| Import Data |
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Admins import student data and rosters on the page. Teachers use the page. Import Data File from SIS The first step is to export the data from your Student Information System (SIS). Each system is different, but they all generally have a feature to "Export" a "Query". See the Data Format below. An example query for SASIxp looks like this: ASTU ACLS AMST TchNum BegPeriod CrsTitle PermNum LastName FirstName NickName PrntEmail To import the file:
1. Go to or and click the "Import" button. Alternatively you can copy data from a spreadsheet or text table, or even just a simple list of names or student ID's:
1. Copy the cells or text from your spreadsheet or text table. SnapGrades can import almost any tabular data format:
• .txt, .csv, or any text file ID — This may be the student's ID number or any username you choose for them to login. It is required if you want students and parents to be able to login, plus it's necessary to distinguish students with very similar names. Student/Parent Email — Email is not required, but recommended so students and parents can reset their own passwords if needed. Parents and students may each have multiple email addresses in the same or separate columns. Any format is accepted. Student/Parent Phone, Parent Names, Parent Relation (mother/father/etc.) — Contact information is imported for the student and two parent/guardians. Parents and students may each have multiple phone numbers in the same or separate columns. Any format is accepted. Address — Addresses are optional, for mailing report cards and login instructions. If you have separate columns for the street address, apartment number, etc., import them all as "Street Address" and they will be joined. Grade Level — Grade level can be a variety of formats, like 5, 5th, K, Kindergarten, P, Pre-K, Freshman, Frosh, Junior, Sr, etc., or their graduating class, like 2014. Gender — Gender should be M/F, male/female, B/G, or boy/girl. Birthdate — Most date formats are accepted for birthdate, including yyyy-mm-dd, dd-mm-yyyy, and mm/dd/yy. Ethnicity — Ethnicity should be typed exactly the way you have it listed on the page. If more than one ethnicity applies, they should be in the same column separated by a comma, e.g., "White,Hispanic". Custom — You can import custom columns like Special Ed, English Learner, Gifted/Talented, etc., as you have defined on the page. Blanks, N, F, and 0 mean no; Y, T, and anything else means yes. Other — Other information is appended to the Staff Notes. Period, Subject, Teacher — Any of these columns may be used to separate students into separate classes. Course & Section Codes — These are used to export grades back into your SIS. Import these codes in addition to Subject and Period. School/Building — Each school/building must be imported from a separate file; it is not imported as a data column.
Other columns are ignored. ID LastName FirstName ... 9024 Doe John 9711 Austin Laura 9147 Laney Mary 9610 Farley Mike 9249 Grant Sherry 9122 Cho Shoyi ...To import elementary students for multiple teachers, the Teacher column is required: ID LastName FirstName Teacher ... 9024 Doe John Breyer 9711 Austin Laura Breyer 9147 Laney Mary Breyer 9610 Farley Mike Raney 9249 Grant Sherry Raney 9122 Cho Shoyi Raney ...To import secondary/college students for multiple teachers, the Subject and/or Period columns are required in addition to the Teacher column. Note that each row represents one student in one class/period. The rows and columns can be in any order: ID LastName FirstName Per Subject Teacher ... 9024 Doe John 1 Algebra Breyer 9024 Doe John 2 PE Smithers 9024 Doe John 3 Biology Graham 9711 Austin Laura 1 History Bauers 9711 Austin Laura 2 Art Raney 9711 Austin Laura 3 Biology Graham ...Download a sample file like the above for testing. Alternatively, you can import student data and schedules as two files. Student data must be imported first, then the schedules with just student ID's: ID LastName FirstName ... 9024 Doe John 9711 Austin Laura 9147 Laney Mary 9610 Farley Mike 9249 Grant Sherry 9122 Cho Shoyi ... ID Per Subject Teacher ... 9024 1 Algebra Breyer 9024 2 PE Smithers 9024 3 Biology Graham 9711 1 History Bauers 9711 2 Art Raney 9711 3 Biology Graham ... Rosters As Admin, when you include the teacher column in your import, and optionally the subject or period, this creates rosters for teachers so they can easily load their classes. Note that this roster information is not imported directly into their gradebooks. Instead it is saved in a holding area, where they can then load their classes when they are ready. That means it is okay to import rosters before the grading period starts, and even before the teacher has signed up. Because there are always last-minute schedule changes, you can re-import the rosters frequently (it's best to reimport all the rosters for all teachers, not just incremental changes). When you update rosters, it updates only the data in the holding area; it does not update the teacher's gradebook, so teachers must manually add and remove students who change schedules in the middle of the grading period. (This is necessary so the teacher can decide exactly how the grades should be transferred from one class to another. Also this protects you from disaster in case you accidentally import bad data.) When a new grading period starts, they'll create a new gradebook with the new rosters from the holding area. The rosters remain in the holding area until you replace them with new rosters. If a teacher does not have their own rosters, such as an elementary PE teacher, they can just load each homeroom teacher's rosters into their gradebooks one class at a time.
Alternatively, Admins can import students without any class or teacher information. Although this doesn't create rosters for teachers, it does pre-load the database so teachers only need to type or import student ID's or names, without having to fill all the fields. It is okay to re-import students who are already in the database. If fact, typically you'll do so every grading period. It automatically reconciles any discrepancies, so for example if a student's imported email address is different from the one already in the database, or one is blank, it merges them. And if the names are slightly different, like "Joe" vs. "Joseph", it generally keeps the name that's already in the database. If any duplicate is ambiguous, it asks you how you want it handled. Importing data does not delete any students, so it is okay to import just a partial list of students. The only way to delete students is to click the Purge button on the . This is useful if you accidentally import bad data.
Student data, like contact information, is updated immediately when you import it. But rosters (the data identifying who is in which class) is saved in a holding area, so it does not directly update teacher's gradebooks. See above. |
