November 12, 2013
TO
Superintendents
FROM
Philip W. Price
HOME BASE – CONTINUED PROBLEMS
In my memo of October 29, I stated that the report card in PowerSchool was functioning as designed.
In a subsequent memo dated October 31, I wrote that major improvements had been made to the
Educator Evaluation System. This memo updates the status of these Home Base applications.
PowerSchool Report Cards
The report card feature continues to function as designed; however, Charlotte/Mecklenburg, Wake,
and some other larger districts have experienced issues with saving or posting grades. This problem
occurs when many teachers enter grades at the same time, resulting in deadlocks in the database. This
lockout causes the save command to time out before transactions are completed, resulting in scores not
posting.
To address this data saving problem, numerous adjustments have been made to both the hosting
environment and the PowerSchool base software. The revised software was sent to DPI last Thursday
and is being tested. It will be released the weekend beginning Friday, November 15.
PowerSchool Principal’s Monthly Report (PMR)
As previously communicated, one remaining fix is required to assure accurate ADM counts. To
address non-PMR items there are seven exception-type problems that are being corrected with the
release the weekend beginning Friday, November 15. The ADM issue involves students that were in
attendance for a portion of a month prior to leaving the State public schools (e.g., moved out-of-state
or transferred to a private or home school). Previously, these students were not reflected appropriately
in the ADM calculation, but the release will allow them to be handled correctly.
Educator Evaluation System using the Truenorthlogic Tool
We again have experienced slow response times with observation activities and login issues with the
Home Base Educator Evaluation System using the Truenorthlogic software tool. Over the weekend,
Truenorthlogic staff tuned database queries that are used for observations. This action should improve
system performance and reduce login problems. Additional operational enhancements are being
crafted expeditiously by the vendor, and these should resolve remaining performance issues in the near
future, after they have been thoroughly tested.
PWP/tm
OFFICE OF FINANCIAL, BUSINESS, AND TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
Philip W. Price, Chief Financial/Chief Information Officer | Philip.Price@dpi.nc.gov
6326 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-6326 | (919) 807-3600 | Fax (919) 807-3604
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER