Technology
The Clever Integration
An optional way to make signing in and rostering effortless, for schools that want it.
Why Clever
Built for ease, not for every school
True Progress exists to help schools understand each student clearly enough to teach them well. For that to happen, students and staff need a straightforward way into the platform, and the school's rosters need to be reflected accurately.
There is more than one way to accomplish this, and none is better than another in principle. Many schools prefer to manage rosters themselves — importing a file, or adding accounts directly — and True Progress has supported that from the beginning and continues to. Other schools would rather it happen automatically. For them, True Progress connects through Clever.
What Clever Is
A secure access layer for K–12
Clever is a secure access layer used by the majority of U.S. K–12 schools and by most leading learning applications. Its purpose is narrow: to let students and staff reach their online tools through a single sign-in, and to keep the accounts behind those tools current without manual updating.
Clever is free to schools — funded by the applications that connect to it, not by the institutions that use it — and True Progress adds no charge of its own for the integration.
Read more about Clever →One Sign-In
No typing for younger students
With Clever, a student signs in once and reaches every learning application from a single place, True Progress among them, without a separate username and password for each. For older students and staff, that alone removes a daily source of lost time.
For younger students, it removes the obstacle entirely. A first-grader does not need to type a school name, a username, and a password to begin. They hold up a badge — a card with a secure code that Clever recognizes through the device's camera — and they are in. The minutes ordinarily spent walking a class of young children through several login fields each, and correcting the inevitable errors, are returned to instruction. Across a year, that is a considerable amount of reclaimed classroom time.
Automatic Rostering
Accounts that stay current
Every school keeps an authoritative record of who is enrolled, which class each student belongs to, and who teaches it, held in its student information system. For schools that would like account management to be automatic, Clever reads that record and creates the corresponding accounts in True Progress. Nothing is exported or uploaded, and the accounts stay current on their own: when a student enrolls during the year an account appears, when a student changes sections or departs access adjusts, and when a roster changes True Progress reflects it.
Schools that prefer to manage this themselves give up nothing by doing so. Direct import and manual entry remain fully supported. Clever simply produces the same result without recurring effort, for those who want it that way.
Privacy
What stays private
The only information that passes between True Progress and Clever is what is needed to sign in and to place each student in the correct class or group: usernames, passwords, and class or group assignments. Students' assessment data — their scores, their results, their diagnostic information — is never sent to Clever. It remains within True Progress.
Beyond that, the school determines exactly what is shared: which students, which classes, which staff, and nothing further. Information moves through encrypted connections, with modern safeguards that include multi-factor sign-in for staff, and only what is necessary is ever shared. Clever does not sell or rent student information, and carries no advertising.
How It Works
Three steps, one setup
1
Connect your SIS to Clever
The school's student information system is connected to Clever, once. Where Clever is already in use, this connection already exists.
2
Specify what is shared
The school determines which students, classes, and staff to share with True Progress.
3
Accounts update automatically
Accounts are created and then kept current automatically thereafter.
Common Questions
Questions schools commonly ask
Do we need to use Clever?+
No. Clever is one option, for schools that want signing in and rostering to be automatic. Schools that prefer to import their rosters or add accounts directly can continue to do so, exactly as before, with full support.
Will this work with our student information system?+
Clever connects with a wide range of student information systems. Many of the most common systems sync automatically; others connect through OneRoster or a scheduled file exchange. Clever maintains the current list of supported systems at support.clever.com.
What information does Clever receive?+
Only what is needed to sign in and assign each student to the correct class or group — usernames, passwords, and class or group assignments. Assessment data is never sent to Clever.
Is there a cost?+
No. Clever is free to schools, and True Progress does not charge for the integration.
What happens when a student enrolls or leaves?+
For schools using Clever, access adjusts automatically. Schools managing rosters directly update them as they normally would.
Getting Started
Start with Clever, or without it
Already using Clever
An administrator can add True Progress from within your Clever account. Sign in to your Clever dashboard, find True Progress in the applications directory, and add it. Clever will then walk you through sharing the appropriate students, classes, and staff.
Not yet using Clever
Creating a Clever account is the first step. Clever is free to schools, and you can sign up at clever.com. Once your account is active and your student information system is connected, add True Progress from the applications directory.
Schools that prefer not to use Clever can be set up through direct roster import instead.
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