🔐 Account type(s) with default permissions to manage this: Administrator (Specialist permissions may vary)
💻 Tier(s) this is available for: Foundation, Essential, Pro
To keep your Florida EL program records accurate for the new school year, this checklist walks you through the database updates that determine who can access Ellevation and what student data they see. We recommend completing these tasks at the beginning and end of each school year.
Make an editable copy of the Florida Database Update Checklist (Google Doc) to complete online or print and fill in by hand, or download as a Word document.
Jump to a section:
- Required Tasks for Back-to-School
- Ensure That Student, Staff, and Schedule Data Is Up to Date
- Ensure That Users See Appropriate Information
- Ensure That District Settings Are Correct
- Ensure That Instructional Recommendations Can Be Assigned
- Ensure That Benchmark Assessments Can Be Assigned
Required Tasks for Back-to-School
Start here. These tasks have the biggest impact on who can access Ellevation and what student data they see. Complete them before moving on to the sections below.
- Update your School Year Start/End Dates. (Get Started)
- Manage users to ensure they have the correct access. (Get Started)
- Spot-check data in Ellevation to confirm automations are running and sending updated data. Review a few students' schedules, grade levels, and school assignments. (Get Started)
If you expect any major changes in your district for back-to-school, such as an SIS transition or Administrator turnover, contact your Account Manager or our Help Desk.
💡 Quick Tip
Need extra help with any task in this checklist? Register for a free upcoming webinar or micro-learning session at the Ellevation Resource Center.
Ensure That Student, Staff, and Schedule Data Is Up to Date
Accurate student, staff, and schedule data is the foundation of everything in Ellevation, from Reports and Family Letters to deadline-driven workflows. Use the tasks below to confirm your data is current for the new school year.
Assessment Data Imports
- Send your most recent standardized test scores via Box or SFTP.
⚠️ Warning
When you or someone in your district sends scores via SFTP, you must email Ellevation to have them imported. If FAST/STAR is not automated for your district, reach out to your Partner Success Manager to start automation.
Grades File Imports
- Send your most recent Course Grades via Box or SFTP.
⚠️ Warning
When you or someone in your district sends grades via SFTP, you must email Ellevation to have them imported.
Data Automations
- Ask your district's SIS manager to update your schedule file automation to include student schedules for the current year or semester if it is outdated.
- Email the Ellevation Help Desk if your district would like to pause automations over the summer. Include the names of files to pause, the date to start the pause, and the date to resume automation.
- Contact your Account Manager or our Help Desk if your district is transitioning to a new SIS.
Data Communication
- Notify your district's SIS manager if you want to add any new data fields to your SIS export to Ellevation. Notify your Partner Success Manager about any new fields being added.
- Let your users (Specialists and Teachers as necessary) know when to expect fresh student data in Ellevation.
Ensure That Users See Appropriate Information
Reviewing user access settings at the start of each year helps protect student data privacy and keeps your Dashboards actionable for every role in your district.
Account Settings
- Review and update your School Year Start/End Dates.
Schools List
- Update your list of schools to reflect any openings, closures, or name or LEA changes.
⚠️ Warning
When you or someone in your district updates the Schools list, you must notify the Ellevation Help Desk to have your student and staff file mappings updated.
User Permissions Updates
- Review and update user permissions.
User Updates
- Review and update School Assignments for users if manually maintained in Ellevation. For bulk updates, email the Help Desk.
Single Sign-On
- If not already set up, consider enabling Single Sign-On via Clever or ClassLink on an internal portal, LMS, or staff website to provide a seamless login experience.
Dashboards
- Create custom Dashboards to surface key student data.
- Set a Homepage Dashboard for all users in your district or for subsets of users by Account Type.
- Review and update tiles that are tied to a specific time period or school year, including Filters for exit criteria and date, year, or semester, including your Reevaluation Dashboard.
ℹ️ Note
For WIDA districts: Existing Dashboard tiles and Student List Filters must be manually updated to use the new WIDA ACCESS filter. Learn more.
Post Exit Monitoring Script
- Email your updated monitoring timeframes and new school year quarter dates to your Partner Success Manager.
⚠️ Warning
If you have not yet set up a Post Exit Monitoring script to automatically identify students for their LF monitoring period, please fill out the LF Post Exit Monitoring Questionnaire to get started.
Update Export Wizard Saved Templates
- Review and update any saved templates in your Export Wizard as needed.
Ensure That District Settings Are Correct
Updating district settings at the start of the year ensures that deadline-driven workflows fire on schedule, that student decisions are made accurately, and that the right information appears on Reports, Family Letters, and Forms.
ℹ️ Note
Skip any feature or section below that your district does not have or does not use in Ellevation.
Student List Views
- Review and update Views that are tied to a specific time period or school year, including Filters that capture exit criteria, dates, years, quarters, or semesters.
Form Settings
- Review and update your Forms Templates. (Video / Article)
- Add or review Instructional Supports in your templates. (Video / One-Pager Guide)
- Add or review Testing Accommodations in your templates. (Get Started)
- Update grading periods in your templates within the Course Grades form field.
- Review and update your Permissions. (Article)
- Review and update your Course Tagging. (Video / Article)
- Close out (and archive) any live cycles from the previous year. (Article) This cleans up your Cycle page and prevents teachers from seeing the Student Profiles of students they were assigned Forms for in the previous year.
ℹ️ Note
Ellevation recommends creating Form Cycles close to when you plan to make the Cycle "Live" to ensure all intended students are captured and schedule information is most up to date.
Report & Family Letter Configurations
- Update Exit and Graduation rates as required by districts that receive Title III funding to notify families of these rates. (Get Started)
- Review and update date ranges for ELP Tests, Standardized Tests, Goals, Services, and Course Grade fields, if those fields are included in your District Templates. (Get Started)
- If moving Reports or Family Letters to another Administrator, edit the report or letter, save it as a new one, and promote the new one to the district. Remind the outgoing Administrator to unpromote any reports or letters before their transition.
- Update any Dashboards or saved Views with the new reports and/or letters.
Ensure That Instructional Recommendations Can Be Assigned
Reviewing your configuration lists at the start of each year ensures educators can assign the right instructional recommendations and that accurate information flows through to Reports and Family Letters.
ℹ️ Note
Skip any feature or section that your district does not have or does not use in Ellevation.
ELL Services
- Review and update your list of ELL Services.
Language Programs
- Review and update your list of Language Programs.
Classroom/Instructional Supports
- Review and update your list of Classroom/Instructional Supports.
Ensure That Benchmark Assessments Can Be Assigned
Setting up Benchmark testing windows before the school year begins ensures educators can monitor EL student growth and adjust instruction at the moments that matter most, up to three times per year across all four language domains.
ℹ️ Note
Benchmark assessment requires the Essential, Pro tier. If you don't see Benchmark, check with your Ellevation Administrator.
Benchmark
New to Benchmark this school year? Learn more, train staff, and get started with the Rollout Toolkit above.
- Review and close any previous year's testing windows. (Get Started)
- Determine your beginning-of-year (BOY) testing window dates. Ellevation recommends 2-4 weeks per window. (Get Started)
- Review Benchmark tiers automatically assigned to students based on ELP scores, and adjust as needed. (Get Started)
⚠️ Warning
Use caution when closing testing windows. Once a window is closed, it cannot be reopened.