CommonGage Quick Start Guide
For district engagement staff
What is CommonGage?
CommonGage is your district engagement analytics platform. It pulls together three things that used to live in separate spreadsheets:
- Compliance tracking — which schools have submitted their Site Council, Engagement Calendar, and Engagement Plan
- Engagement activity — events logged across all schools, organized by hub and zone
- Capacity outcomes — how events map to the Dual Capacity-Building Framework (Mapp, 2019)
The Reports surface is designed to match how you write the End of Year Report — organized by hub, not by data type.
Signing In
Go to the CommonGage URL and log in with your email and password. If you're a district admin, you'll see data for all zones and schools. Zone coordinators and building staff see only their scope.
Navigation
The top bar has three sections:
| Link | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | At-a-glance summary of district activity |
| Calendar | Browse and manage individual events by school |
| Reports | The full analytics workbench |
Calendar
The Calendar shows all events pulled from school feeds and document uploads. Click any event to open its detail panel, where you can:
- Confirm the hub — assign or confirm which engagement hub the event belongs to
- Classify capacity outcomes — tag the event against the four C's (Capabilities, Connections, Confidence, Cognition) and confirm your classification
- Add Engagement Support details — language support, childcare, catering, coordination hours
Hub classification and capacity classification both require explicit confirmation before they count in reports.
Reports — The Workbench
The Reports screen has a 56px icon rail on the left edge with three tiers:
[ District ] ← composable analytics canvas
─────────────
[ Hub 1 ] ← Family Voice and Partnership
[ Hub 2 ] ← Student Voice and Leadership
[ Hub 3 ] ← Civic Engagement
[ Hub 4 ] ← Belonging
[ Hub 5 ] ← Educational Excellence
[ Hub 6 ] ← Strategic Alignment
─────────────
[ Zone ] ← geographic cut
Click any icon to switch views. The active lens is highlighted.
District View — Composable Canvas
The default view. A row of domain toggle chips controls which data blocks appear on the canvas:
| Toggle | What appears |
|---|---|
| Compliance | District stat cards + deliverable counts + zone-by-zone compliance table |
| Activity | Monthly event chart + hub distribution + zone breakdown |
| Capacity | 4 C's summary + by-zone and by-hub cross-tabs + batch AI classify (admins only) |
| Support | Engagement Support records — languages, childcare, coordination hours |
| Gaps | Schools with zero events logged |
| Hub matrix | Hub × zone coverage grid |
Toggle chips on/off to build the view you need. Your layout is remembered across sessions — the toggles you leave on will still be on when you come back.
Use the year switcher (top right) to flip between academic years. The Print / Save PDF button prints only the blocks that are currently toggled on.
Hub Story Views
Click a hub icon in the rail to see everything about that hub in one narrative view — the format matches an End of Year Report chapter.
Each hub story shows:
- Numbers strip — total events, schools active, events classified, languages served
- Capacity built — colored badges for each of the four C's with counts
- Key initiatives — event clusters grouped by recurring title pattern (e.g. "The Village Table — 12 sessions")
- Activity by zone — which zones had the most activity in this hub
Use the Export button to print or save a single hub's story.
Zone View
Click the Zone icon (bottom of the rail) to see a zone-scoped narrative. A dropdown at the top lets you select which zone you're looking at.
Each zone story shows:
- Numbers strip — schools in zone, compliance rate, total events, hubs active
- Capacity built — the four C's distribution for this zone
- Activity by hub — which hubs are represented in this zone's events
- Key initiatives — event clusters from this zone
- Schools with no events — gaps list scoped to this zone only
The Four C's
All capacity outcome classification uses the Dual Capacity-Building Framework (Mapp, 2019):
| C | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Capabilities | Blue | Building knowledge, skills, and confidence |
| Connections | Teal | Building relationships and networks |
| Confidence | Amber | Building agency and sense of efficacy |
| Cognition | Purple | Building understanding of roles and systems |
Events can be tagged with one or more C's. AI suggestions are available for unclassified events (district admins) — suggestions require your confirmation before they count.
Compliance Deliverables
Each school has three deliverables to complete each year:
| Deliverable | What it is |
|---|---|
| Site Council | Evidence of school site council participation |
| Engagement Calendar | The school's family engagement calendar |
| Engagement Plan | The school's family engagement plan |
Statuses: Not started → Submitted → Verified. The Compliance block in the District view shows which schools have all three, any, or none.
Tips
- Printing a hub story for the End of Year Report: click the hub icon → click Print. The icon rail and toggle strip won't appear in the printed output.
- Finding a specific school: go to Dashboard and click the school name, or use the Calendar filtered by school.
- Checking gaps before the deadline: open the District view → toggle on Gaps to see all schools with zero events.
- Year-over-year comparison: use the year switcher in any view — all views respond to the selected year.