Contact: Linda Murrin
866-847-3405 x108
lmurrin@common-goal.com

For Immediate release

February 2012 Product Release

Elmhurst, IL (February 17, 2012) – Common Goal Systems (www.common-goal.com), a leading developer of web-based products for schools, announces several software enhancements to SchoolInsight and TeacherEase. SchoolInsight is the company's comprehensive student information system, and TeacherEase is the popular standards-based gradebook.

"Every six weeks we make our products even better by releasing software updates," says Pat Helmers, Vice President of Sales for the company. "This month we concentrated on improving the quality of SchoolInsight and TeacherEase. These subtle, yet powerful fixes will help our customers work more efficiently."

The new functionality includes:

Easier to contact parents for attendance issues on Period Attendance Console. Console page now links to contacts so school admins can easily identify and communicate with parents when there are attendance issues.
      School Main > Attendance > Period Attendance Console

Scheduling - More control over instructor constraints. Now build master schedules and include instructor availability by cycle day. Useful for part-time instructors or instructors who are not in the building every day.
      School Main > Scheduling > Constraints

(IL Only) Import more state files to initialize a new district. Now, it's even faster to get started with SchoolInsight. Populate your student data with files you previously produced for the state. Load data right into SchoolInsight without making modifications.
      District Main > Import Courses
      District Main > Import Instructors
      District Main > Import Rosters

Improved Custom Course Import. Added more importable fields and automatically match columns in import files to fields in the SchoolInsight database. To improve ease of use, visually compare the available fields with the first line of the import file. Improved usability will aid importing.
      School Main > Import/Export > Courses
      District Main > Import/Export > Courses

Easier to run lunch reimbursement report. Now admins can save lunch reimbursement values.
      School Main > Lunch > Reimbursement

Improved Class Lists report. Now includes filters by instructor and semester. Easier to find just the class you're looking for.
      School Main > Reports > Class Lists

Extra effort in bug fixing. For the last few releases, we've invested additional development resources in improving software quality (as opposed to building new functionality). At this point, we've cleared out our "high" priority bug list and are working on "medium" bugs. As a result of the effort, we've seen fewer support issues generated. While our software quality has generally been high, and the effects of bug fixing are unglamorous, we hope our customers will enjoy the results.

An overview of these changes will be presented in a webinar on Monday, March 5 at 1pm CST. To register go to: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/508464929.

Common Goal Systems (www.common-goal.com) provides web-based services to help educators work more efficiently. SchoolInsight is the company's web-based student information system, and TeacherEase is one of the first gradebooks on the web. Using the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, the company offers its products via the Internet and is responsible for all system operation and maintenance. Founded in 2001, Common Goal Systems has hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.