Managing MyData Portal Accounts:
A Step-by-Step Guide for Campus Account Managers and Principals

This page contains step-by-step instructions for managing teacher accounts.

Activating Teacher Accounts: [ Introduction | Obtain Security Oath | Activate Account | Submit Paperwork to DARRS ]
Other Account Functions: [ Disable Account | Reactivate "Locked" Account ]

Introduction

Teacher accounts are automatically created for each teacher of record in the district. A teacher of record is anyone who has had at least one section of a course assigned to their ID number in the district's student system. Our group--Data Analysis, Reporting, and Research Services--cannot modify the information in the student system. If an error is found, the school's data controller must make the corrections in order for a teacher to view student data with his or her account.

Teacher accounts are not immediately operational. They must be activated upon receipt of a signed security oath Adobe Acrobat icon. The principal and the campus account manager he or she designates can activate teacher accounts with tools available on MyData Portal.


It is a legal requirement that Data Analysis, Reporting, and Research Services have a security oath on file for every account holder.

Principals have the authority to allow or revoke access to student data on MyData Portal for members of their staff. Therefore, at the principal's discretion, a teacher's account can be disabled at any time. This serves as an added security measure to safeguard student confidentiality. The principal can decide to return access to a teacher at a later date, provided that a signed security oath is on file with DARRS.

Accounts for teachers that have been granted schoolwide access to student data can also be disabled by the principal or campus account manager. This would remove schoolwide access from the account. Schoolwide accounts allow users to view all student data at the campus and are created for associate or assistant principals; counselors; teachers without students of record, e.g., SPED or GT teachers; or staff with an ongoing, educational purpose for accessing all student data at the school, e.g., CILT members or LPAC chairs. (The list on your "Teacher Accounts" page only includes staff who might potentially have students of record. To disable the schoolwide accounts for other individuals, the principal would contact DARRS.) Once an account with schoolwide access is disabled at the campus, reactivating it will only allow teacher-level access. To renew schoolwide access for that teacher, a new non-teacher account request form Adobe Acrobat icon must be submitted.

Working with Accounts

You must not enable an account before collecting from the account holder a signed security oath for teacher accounts.

A. Obtain a Signed Security Oath

  1. Sign in to your MyData Portal account.

  2. Select the "Teacher Accounts" link under your name at the top right. (Only principals and campus account managers have access to this page.) Note that you can sort the table by clicking any column heading, such as "Employee ID." Click a second time to sort the same column the other direction.

  3. Determine which teachers do not have active accounts. They are presented in your teacher list in bold red print. Also, the first available action shown in the column on the right is "Activate".

  4. Click on "Teacher Security Oath" to download the document. A link to the oath is also available on the MyData Portal home page in the "Accounts" box. (Tip: Right click the link and select "Save As..." to download the document to your computer.)

  5. Distribute a copy of the security oath to each teacher of record who does not have an active account, or have each one download a copy from the MyData Portal homepage. A list of teachers with students assigned to their sections in the student system is available on the school's MyData Portal homepage, and any user with schoolwide access can see this list. These are the teachers who will be able to see student data with a teacher-level account, the type of account created when it is activated at the campus.

B. Activate Teacher Account

  1. Sign in to MyData Portal.

  2. Select the "Teacher Accounts" link.

  3. The list of teachers available here might include teachers for whom schoolwide access is more appropriate, such as teachers without students of record (e.g., SPED teachers, GT teachers) or staff with an ongoing, educational purpose for accessing all student data at the school (e.g., CILT members, LPAC chairs). The list does not include non-teachers (e.g., associate or assistant principals, counselors). Any of these users should request an account using the non-teacher account request form Adobe Acrobat icon , also available on the MyData Portal homepage.

  4. For a teacher who is listed and who submitted a signed security oath, select one of the following links:

    Activate. The account is ready for activation. A confirmation e-mail message with instructions will be sent to the teacher automatically. (Check to ensure that the teacher's e-mail account on record is correct. If it isn't, see Update e-mail.)

    Add e-mail. You must select this option if a teacher has no e-mail address on record. Enter the teacher's GroupWise user name (the portion before @dallasisd.org) in the appropriate field. For example, the GroupWise user name for jdoe@dallasisd.org is jdoe.

    MyData Portal will NOT send messages to addresses outside the district. If you enter a non-district e-mail address, the user will NOT receive messages from MyData Portal.

    Update e-mail. If the e-mail address listed is incorrect, select "Update e-mail." Enter the teacher's GroupWise user name (the portion before @dallasisd.org). Input the teacher's district e-mail username exactly as printed. Teachers with an incorrect or non-district e-mail address on MyData Portal will not receive announcements about their accounts.

    Click "ADD" to submit the e-mail address. You will be redirected to the campus account page automatically. After updating the e-mail address, you must click "Activate" to finish activating the account. Click "CANCEL" to return to the campus account page without saving any changes to the e-mail address.

C. Submit Teacher Security Oaths to Data Analysis, Reporting, and Research Services

Send COPIES of all teacher security oaths to Data Analysis, Reporting, and Research (Attention: MyData Portal Accounts), Box 55. Keep original teacher security oaths at the campus. Send copies only.

Do not FAX teacher security oaths to DARRS. Security oaths received via FAX will be discarded upon receipt. We are not equipped to receive that volume, and we must be able to continually accept account requests for schoolwide and districtwide users. Thank you for honoring this request.

We begin an audit process in late October. If it is discovered that teachers with active accounts do not have an oath on file, DARRS will disable the accounts. You will not be able to activate these accounts from your campus until we receive copies of the missing security oaths.

Other Functions

Disable Teacher Account

1. Sign in to MyData Portal and select the "Teacher Accounts" link.

2. Click "Disable" next to the teacher's name. The teacher will not be able to sign in to his or her account unless a security oath is resubmitted and you repeat Step B.

Reactivate a "Locked" Account

A "locked" account results when a user attempts to sign in to MyData Portal using an incorrect password more than four times. The user is locked out of the account for security reasons, and she does not have the ability to reset her password online. Users can reset their passwords online with the "Need your password?" link under the sign-in boxes BEFORE they are locked out of their accounts. (Resetting the password online returns it to the temporary password: employee ID followed by last four digits of the SSN.)

To reactivate a locked account:

  1. Receive a new security oath from the teacher

  2. Sign in to MyData Portal and select the "Teacher Accounts" link

  3. Verify the e-mail address, then click "Activate"