2025.12.12 Iowa's EWS/MTSS News: Preparing for Winter Screening, FastBridge and Panorama Student Success Notes
Last updated: July 1, 2026
Welcome to December! Only a few more weeks of school left before winter break and the start of the winter screening window.
Preparing for winter screening window
The winter screening window begins on January 5, 2026 and ends on February 6, 2026.
Review rosters for accuracy
Ask staff to test their logins - after the user role cleanup in October, less frequent users may encounter issues
Confirm the setup of student logins for assessments
The full pre-screening checklist can be found here: Iowa: Planning for the Screening Window
FastBridge News and Notes
Disabling weeks in the FastBridge District PM Calendar
Although a FastBridge function allows for disabling progress monitoring for non-school weeks, disabling progress monitoring weeks is not recommended. For more information on why and how it affects the release of PM probes click here.
FastBridge support ticket system change
The FastBridge support ticket software will transition from Zendesk to Salesforce at the end of December. Very little will change from a user perspective but here are a few main points:
There is no change in email address for Iowa educators to request support. It remains iowafastbridgehelp@renaissance.com.
The “reply from” email address that users will see on replies to submitted tickets WILL change.
Your local tech team will need to update security protocols to allow the new email domain through firewalls, filters, etc. We are waiting for confirmation of the new domain and will post it in the article linked below when available. When submitting a ticket, you should receive an automatic email confirmation. If you don’t, be sure to check your email junk or spam folder.
More detailed information will be posted in this article later in December: Iowa: I need help! FastBridge Support for Iowa Users
FastBridge user groups
Did you know that FastBridge hosts Iowa user group meetings periodically throughout the school year? Their next user group meeting will be on February 12, 2026 from 12:00-1:00. The sessions are recorded so even if you’re unable to attend live you can sign up and receive a link to the recording after the event. Please note the user groups are not sponsored by the Iowa Department of Education, they are offered by Renaissance, FastBridge’s parent company. To sign up for the February meeting click here.
Panorama Student Success News and Notes
December and January are an excellent time of year to evaluate intervention effectiveness
Periodic reviews of progress data for student interventions are important to a healthy MTSS system, including making adjustments to alter or replace the intervention if progress trend data shows it isn’t closing the gap. Panorama Student Success has several tools to support analysis of intervention effectiveness at both the system and student levels.
The newly updated Healthy Indicator report, Percent Improving with Intervention, is one of those tools. This report can help teams identify trends and students that are not making satisfactory progress towards closing the gap with the current intervention. Teams can then dig deeper using drill downs and additional reports to determine why students are not making adequate gains. For example, Are interventions being given with fidelity? Does the intervention currently in place match the needs of the student? Does the frequency or intensity of the intervention need to be adjusted, or should the intervention be changed completely?
Additional resources:
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Interventions
Understanding Progress Monitoring Graphs
How to Ensure Intervention & PM Graph Accuracy *Please note that the accuracy of all intervention reports rely on a correct start score and goal for each student’s intervention plan.
Update: Student daily attendance in Panorama Student Success
We are excited to announce that Panorama will begin using new granular daily absence values in the next few weeks. Details are available here. Beginning this school year, daily absence data that comes from the school’s student information system will be in a value to the thousandths, when applicable, rather than confined to a full or half day. Student Success will reflect the more precise attendance data throughout the platform, including attendance indicators on the Student Overview and Student Individual pages. The granular values will also be used in all attendance percentage calculations within reports.
As a reminder, the attendance values used in Panorama Student Success are not used to calculate Iowa School Performance Profiles (ISPP) or used for any accountability measure -- the reports in Student Success are tools to support tracking and responding to attendance needs for overall student success.
**Special note about the attendance calendar on the student individual profile page**
With the change in data format, the rounding rules to report only a full or half day had to be removed for reporting functionality. The attendance calendar on the student individual profile page will no longer show a full red square for a full day absence and a half square for a half day. Instead a full red square indicates a general absence for all or some of the day.
Panorama Student Success learning opportunity
Several learning sessions will be offered after the winter screening window closes. Sessions will cover intervention effectiveness and attendance. Multiple sessions with the same topic will be offered to accommodate different schedules. For those that are unable to attend live, sessions will be recorded and recordings will be sent to registrants. Registration links will be communicated when available.
Intervention Effectiveness at the System Level
February 11, 2026 from 9:00 a.m.- 10:00 a.m. (CST)
February 17, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (CST)
Intervention Effectiveness at the School Level
February 11, 2026 from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (CST)
February 17, 2026 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (CST)
Attendance Data Overview
February 23, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (CST)
March 4, 2026 from 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. (CST)
March 12, 2026 from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. (CST)
Questions/Support
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