Data quality improvements for Back to School

This year, we’ve been working hard to make improvements on how we process district data, and we’re excited to fully roll out the changes this summer, in time for Back to School.

Starting Thursday, July 21, we’re rolling out the following updates to apply to every sync from a Clever district. Even better, there is no action required from districts or applications to support these changes, so you’ll get more consistent data without the work.

Read more about the changes below and how they might impact you.

Section Grade

• Currently: If a section in a district’s SIS data does not have a grade, the field in Clever is left blank. If all sections in the data have the same grade, the field is left as-is.
• What we’re updating: If a section in a district’s SIS data does not have a grade or if all sections in the data have the same grade, Clever will automatically assign a grade for each section based on the most common grade of enrolled students.
• What districts need to do: Nothing
• Bottom line: More sections with accurate grades

Teachers’ and Students’ Primary School

• Currently: If a teacher or student is only associated with one school in a district’s SIS data, Clever assigns the user to that school, regardless of where their sections are located. If a teacher or student is associated with more than one school in a district’s SIS data, Clever assigns the user to a primary school based on alphanumerical order.
• What we’re updating: Clever will automatically assign a primary school for each teacher and student based on where they teach or are enrolled in a majority of sections.
• What districts need to do: Nothing
• Bottom line: More accurate school associations

Section Name

• Currently: Section name is provided by districts. If a section in a district’s SIS data does not have a name, Clever does not process the section.
• What we’re updating: If a section in a district’s SIS data does not have a name, Clever will automatically create a name in the format of Course_Name-Teacher_Last_Name-Period. For example, a section name created by Clever could be Algebra 1 – Brown – 03.
• What districts need to do: If a district wants Clever to calculate section names for them moving forward, they need to: 1) Remove the “Name” field from their sections.csv file. 2) Ensure they have Course_Name populated in your data.
• Bottom line: More relevant section names

As a reminder, there are no actions needed—so enjoy the improved changes, and let us know if you have any questions by submitting a request for the team here!