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Navigation and other TIPS for nySTART

Navigating the Verification Reports

"Back Button History" (Error page workaround)

Downloading PDF and Excel versions

For assistance with nySTART, always begin by making inquiries of your nySTART Administrator, or your organization's information technology support contact. To determine your nySTART Administrator:

• Log in to nySTART;
• Choose the "My Account" module from the top dropdown menu; and
• Click the GO button.
• Your nySTART Administrator will be listed in the upper right corner of the My Account screen.
• School staff and teachers should contact their building principal (or other principal-designated nySTART Administrator at the school level), or their local Information Technology support (at the school or District level.)
• School principals must contact their school superintendent (or other superintendent-designated nySTART Administrator at the District level)
• District staff should direct inquiries as necessary to their School Superintendent or other District nySTART Administrator, or to their Big 5 data center or Regional Information Center.
• NYC-area schools should contact Mabel Payne's office at daainfo@schools.nyc.gov or call 212-374-3990. Ms. Payne is the Director of NCLB-SED Accountability Administration in the NYCDOE; she and her staff handle nySTART administration and accountability issues for NYC-area schools.

If necessary, RICs or Big 5 data centers will escalate issues to NYSED or the Level 2 data warehouse by using the BUGtrack web application. Level 1 support staff may need to request a BUGtrack account from their data coordinator, who may request additional accounts from NYSED (see our main nySTART Information Page for details).

The Grow Networks help line for nySTART Reports assistance was discontinued as of 10/26/2007. Please see our main nySTART Information Page for details.

If you require immediate assistance from the NYSED Information & Reporting Services unit, please contact our office at 518-474-7965 and ask IRS staff for a nySTART contact.  If the request is not urgent, you may send email to the following addresses: for policy- or business rule-related questions, send email to studentdata@mail.nysed.gov; for feedback, comments or suggestions about nySTART, send email to nystart@mail.nysed.gov. Much of SED's published nySTART information (including nySTART scheduled maintenance, Status Report and Release Notes, field memos, FAQs, tips, and other guidelines) appears on the following website:  http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/irts/nystart/

Navigating the Verification Reports

If you are a member of one of the institution types below and have an active nySTART account with an appropriate level of data access (e.g., Executive Director or other Administrative accounts; or Regular—not Limited Access—Staff accounts), you will have access to verification reports.

School

1. Log into nySTART.
2. Once at the Welcome page ("Lobby"), scroll down to the Verification Reports heading (or choose Verification Reports from the top dropdown menu in the green nySTART header.)
3. Click the Go button.
1. Under the 2006-07 Enrollment and Demographic subheading, you may click on the blue (available) "BEDS Day Enrollment" or "Students with Disabilities" links.
2. Under the 2006-07 NYSTP subheading, you may click on either of the blue (available) "Tested/Not Tested Students" reports links for ELA or mathematics.

1. Log into nySTART.
2. Once at the Welcome page ("Lobby"), scroll down to the Verification Reports heading (or choose Verification Reports from the top dropdown menu in the green nySTART header.)
3. Click the Go button.
1. Under the 2006-07 Enrollment and Demographic subheading, you may click on the blue (available) "BEDS Day Enrollment" or "Students with Disabilities" links.
2. Under the 2006-07 NYSTP subheading, you may click on either of the blue (available) "Tested/Not Tested Students" reports links for ELA or mathematics.

RIC

1. Log into nySTART.
2. Once at the Welcome page ("Lobby"), choose Verification Reports from the top dropdown menu in the green nySTART header.
3. Click the Go button.
4. Click one of the districts/charter schools/non publics/state agencies.
5. Scroll down to the Verification Reports header.
1. Under the 2006-07 Enrollment and Demographic subheading, you may click on the blue (available) "BEDS Day Enrollment" or "Students with Disabilities" links.
2. Under the 2006-07 NYSTP subheading, you may click on either of the blue (available) "Tested/Not Tested Students" reports links for ELA or mathematics.

NYCDOE

1. Log into nySTART.
2. Once at the Welcome page ("Lobby"), choose Verification Reports from the top dropdown menu in the green nySTART header.
3. Click the Go button.
4. Click one of the districts/charter schools/non publics/state agencies.
5. Scroll down to the Verification Reports header.
1. Under the 2006-07 Enrollment and Demographic subheading, you may click on the blue (available) "BEDS Day Enrollment" or "Students with Disabilities" links.
2. Under the 2006-07 NYSTP subheading, you may click on either of the blue (available) "Tested/Not Tested Students" reports links for ELA or mathematics.

Region

1. Log into nySTART.
2. Once at the Welcome page ("Lobby"), choose Verification Reports from the top dropdown menu in the green nySTART header.
3. Click the Go button.
4. Click one of the districts.
5. Scroll down to the Verification Reports header.
1. Under the 2006-07 Enrollment and Demographic subheading, you may click on the blue (available) "BEDS Day Enrollment" or "Students with Disabilities" links.
2. Under the 2006-07 NYSTP subheading, you may click on either of the blue (available) "Tested/Not Tested Students" reports links for ELA or mathematics.

Network

1. Log into nySTART.
2. Once at the Welcome page ("Lobby"), choose Verification Reports from the top dropdown menu in the green nySTART header.
3. Click the Go button.
4. Click one of the schools.
5. Scroll down to the Verification Reports header.
1. Under the 2006-07 Enrollment and Demographic subheading, you may click on the blue (available) "BEDS Day Enrollment" or "Students with Disabilities" links.
2. Under the 2006-07 NYSTP subheading, you may click on either of the blue (available) "Tested/Not Tested Students" reports links for ELA or mathematics.

Clicking the report link from a nySTART Lobby page will now open the requested Verification Report in a new browser window.  To close any report, simply close its browser window.

From the report displayed in a new browser window, you may click any link within the report.  This is called "drilling down" (to a more granular or more detailed report.)

Each time you click a new link within a report, it will open in a new window.

• For example, if you are currently viewing a District Summary report, you might click on the link to any specific school within that district, or you might click the link to the aggregated out-of-district summary, the aggregated homebound summary, and so on.  As long as you keep the main District Summary window open, you may drill down and open (in new windows) as many "lower level" reports as you like.
• As another example, if you are currently viewing a School Summary report, within that school you might click on the student count link to any particular demographic category (Disability Status, Ethnicity, English Proficiency, NYSAA Eligibility, particular NCLB program categories, and so on) in order to bring up a Student Detail report for that subgroup.

The Student Detail report contains no further links.  The Student Detail report has the most granular level of detail, giving individual student demographics (name, State and local IDs, birthdate, grade, building of enrollment, and all the demographics contained in the higher level Summary reports.)  Again, as long as you keep the main School Summary window open, you may drill down and open (in new windows) as many Student Detail reports as you like.

Any report may be downloaded as a PDF or Excel spreadsheet file (see "Exporting to PDF and Excel" at the bottom of this page.)  Icons for downloading these two file formats are available in the upper right corner of each report.  For reports with numerous columns, you may need to scroll your browser to the right (check the bottom of your browser window for the left-right scrollbar.)

CSV files are not currently available, but if you need assistance in converting a spreadsheet into a more flexible data file, please contact the appropriate technical support as noted in this page's introductory paragraph.

Again, to close any verification report, simply close its browser window.

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Returning to a previous nySTART page from a "Cognos Connection" error page (or other Cognos error screen)

If you are redirected to a Cognos Connection page (or other Cognos error screen) you may choose to either close the window and start from the beginning, or attempt to refresh the page you were requesting by using your browser History.  Simply clicking the Back button will only refresh your current error page.  Please use the following instructions as guidance.  You may wish to keep these instructions open in one browser window for reference and navigate nySTART in a separate window, at least until you are comfortable with this process.

• The Back button on your browser should have a small dropdown arrow at the right; clicking the arrow once should reveal a dropdown list of the most recent pages you visited.
• As a general rule, you should skip the first page listing (at the top of the History list) as it will only auto-refresh your current error page.  Instead, move down the list and select the second instance of the page listed.
• Do not be alarmed if you encounter a "Warning: Page Expired" message.  Simply refresh the page (using the browser's Refresh button, or F5 on a PC), and when a window appears asking you to resend the information, click the "Retry" button.

For your reference, here is a list of descriptions of nySTART pages. Each page type's title appears in bold headings below, followed by its description. Note that in each case the page type's title appears in your browser's title bar (the title bar runs across the very top of your browser window, and contains either the blue 'e' for nternet Explorer or the red fox swirl for Firefox. The characters in the title bar are what appears in your browser History:

Report Viewer - GA-L-L1

This is the nySTART main landing page.

• For districts and schools, links to all nySTART report types are displayed;
• For RICs and NYCDOE, the page will contain no report links. A report type (Assessment or Verification) must first be selected from the top dropdown menu, which will then take the user to GA-L-L2 or GA-L-L7.

Report Viewer - School Assessment Summary

School Assessment Summary report broken down by subgroup categories.

Report Viewer - District Assessment Summary

District Assessment Summary report that has the list of schools that fall underneath the district.

Report Viewer - GA-L-L4

Assessment Report Lobby has the list of Assessment Report links.

Report Viewer - GA-L-L5

Verification Report Lobby has the list of Verification Report links and their instruction letters.

Report Viewer - GA-L-L6

For RICs and NYCDOE, Verification Report Lobby for a specific district, charter, non-public school or State agency. Shows the list of Verification Report links and their instruction letters.

Report Viewer - GA-L-L2

• districts
• charter schools
• non-public schools
• State agencies

Report Viewer - GA-L-L7

• districts
• charter schools
• non-public schools
• State agencies

Report Viewer - GA-O-AG

• For district Assessment Reports, Aggregate Performance and Performance Levels at the district level. Includes links to GA-C-AG ("Schools" link) and GA-S-AG ("Subgroups" link)
• For school Assessment Reports, Aggregate Performance and Performance Levels at the district level. Includes links to GA-C-AG ("Schools" link) and GA-S-AG ("Subgroups" link)

Report Viewer - GA-C-AG

• For district Assessment Reports, Aggregate Performance at the school level.

Report Viewer - GA-S-AG

• For district-level Assessment Reports, Aggregate Performance of district-wide subgroups. Includes links to GA-O-AG ("Overview" link) and GA-C-AG ("Schools" link)
• For school-level Assessment Reports, Aggregate Performance and Performance Levels of school-wide subgroups. Includes links to GA-O-AG:
• for school: using "Overview" link;
• for district: at the top of the left-hand navigation bar, above the dropdown lists and below the word Location: a hyperlinked "[district name]".

Summary report broken down by subgroup categories

Summary report broken down by subgroup categories

Report Viewer - GA-L-L5

Verification Report Lobby has the list of Verification Report links and their instruction letters

For this release, only the ELA Verification Report is available

Report Viewer - GA-L-L1 Home

This is the nySTART Home Page where are the links to all the nySTART reports are displayed

RIC

Report Viewer - School Assessment Summary

School Assessment Summary report broken down by subgroup categories

Report Viewer - District Assessment Summary

District Assessment Summary report that has the list of schools that fall underneath the district

For this release, only the ELA Verification Report is available

Report Viewer - GA-L-L1 Home

This is the nySTART Home Page where are the links to all the nySTART reports are displayed 

NYCDOE

Report Viewer - School Assessment Summary

School Assessment Summary report broken down by subgroup categories

Report Viewer - District Assessment Summary

District Assessment Summary report that has the list of schools that fall underneath the district

Report Viewer - GA-L-L6

Verification Report Lobby has the list of Verification Report links and their instruction letters

For this release, only the ELA Verification Report is available

Report Viewer - GA-L-L7

Verification Report Proxy Lobby has the list of entities that report to you for purposes of verification

Report Viewer - GA-L-L1 Home

This is the nySTART Home Page where are the links to all the nySTART reports are displayed

 Region

Report Viewer - School Assessment Summary

School Assessment Summary report broken down by subgroup categories

Report Viewer - District Assessment Summary

District Assessment Summary report that has the list of schools that fall underneath the district

Report Viewer - GA-L-L6

Verification Report Lobby has the list of Verification Report links and their instruction letters

For this release, only the ELA Verification Report is available

Report Viewer - GA-L-L7

Verification Report Proxy Lobby has the list of entities that report to you for purposes of verification

Report Viewer - GA-L-L1 Home

This is the nySTART Home Page where are the links to all the nySTART reports are displayed

 Network

Report Viewer - School Assessment Summary

School Assessment Summary report broken down by subgroup categories

Report Viewer - GA-L-L6

Verification Report Lobby has the list of Verification Report links and their instruction letters

For this release, only the ELA Verification Report is available

Report Viewer - GA-L-L7

Verification Report Proxy Lobby has the list of entities that report to you for purposes of verification

Report Viewer - GA-L-L1 Home

This is the nySTART Home Page where are the links to all the nySTART reports are displayed

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Exporting to PDF and Excel

 Icons for downloading these two file formats are available in the upper right corner of each report.  For reports with numerous columns, you may need to scroll your browser to the right (check the bottom of your browser window for the left-right scrollbar.)

 You may encounter problems downloading PDFs or Excel spreadsheets.  These are not bugs in the nySTART interface; these are typically caused by browser settings or local network security configurations that limit application plug-ins needed to generate downloads in PDF or Excel format.  In these cases, settings only temporarily prevent download functionality; you may need to consult with support for your particular resolution (see first paragraph at top of this page.)

 PDF Export

To export to PDF, click on the PDF icon at the top right hand corner of the report page.  You may want to open a PDF session on your computer before exporting the report.  If this does not work, you may need to adjust popup-blocker settings or browser security settings.

To add nySTART to your browser's list of sites allowed to generate popups, you may need to consult with your local IT Support staff, but Internet Explorer users may try this method:

• Go to the top browser menu, and select Tools > Internet Options.
• To add nySTART to the list of accepted sites for popups, go to the Privacy tab, and select the Settings button under Pop-up Blocker.
• In the "Address of website to allow" text window, enter [*.nystart.gov] (without the brackets), click the Add button, then the Close button (then OK button to finish, or continue …)

 To add nySTART to the list of Trusted Sites:

• Go to the Security tab, click on the green Trusted Sites icon, and click the ‘Sites...' button.
• In the "Add this site to the zone" text window, enter [*.nystart.gov] (without the brackets), and UN-check the ‘Require server verification…' checkbox (if checked)
• Click the Add button, then the OK button (then OK again to finish.)

 Excel Export

To export to Excel, click on any one of the excel icons at the top right hand corner of the report page.  You may want to open an Excel session on your computer before exporting the report.  If you are still having trouble exporting to excel, refer to the instructions above.

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