Focus Reporting & Dashboards
Page Navigation
- Los Angeles Unified School District
- Frequently Asked Questions
About Focus - General
- What are the benefits to Focus?
-
Implementing the new ad hoc reporting tool will improve the experience of generating reports using data found in MiSiS. Some of the major benefits include:
- Flexibility – Provides more flexibility in ad hoc reporting at LAUSD, now allowing users to create reports at the local district and LAUSD levels if they have access to that data.
- Self-Service Approach – Eliminates the need to request new reports to be created by IT – users can create and personalize their own reports.
- Dashboards – Provides dashboards to various types of users (administrators, central office staff, school officials, etc.) consisting of the information those users need to have to succeed.
- Historical Data – Provides the ability to produce reports on historical student data, so users can look at information on a student’s previous enrollment and course history.
- Up-to-Date Data – Data will be updated nightly; some data, such as select attendance and scheduling data, will be available in real-time.
- Data from which applications are included in Focus?
-
Currently, data are provided from the following applications in Focus:
- MiSiS
- Welligent
- Cafeteria Fiscal Management
- And more
Note: This list will be updated as new systems are added during the 2017-2018 school year. Check back later for more updates.
- Who has access to Focus?
-
Currently, central office, local district, and school administrators are granted access. Teachers do not currently have access. Depending on your job classification, you may have received automatic access. If you did not receive automatic access, apply for access via oneAccess. http://oneaccess.lausd.net/
- How do I get access to Focus?
-
If you cannot sign into Focus using your SSO username and password, please request access using OneAccess.
Log into https://oneaccess.lausd.net/ Then, click Focus Reporting & Dashboards* to request access using the Focus Reporting & Dashboards application.
Note: Your site administrator must provide approval using the Access Approval section.
Follow-up requests regarding applications that have been submitted can be emailed to focus@lausd.net.
- When will access to Focus be granted to teachers?
-
Access is tentatively scheduled to be granted to teachers sometime during the 2018-2019 school year. Currently, business units are in the beginning stages of developing a teacher dashboard; once this is ready, teachers will receive access.
- What kind of training is available?
-
Focus includes job aids and videos that define the components of Focus and provide instruction on how to use the application’s features. To view job aids or videos within the application, go to the Job Aids and Videos section on the Welcome Page or any Subject Page (Note: job aids and videos on the Subject Pages pertain to the displayed Subject only).
The Basic Ad Hoc Reporting Class, an instructor-led training class, is available for registration in the Learning Zone. This class provides instruction on how to create and manage reports using Focus or MiSiS Ad Hoc Reporting and Dashboards, including how to perform basic calculations and create a basic pivot table.
Later in the 2017-2018 school year, the Advanced Ad Hoc Reporting Class will be available to provide instruction on more advanced reporting techniques. Check back later for more information.
- Where can I ask questions about using Focus?
-
Each dashboard is owned by a LAUSD Division. The Division who owns the dashboard is available to answer questions about the content of the dashboard, such as:
- This data does not look correct; is it accurate?
- What is the definition of a specific term?
- Which students are included in the population for this dashboard?
Refer to the end of the dashboard job aid for a list of available contacts in the related Division.
The MiSiS Help Desk is available to answer technical questions, such as:
- How do I log in?
- It looks like the dashboards are not displaying data from all my schools; how do I see all schools for which I am responsible?
- I tried opening this dashboard, and it says access denied; can I access this dashboard?
- I am receiving an error message when I try to create an analysis/report; how do I fix the error?
- What are some examples of how I’m going to use this tool?
-
Focus is a quick way to access detailed District-wide data in consistent and flexible ways. While there are canned dashboards and reports, users also have the ability to create and run their own reports. A small sample of the types of queries you can run include:
- What are the norm enrollment counts for my school or Local District?
- What is the percentage of students in my school or Local District who are on track for graduation?
- How many meal applications or household income forms are missing or incomplete?
- Which students do not have a schedule?
- Who are my incoming students?
- Who is taking a LEP class that has been identified as an RFEP student?
- Which students will be matriculating to my school from other schools next year?
- How many GATE students were below expectation on the Smarter Balanced test?
- Which students had lower marks in the current grading period than last?
- Which dashboards are available in Focus?
-
These dashboards are currently available in Focus:
- Norm Enrollment and Staffing Dashboards
These dashboards, and more, will be available in the future:
- Demographics (Formerly Launch Pad; high-level summary of all dashboards)
- English Learner (MMED)
- More Than a Meal
- Student Graduation Progress
- Norm Enrollment and Staffing
- Attendance
- Welligent
- Cafeteria Fiscal Management
For information how to access dashboards in Focus, see the question below, “How do I access a dashboard in Focus?”
- How can I find out about new dashboards in Focus when they are available?
-
When new dashboards are available, we will let you know in a few different ways.
- The Focus Newsletter – This newsletter provides updates on key new features, as well as spotlights on dashboards and reports that will help with important upcoming events, and new training material. Newsletters will be sent to your LAUSD email, as well as available in the What’s New section on the Welcome Page.
- Release Notes – These will be posted every release in the What’s New section on the Focus Welcome Page.
- Inter-Office Communications – As new dashboards are released over the course of the 2017-2018 school year, you will be hearing from various LAUSD Offices and Divisions through memos and other inter-office communications to let you know the dashboards are available and how they can be used to achieve success in LAUSD.
About Focus - Technical
- What is an Analytic Area?
-
The Analytic Areas are the categories of dashboards stored in Focus, which are stored on the Welcome Page:
- Executive
- Instruction
- Operations
- Special Education
- Summary
Each Analytic Area consists of multiple Subjects, and each Subject consists of multiple dashboards.
- What is a Subject?
-
A Subject is a subcategory within an Analytic Area. Each Subject has its own Subject Page, which displays a menu of the dashboards within the Subject. To access a dashboard, users must navigate to a Subject Page from the Welcome Page.
- How do I access a dashboard in Focus?
-
To access a dashboard in Focus, start on the Welcome Page. Open one of the five Analytic Areas to see its Subjects. Click a Subject to navigate to a Subject Page, listing all dashboards related to the Subject.
- How do I access Focus?
-
Coming Soon!
- When I try to log into the application, I receive a 403 Forbidden Error message. How do I log in?
-
If you receive this message after entering your login credentials, there are three possible methods for logging into the application:
- Clear the browser cache.
- Change the URL in the browser address bar to https://focus.lausd.net/analytics.
- Attempt to log in using a private or incognito window in the browser.
For directions on how to perform any of these three methods, please see the job aid on Troubleshooting “403 – Forbidden” Error Message.
If you receive this error message after trying all three methods, you do not have access to the application. Apply for access through EZ Access (https://ezaccess.lausd.net) on the MyData / MiSiS Ad Hoc Reporting and Dashboards application page.
- What are the browser requirements?
-
To access Focus, it is recommended to use the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. However, all features function correctly in the latest versions of Safari and Internet Explorer.
- If I log into Focus, do I have to log into other LAUSD applications too?
-
Currently, if you use other LAUSD applications, such as MiSiS, while logged into Focus, you will need to log into those applications separately.