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

For Immediate release

April 2012 Product Release

Elmhurst, IL (April 13, 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.

"This month's release focuses on improving parent communication," says Pat Helmers, Vice President of Sales for the company. "Parents can now receive automatic emails when grades are updated and progress reports are ready. Communication is important to families on the go."

The new functionality includes:

Parents and students can now opt to receive automatic email notifications when grades are updated or when lunch account balances fall below a threshold. Parents set notifications frequency and quiet times when they do not want to receive notifications. Districts and schools control whether the feature is available:
      District Main > Options > Parent Information Access
      School Main > Options > Parent Information Access

Improved communication with parents on progress reports. Include a general message to all parents when progress reports are generated. This could be used to notify parents of parent/teacher conferences, early dismissal days or other school-wide events.
      School Main > Reports > Progress Report

Report Cards: Improved control over import of gradebook grades for inactive students. Schools decide default behavior of whether grades get imported.
      School Main > Grade Reporting > Options

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 our "high" priority bug list and are working on "medium" bugs. As a result of "tightening up" the software, fewer support issues have been generated the last few months. While our software quality is generally high, and the effects of bug fixing are unglamorous, we hope our customers enjoy the improvements.

Common Goal Systems provides web-based services to help educators work more efficiently. It develops SchoolInsight (www.schoolinsight.com), an industry leading student information system, and TeacherEase (www.teacherease.com), one of the first web-based gradebooks. 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.