Release Notes for STEP Software 

• The A-2 and A-6 reports now include alternate assessments records with measure codes 080 and 081.
• A student who earned an IEP will no longer be counted on the A-6.
• Participation rate on the A-6 will now round to the nearest whole number.

Friday, August 6, 2004 - Version 3.04

Import:  

• The import of SPN files will now allow records with blank (not null) name fields to be imported.
• If records remain in the import tables after the append process, please refer to the error log table for related level 2 errors.

Reports:

• The A-6 report has been corrected to properly count students in grade 12.
• Enrollment counts on the C-4 report have been corrected.

Assessments:  Measure codes have been added to allow for the reporting of 2003 NYSESLAT scores for LEP students who took the grade 7-8 NYSESLAT in 2002-03 and the 9-12 NYSESLAT in 2003-04.

Superintendent's Certification:  The certification form has been moved back to the verification report tab.  The form requires the superintendent to indicate the data file submission number to which the certification corresponds.  (For example, if the certification corresponds to the district's first file submitted, the certification should indicate "1st."  If the data certified is the third file certified and submitted, the certification should indicate "3rd," etc.)  If a superintendent has previously certified a file that was not submitted, that file should not be counted.

Friday, July 30, 2004 - Version 3.03

This version corrects a few features, but does not require replacement of your Version 3.02 back-end database. For export data to be accepted by SED, you must use the Version 3.03 front-end database. The simplest way to do this is to download the new front-end database into the same folder that contains your version 3.02 front-end database. 

Student Tab: 

• StudentID lookup combo-box now supports paste of StudentID (e.g., from ErrorLog) in Windows 2000 and XP environments.
• NYSESLAT assessment records can now be key-entered with administration dates in May.

Superintendent Certification Form:

• The certification form is no longer generated from the same screen as the Verification Reports. Instead, it now is generated from the Export screen during  the "Export SPD file" process, and only if there are no errors. A message about this appears upon successful export of an SPD data file.
• Changes were made to required submission dates (from August 6 to August12) in all places.
• School District name and BEDS code is pre-printed.
• Records counts for SDD, SAD and PSP are printed on the certification form along with a clearly labeled date and time of file export.

Export SPD file: Header and row formats of this file have been reworked to pass through SED FTP file processing.

School Codes: Additional codes have been added to support missing school codes. Please notify us if you cannot find a listing for an institution about which you are required to report.

WARNING: In LEAP (and so also in IMPACT records), the score for NYSESLAT is declared as "999".

In the STEP IMPACT/LEAP record import procedure, all "999" score assessment records are prevented from loading. The understood definition of the "999" code has been that it is a missing score value that implies "absent not tested".

For proper import to STEP, the score field must contain a valid score, which for NYSAA is a value from 0 to 4.

For districts that have a IMPACT records for the SAA, they must either convert the score codes in the import tables to proper values, or find another way to enter the data into STEP.

The valid scores for the NYSAA for STEP may be determined from the LEAP "Standard Met" codes according to the following table.

We have received reports that  NYSESLAT score records may also contain "999" score values, but STEP expects valid range raw scores for the NYSESLAT components. If import records are coming with "999" for score, those records will also be blocked on import.

• New filter allows selection of students by grade level and school year.
• Drop down menus can now be viewed in MS Access 2003.

• NYSESLAT assessment records can now be reported with administration dates in April and May.
• Error messages now more accurately reflect the error detected.
• CTE records are considered continuous and no longer autoclose on reporting date.

• Verification tab:  
  - Group totals on B4 detail report have been corrected to reflect the actual student counts.
  - A1 and A5 have been modified to properly report math scores.

Export:  Header record on export file no longer includes the version identifier for the STEP front end that created the file.

Friday, July 9, 2004 - Version 3.01

We are grateful to all who field tested version 3.0 and provided constructive feedback.  All identified issues have been addressed. 

Edits:  Error messages that were suppressed by typographical errors in the code will now appear when the Report/Export edits are run.  For example, if your data contains program service records that have a beginning date after the current date, level 1 errors will be generated that were erroneously suppressed.

• Verification tab: Verification reports are now enabled.  Please see the STEP Manual for details on the verification reports. 
• Annual/Other tab: 
  - A Career Technical Education - Tech Prep report has been added.
  - A School Year Enrollment Summary report has been added to verify for each school year, the number of students by grade and subgroup.
• Cover sheets with instructions for using the verification reports will be generated when the superintendent's certification is generated for each report group that has at least one report selected.  The superintendent's certification is date stamped with the date and time of the most recent export.  Therefore, the export file should be produced prior to generating the superintendent's certification form.

Tables:

• The school list has been updated to include schools that became active in the 2003-04 school year.
• CTE/Tech Prep program service and assessment measure codes have been added.
• New CIP program service codes have been added. (These are optional entries.)

Edits:

• A Level 2 warning is generated when a student enrollment record includes a ReasonID of 357 (previously counted as a dropout) in the reporting year and there is no prior year dropout ReasonID other than 357.  If  this error is not resolved, the student will be counted as a dropout for 2003-04.

• A Level 1 error is generated when a student has a CIP program service record for the reporting year and no CTE program service record for the reporting year.

• A Level 1 error is generated when a student has an enrollment record with a ReasonID of 153 (transferred to another school in the district), an ending date less than the reporting date, and no subsequent enrollment record.

• A Level 1 error is generated when a ReasonID of  680, 697, 714 or 731 is used for a program service record with an ending date prior to 7/1/2004.

• A Level 1 error is generated when a ReasonID of 17, 34, 51 or 595 is used for a student with a cohort year if 2001 or later.

Accountability:  A mechanism has been added to STEP to assist LEAs in meeting the 1% cap for NYSAA measures to be used for meeting the proficiency requirements of accountability.  Look for documentation of this feature on the STEP Website.

Reports: Verification reports have been disabled.

Import: Default date for import data has been advanced to reflect the 2003-04 reporting year.