Have you ever wanted to create a group of students from the data in SchoolStatus? Now you can using Searchlight. Searchlight has always allowed you to create list of students based on the data you have on them in SchoolStatus, but now you can easily create group from those data queries. This will allow you to communicate by sending out a single Broadcast message that will go out to all the parents of those students at once*.
*Note: Broadcast messages are capped to a maximum of 300 recipients. Groups with a large number of students may need to be further broken down into smaller subgroups.
**Student Groups will be checked nightly against the district SIS (Student Information System) to ensure accuracy for scope of access and criteria filtering.
Navigate to Searchlight
Click on the Searchlight module on the left menu of SchoolStatus under Utilities.
You can create a group from a new or existing Searchlight that you have created or that has been shared with you. I will go through some basic steps on creating a Searchlight.
Create a new Searchlight
Click +New to create a new Searchlight. You may skip this step if using an existing Searchlight.
Click Select field
Choose a field from the drop-down.
Pro-tip: In most cases the first field you should add is Enrollment Status and set the toggle to YES.
Click Run.
Pro-tip: I always pay attention to the number of students on the right-hand side after hitting run. This helps me determine if the Searchlight is working as intended.
Click +Add filter
Select an additional field from the drop-down menu.
For this example we will choose Grade. You are free to add whichever filters apply to the students you need to identify.
Pro-tip: Each time you add a new filter hit Run and see what your numbers look like. This will help you figure out step-by-step if your Searchlight is pulling the data you want it to pull and determine if a specific field is causing an error.
In this case we also need to choose an operator and enter a value next to Grade.
Click Save List
Name the list and set the visibility.
Make the group from a Searchlight
Click Make Group.
Note: Groups created in this fashion are dynamic and will be checked nightly against the district SIS (Student Information System) to ensure accuracy for scope of access and filter criteria.
Go to Groups
You should now see a group created with the same name you used when you saved the Searchlight.
Your group is now created. You may now send a Broadcast message to this group. Check out the article, Send a Broadcast Message to a Student Group or visit the Learning Lab for more info on how to compose a single message that goes out to all of these student's primary contacts at once.
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