MS/EdD Blog

MFA no longer requires a password change/reset to cofigure.

support@msedd.com (MSEdD Support) — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 20:28:00 GMT

Now, when you need to set up or re-set up your MFA, you no longer have to update/change your password. We always recommend deleting the current link in your authenticator app before you create a new one.

List a Student's COEs in the Web App

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 13:46:49 GMT

This feature has been around in the desktop and tablet apps pretty much forever, but we only recently brought it to the web app. If you're editing a student, you can now easily navigate to a list of all that student's COEs. There's a link "List COEs for Student" just below the Student ID Search box here:

New EDFacts Reporting Available For All States

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 21:08:14 GMT

The Subject pretty much says it all. I first covered the new EDFacts reporting system in this post last fall. I think there might still be a state or two that had some special dependence on running the reports in the old way, but I think we're working on bringing even those into the new architecture. It should result in faster, more accurate, and more consistent reports. And as we continue to get the old system retired, it gives us a good launching pad for the future. If you don't have access to the new EDFacts reports in your state, let us know and we'll get a new release out to you or make whatever configuration changes are needed.

Retiring the Old MIS2000 Desktop App

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 20:12:00 GMT

This school year, 2023/2024, should be the final year for the old MIS2000 desktop app. Many of you have never even seen it, but it's the one that looks like this:

EDFacts Report Exports Retain Filtering

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 20:10:32 GMT

I reported last May that we had added the ability to filter columns in the EDFacts Reports in the blog post here. We've now added the ability to export these students to a Student List, and more importantly, the export also respects the filtering, whether it goes to a Student List or to a CSV file:

Assessment Types 09-11

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 20:13:48 GMT

I've had a few states come to me recently because MSIX/OME is complaining about their values for MSIX MDE 52 Assessment Type:

Delete Student in Web App

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 15:29:40 GMT

One thing that's been conspicuously missing from the web app for its entire existence is the ability to delete a student. This sounds like fundamental functionality, and in some sense it is, but it really just doesn't come up all that often. The few times it has, we've just directed users to delete students from the desktop app, either old or new, and that has gotten us over the hump. But we've finally worked this functionality in. And it's still being polished. It basically looks like this:

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) Now Available

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 21:21:00 GMT

We've been planning to do this for years, and I've been a little surprised that no one ever asked for it. Once MSIX implemented it, I thought, "Any day now." But it still took a while for someone make the request. But finally Tennessee did, and we've begun rolling it out. It's nothing fancy, but works pretty much just like it does in MSIX. Just go to "Your Account" and click the "Use MFA" checkbox:

EDFacts Column Filtering

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 08 May 2023 21:15:11 GMT

We're still working on getting the new EDFacts reporting overhaul rolled out to all states. I covered that in this blog post. But we've also been enhancing the page a bit here and there. One thing we added is column filtering for results, whether you're in list or count mode. Here's what it looks like filtering the 054 report on "Age Grade" of 10:

So Nice to See Everyone Again at NASDME

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Thu, 04 May 2023 15:45:00 GMT

MS/EdD hasn't be at a NASDME conference since 2019. I'm sure there's a reason... What was it...? Well, anyway, it was nice to be back! We always enjoy seeing familiar faces, putting faces with familiar people, and talking with new folks. Here's a photo of me and Victor with some of the Minnesota Tri-Valley gals.

Come See Us at NASDME!

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 21:30:00 GMT

Victor, Natasha, and I will all be in Albuquerque this year, and we hope everyone will come by and say hi. Stop by the booth, let us show you some new features, and ask us the hard questions!

Update Regarding Tornado Damage at MS/EdD

support@msedd.com (MSEdD Support) — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 21:27:59 GMT

On Friday, March 31, Little Rock, AR was hit by a EF3 tornado which was on the ground from West Little Rock and moved across the city, into North Little Rock and eventually into Sherwood, where the MS/EdD offices are located. The tornado grazed the MS/EdD office building, but luckily we did not have any significant damage. A couple hundred feet away however, there was significant damage. Utility crews have been working since to clear downed trees and restore utilities, but as of today, Sunday, April 2, we don't have an ETA for restoration of power or internet services. Because of that, our email server is temporarily unavailable and we are unable to receive or send email through the msedd.com server at this time. All hosted client services are in AWS, and are unaffected by the power outage. Please bear with us as our utilities are restored and we are able to get our lines of communication functioning again. Thank you - The MS/EdD Team

Better Support for Become User

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:25:00 GMT

This is only of interest to Admin-level users in MIS2000, but it's a feature that many of you may not even know about, and we've recently made it much more robust. In the MIS2000 web app, we've long had the ability for an admin to "become" another user. This can be really useful for debugging permissions problems and for being able to see the app exactly as another user sees it. It's done by visiting the Users page, selecting a user, and pressing the "Become User" button.

List Sharing - Finally!

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:19:00 GMT

I think this is one of the most requested features we've had over the years, but it's both somewhat of a power-user feature, meaning it may not be widely used, and it's pretty complicated to implement. So it has sat on the back burner for quite a while. Many of you may be familiar with Student Lists and Sharing within the MSIX application, but the MIS2000 implementation is pretty different from the MSIX one. In MSIX when you share a list with someone else, there become two copies of the list and each user can only see their own copy. Changes made to one won't happen to the other one. I wanted something richer in MIS2000, so in our system, when you share a list, whoever you share it with is seeing the same list that you see. And if one of you make changes, you'll both see the changes.

Huge Speed Improvement for Upload Processing

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 21:38:00 GMT

Tl;dr - your uploads should be much faster after you get your next release.

Welcome Missouri!

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 21:15:22 GMT

We just barely squeaked in Missouri as the third state to come aboard in 2022. This one was definitely more harrowing than most. The same week that we signed the contract, their state director of twenty years retired, and I think their data coordinator moved on as well. Basically we were left with a bit of a leadership vacuum. And it sucked up Julia Cowell and Teresa Webber, who have been troopers throughout this turbulent period. But we're uploading to MSIX now and I think we're on track. As always, thanks to all the Missouri team for your patience and diligence. I wouldn't say we're quite out of the woods yet, but I think we can see some daylight now.

Better MSIX Reporting for Rejected Records

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 22:38:35 GMT

Those of you at the state level are probably accustomed to occasionally seeing an email from MIS2000 that looks like this:

COE Work Item Emails Now Repeat

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 21:06:53 GMT

Jeff recently added this enhancement at the request of Yesica Ordonez in Georgia, but we decided it was such a good idea, we'd roll it out to everyone. So right now, whenever someone has a COE working its way through the approval process that's waiting on them to do something, they'll get an email letting them know about it. But that was it. If they didn't do anything about it, they'd never get reminded again. Now, the system will continue to pester them about it once every couple of days until they push it on down the line. Hopefully this will provide more value than annoyance. We think it will. Let us know whether you like or not. It should be filtering out to all the states over the next few months.

EDFacts Overhaul

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 21:21:23 GMT

We're in the process of doing a major overhaul of our EDFacts reports. In the past we had always done them as part of our existing general reporting mechanism, but they were always right on the edge of what that system could support. And they were a maintenance nightmare for us to boot. So Marcy and I have put our heads together and developed a whole new way to approach them that we're pretty happy with. They have their own page in the web app now that looks like this:

COE Certification Redirects and Vacation Routing

kdonn@msedd.com (Kevin Donn) — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 20:16:43 GMT

This has actually been a long time coming. It has always been a bit of a problem dealing with certification routing when people leave or go on vacation or whatever. I covered one approach to dealing with it last year in my post on COE Approval Routing and Ownership, but that only works for states who are using this newer style of routing. Most states continue to use the older person-to-person style routing that is really sensitive to personnel turnover and absences.