Release Notes
Release Notes: Observe Dashboard
Published
Overview
Section titled “Overview”A new Observe Dashboard gives administrators one screen showing where observations stand and what is waiting on whom, with every figure linking to the records behind it.
Alongside it, several counting corrections landed on the Observable Users Totals report and the Admin Dashboard. Some figures will read lower than they did before this release.
They were overstated; the new numbers are the correct ones. The Heads-up for support notes below cover what changed and what to say when someone asks.
At a glance
Section titled “At a glance”- New Observe Dashboard at Dashboards → Observe Dashboard, for system and organization administrators on accounts with Observe enabled.
- Seven panels: Observation summary, Needs attention, Participation, Which teachers are being observed?, Where observations land, Observation volume, and Are observations substantive?
- Every count, bar, and row opens the exact records it counted.
- A Dashboards menu now groups the dashboards a user can reach; a user with only one still sees it on its own.
- Observable Users Totals summary cards now count people rather than memberships — figures drop where staff belong to more than one organization.
- Coverage counts now require an active membership at the organization being counted.
- Observer Activity gains a Recorded nothing / Recorded at least one filter.
- The observations list gains a Closed filter control.
- A How to use this report link now appears on Observable Users Totals, matching Observer Activity.
- The Observe Dashboard carries its own How to use this dashboard link beside the page title.
What changed — the Observe Dashboard
Section titled “What changed — the Observe Dashboard”What changed
Section titled “What changed”A new dashboard collects the questions an administrator asks weekly. Two rules govern it:
- The filters drive every panel. One date range and one school filter apply to all seven panels.
- Dates bound completed work; unresolved work is shown as of today. A draft untouched since March is a problem now, so narrowing the date range never hides it.
The seven panels are:
- Observation summary — in flight, observations and pace, coverage, median time to close, written feedback
- Needs attention
- Participation
- Which teachers are being observed?
- Where observations land
- Observation volume
- Are observations substantive?
Every figure links to the records behind it, and the count you click is the number of rows you land on.
Turning it on
Section titled “Turning it on”Nothing to enable. It appears for system and organization administrators on accounts with Observe enabled.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- “Where did it go?” If a user can reach more than one dashboard, they are now grouped under a Dashboards menu in the sidebar rather than listed separately. A user with only one dashboard sees no change.
- “A teacher can’t see it.” Access needs the system administrator or organization administrator role. Observers and observees do not see this dashboard.
- “The pace looks low on Monday.” A week still in progress counts only the days that have happened, so a Monday reading is not compared against a full week. This also corrects a wobble on the Observer Activity report’s Per active week figure, which previously swung by double digits depending on the weekday it was opened.
What changed — Observable Users Totals counts people, not memberships
Section titled “What changed — Observable Users Totals counts people, not memberships”What changed
Section titled “What changed”The four summary cards summed the per-organization rows. Because staff often belong to more than one organization — a teacher in a school and in a department — anyone with two memberships was counted twice.
The cards now count each person once. A teacher still appears in every organization they belong to, which is what a building leader needs to see, so the rows can still add up to more than the totals — a note on the page explains why. (The rows do change in one other way, from the active-membership fix below.)
The report’s help modal and the FAQ already described this as the intended behaviour. The figures now match the documentation.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- “Our numbers dropped overnight.” Expected, and the new figures are the correct ones. The size of the drop tracks how many staff hold more than one organization membership, so a district that uses departments alongside schools will see a larger correction than one that doesn’t — in testing this reached double-digit percentages. No observation data changed; only the double counting was removed.
- “The rows still add up to more than the total.” Correct, and intended. Rows count memberships because that is what each building needs to see; the cards count people.
What changed — coverage requires an active membership
Section titled “What changed — coverage requires an active membership”What changed
Section titled “What changed”Coverage counts on both the Observable Users Totals report and the Admin Dashboard tiles now require an active membership at the organization being counted. Two gaps were closed:
- Staff whose membership at a school had been switched off were still counted there.
- On the Admin Dashboard, an active membership anywhere in the account satisfied the check, so someone switched off at one school still counted there on the strength of another.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- The Users Not Observed tile on the Admin Dashboard and the same figure on the report now agree. Where they differed by a small margin before, the report was right.
What changed — the observations list honors its Closed filter
Section titled “What changed — the observations list honors its Closed filter”What changed
Section titled “What changed”The Observations card on the Admin Dashboard counts closed observations, but its View more link opened a list that quietly included observations still in flight — the card and the list disagreed. The filter is now applied, and the observations list gained a Closed control so anyone can set, clear, or invert it.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- “The list has fewer rows than last week.” The list now matches the card it came from. Clear the Closed filter to see open observations as well.
What changed — Observer Activity gains an activity filter
Section titled “What changed — Observer Activity gains an activity filter”What changed
Section titled “What changed”A Recorded nothing / Recorded at least one filter narrows the report to observers who have not started, or to those who have. The Observers who recorded nothing count on the Observe Dashboard links straight to it.
When the filter is set to Recorded nothing, a total of zero is the expected answer, so the report no longer suggests widening the date range.
Heads-up for support
Section titled “Heads-up for support”- “The report says zero observations.” Expected when Recorded nothing is applied — that is precisely the population it returns. Switch to All observers to see the totals again.
What’s unaffected
Section titled “What’s unaffected”- No observation data changed. Every correction here is to how records were counted or filtered, not to the records themselves.
- Existing reports keep their scopes. Organization Totals, the Observation Status Report, and the Observation Summary Report are unchanged.
- Roster rules are unchanged. Membership is still evaluated as of today, and observations still stay tied to the organization where they were recorded.
- Permissions are unchanged. The new dashboard uses the administrator roles that already exist; no new role or setting was introduced.