, security and substantial core functionality.
Our thanks to our lead developer Matt, and the development team of Joe, Suzanne, Grant, Trent, Bill and others who have made contributions to Centre / SIS.
Change log for this version follows:
New Features:
Anomalous Grades
- Provides teaches with a report of anomalous gradebook grades which include negative, missing, excused, and >100% grades. The report is linked to the gradebook so teachers can conveniently access the suspect grade.
Student Grades
- Parents/student view of student grades was replaced with a completely new format. Running averages are displayed and linked to individual assignments or all subjects can be expanded at once.
- Student grades include anonamous statistics in graphical form to provide parents and students a relative indication of the student's performance relative to the class for both grade averages and individual assignments.
- Student grades was added to the teacher menu so teacher can 'see' exactly what parents and students will see.
Search/Select Style for Report Cards, Final Grades, Transcripts
- Separates the student search criteria from the content specification for report cards, final grades, and transcripts.
Gradebook Grades
- Teachers can enter assignment scores as points, percents, or letter grade. Centre will convert the latter two to the corresponding point values.
- The 'All' display is formatted for better horizontal compactness.
- Grades >100% are highlighted in red.
- The default display is changed to 'Total' from 'All'.
- For weighted grades, the total weight is displayed and highlighted in red if not 100%.
Configuration
- Some previously 'hidden' features are brought out to the configuration options.
Centre Administrator
- One user can log in to all accounts. This is a convenience for the admin who often needs to log in as other users so he doesn't have to remember a bunch of cryptic passwords. In future versions the user logins are timestamped and logging in as the administrator in this way will update the admin's timestamp instead of the user,
Fixes:
Menu.php
- rearranged some items
- changed Final Grades to point to new file
- added Anomalous Grades
- added Final Grades and Student Grades to teachers
Modules.php
- changed email to $CentreNotifyAddress
- disabled mysql query
ProgramFunctions/ˍmakeLetterGrade.fnc.php
- made to work for specified staffˍid
- changed to return id or grade or percent
ProgramFunctions/ˍmakePercentGrade.fnc.php
- new file
- dual of ˍmakeLetterGrade, takes grade to percent
config.dist.inc
- cleanup
- added $CentreVersion = this release version (2.5.1)
- added $CentreAdmin = username whose password can login as any user
- added $CentreNotifyAddress = email address where notifications are sent
config.inc.php
- cleanup
- changed $StudentPicturesPath
- added $CentreVersion = this release version (2.5.1)
- added $CentreAdmin = username whose password can login as any user
- added $CentreNotifyAddress = email address where notifications are sent
database.inc.php
- changed email to $CentreNotifyAddress
- disabled mysql query
functions/DBGet.fnc.php
- cleanup
- changed indexed assignments to regular assignments instead of dynamic literals
functions/GetStaffList.fnc.php
- changed to include user profile in list output
functions/Inputs.php
- added 'array style' inputs for ability to speciff independently on - top and on - bottom with hidden fields
- append current val to select list and highlight in red (with hidden fields) if val not in list
functions/ListOutput.fnc.php
- bugfixes
functions/Percent.fnc.php
- simplify
functions/Widgets.fnc.php
- added $allowˍwidget parameter to force widget
index.php
- added $CentreAdmin feature
- changed registration email
modules/Grades/AnomalousGrades.php
- new file
- finds anomalous grades in teacher grade (missing, excused, negative, >100%)
- output is linked to the gradebook
modules/Grades/Assignments.php
- added total percent display for weighted grades, in red if !=100%
modules/Grades/DeletePromptX.fnc.php
- new file
- function similar to functions/DeletePrompt.fnc.php but different approach
modules/Grades/FinalGrades.php
- new file
- old 'gradelist' functionality from report cards
- uses search/select approach
- moved to separate file since not much shared with report cards and better for Custom Report Cards
modules/Grades/Grades.php
- changed default to 'Totals' from 'All'
- 'All' display format changed
- grades >100% highlighted in red
- single assignment for single student capability added
modules/Grades/Grades.php-updatedˍtoˍ2.5.1
- new file
- Grades.php from 2.5 but updated to work with 2.5.1
modules/Grades/InputFinalGrades.php
- programconfig updated to be consistent with changes to ˍmakeLetterGrade
modules/Grades/ProgressReports.php
- programconfig updated to be consistent with changes to ˍmakeLetterGrade
modules/Grades/ReportCards.php
- changed to search/select style
- search first, specify content second
- output same as 2.5 except attendance for class that doesn't doe attendance is displayed 'n/a'
modules/Grades/StudentGrades.php
- complete revision from 2.5
- 'row oriented' approach rather than 'column oriented', works better, allows more info easily displayed
- includes anonymous statistics
modules/Grades/StudentGrades.php-updatedˍtoˍ2.5.1
- new file
- StudentGrades.php from 2.5 but updated to work with 2.5.1
modules/Grades/Transcripts.php
- changed to search/select style - search first, specify content second
- output same as 2.5 except attendance for class that doesn't do attendance is displayed 'n/a'
modules/SchoolˍSetup/Calendar.php
- colorized for non school/school, full/half day attendance
- changed so default calendar is the calendar for the currently selected class instead of the school default
modules/SchoolˍSetup/MarkingPeriods.php
- improved and simplified behavior when deleting
modules/Students/Search.php
- added focus to last name
- added headerˍright, extraˍheaderˍleft, and extraˍheaderˍright
modules/Students/includes/GeneralˍInfo.inc.php
- cloaked password with *'s when using hidden fields
modules/Users/Search.php
- added focus to last name
modules/Users/User.php
- cloaked password with *'s when using hidden fields
- changed email to $CentreNotifyAddress
- disabled mysql query
