• Simple File Format (SFF) is recommended for use with ThinkCentral and Holt McDougal Online, and required for Ed: Your Friend in Learning. See Online Help for information on using SFF templates.

• Click here for a walk-through of SFF rostering
• Click here for the SFF Template

• Why is SFF recommended by HMH?
As HMH continues to expand support and functionality for Simple File Format (SFF) rostering, we strongly encourage our customers to consider making the switch.

The current benefits of SFF include:

• Using one template to roster across all three HMH Core online learning systems: ThinkCentral, Holt McDougal Online, and Ed: Your Friend in Learning
• The ability to validate rostering files which can be helpful when building extracts for summer school, changing student information systems (SIS), or incorporating future SFF improvements.
• Better alignment to SIS
• SIS functions (e.g. adds, updates, moves/transfers, etc.) are easier to execute

• Recent Rostering Enhancements 

• One File Supports Three Platforms: SFF will support all three HMH platforms, including ThinkCentral, Holt McDougal Online, and our new platform, Ed: Your Friend in Learning, which currently hosts our latest Social Studies and Science content.
• Multi-Organization Enrollment: Support for rostering students/teachers tied to more than one school
• Team Teachers: Support for the ingestion of team teachers
• Account Linking: Moving from Traditional to SFF rostering no longer requires you to purge data. Learn more about this on our Online Help site or you can watch a video demonstration.

For more details on these upcoming rostering enhancements, see our latest ThinkCentral and Holt McDougal Online Feature Release Guides.

• SFF compatibility with popular SIS solutions

SFF also provide compatibility with popular Student Information System (SIS) solutions. Click the links below to view the best practices for alignment to the following SIS solutions:

• Aeries
• Skyward
• PowerSchool
• Infinite Campus

Coming Soon: Expanded Support for OneRoster

Please visit Online Help for updated information throughout the summer. HMH will update this page and share communications via email. If you have questions, feel free to contact your AE on next steps.  Find your Account Executive by entering your zip code here.

Traditional import templates require separate roster management of ThinkCentral and Holt McDougal Online systems. Please see Online Help for more information and for ThinkCentral template files or Holt McDougal Online template files.

Note: Ed: Your Friend in Learning does not support traditional importing.

Districts or schools may set up their rosters manually by adding users and classes one at a time via the ThinkCentral, Holt McDougal Online, or Ed: Your Friend in Learning user interface.

For instructions on manual rostering in ThinkCentral please click here and select “Manually Add User Accounts and Classes”.

For instructions on manual rostering in Holt McDougal Online please click here and select “Add User Accounts”.

For instructions on manual rostering in Ed: Your Friend in Learning, Teachers click here.

If you are new to SAM or if you are having trouble accessing your administrator account, follow these steps. If you are not an administrator, contact your district administrator to establish administrator permissions.

Copy your SAM Server or hosting site URL into a browser window to launch SAM. You can find your URL in the SAM installer or in the hosting activation email, or by contacting your district administrator.

At the SAM sign-in screen, use the following username and password to access your account for the first time.

Username: dadmin
Password: SAM@dm1n

At first login after installation and before accessing SAM, a prompt opens where you can set up your profile and establish a unique username and password.

Fill out all fields (asterisks indicate required fields) and create a unique username and password.

You will need to set up your schools prior to importing classes and students. The importing process will create classes within the school so students are correctly imported into their classes.

To set up a school:

Log in to SAM and click My District on top of the SmartBar to open the district’s Profile Screen. Click the Add a School link under Manage Roster to open the Add a School Screen. Enter the requested basic information about the school, including:

• Full school name
• School number
• Grades (use the checkboxes to indicate which grades exist at this school)
• School type (use the checkboxes to indicate the type of school)
  • Title 1 Status (use the pull-down menu to identify school’s Title 1 status)
  • School calendar (use the pull-down menu to select school year start and end dates, as well as the number and duration of any grading periods)

On the Contact tab, enter information such as title, address, and phone number for the school’s contact. Starred (*) information is required. Use the Demographics tab to record student demographic data for reporting purposes. To view or edit a school’s profile, click Schools on the SmartBar, then double-click the school’s name to access the school’s Profile Screen.

If you are using a CSV import for students and teachers with class assignments, you do not need to manually enter classes, teachers, or students. Proceed to step 5, below.

To create classes manually:

• On the school’s Profile Screen, click the Add a Class link under Manage Roster to open the Add a Class Screen.
• Enter the information in the Profile tab.
• If the school already has a roster of students, click the Student Roster tab to select the students in the school to include in the new class.
• Check the programs used in the classroom under Manage Applications. This is important for data sharing across SAM Central and the Next Generation dashboards.
• Click Save to add the class’s information to SAM or Cancel to return to the Profile Screen without saving the new class.

For detailed instructions on how to manually input your student, teacher, and class records into SAM, refer to the SAM Technical Implementation Guide.

• To manually enter teacher and student profiles in SAM, follow these steps: once school and class profiles have been added to SAM, add teacher profiles and associate them with classes from the school’s Profile Screen. To add teachers:

• On the school’s Profile Screen, click the Add a Teacher link under Manage Roster to open the Add a Teacher Screen.
• Enter the information in the Profile tab. Create a username and password for the teacher. Hover over the question mark icon to see the password requirements for teachers.
• Use the check boxes in the Schools & Classes tab to associate the teacher with schools and classes.
• Use the check boxes in the Permissions tab to assign permission levels to the teacher.
• Click Save to add the teacher’s information to SAM or Cancel to return to the Profile Screen without saving the new teacher.

• To import teacher and student profiles using a roster import, follow these steps:

• • Download and populate the TeacherTemplate.csv files or StudentTemplate.csv files (be sure to save the files as CSV file type). Click the links below to download the templates. Be sure to remove the template data and replace it with actual district or school data.

Download the Student CSV Template.

Download the Teacher CSV Template.

• Be sure the CSV Teacher file includes the following information:

DISTRICT_USER_ID [alpha-numeric]

FIRST_NAME [alpha-numeric]

LAST_NAME [alpha-numeric]

EMAIL [alpha-numeric]

USER_NAME [alpha-numeric] Allowable Special Characters [apostrophe], [hyphen], [space], [underscore] (This could be something you are already using at your school, such as the prefix of your email address.)

PASSWORD [alpha-numeric] See the SAM Data Management Manual for information regarding password requirements (this is not a required field).

SCHOOL_NAME [alpha-numeric] Be sure to enter the school name exactly as it is entered in SAM, or the import will fail (this is not a required field).

CLASS_NAME [alpha-numeric] Class names must be unique within each school. To format the class name, HMH recommends using teacher name_proudct_class period (this is not a required field).

• Be sure the CSV Student file includes the following information:

SIS_ID [alpha-numeric student ID number]

FIRST_NAME [alpha-numeric]

LAST_NAME [alpha-numeric]

USER_NAME [alpha-numeric]
Allowable Special Characters [apostrophe], [hyphen], [space], [underscore] (This could be something you are already using at your school, such as the prefix of your email address.)

PASSWORD [alpha-numeric] See the SAM Data Management Manual for information regarding password requirements (this is not a required field).

GRADE [numeric]

For detailed instructions on import administrators, see the SAM Data Management Manual.

•  To import the roster once the CSV file is created:

Students using programs need roster information entered into SAM. If the district imported this information, use the Edit Student Profile link under Manage Roster on the student’s Profile Screen to edit the student’s profile. Otherwise, to add a student:

• Double-click a grade, teacher, class, or group in the SmartBar.
• Click Add a Student under Manage Roster on the Profile Screen to open the Add a Student Screen.
• Click the Profile tab on the Add a Student Screen to enter the student’s information. (Starred [*] information is required.) Use the checkboxes to assign the student to classes. Create a username and password for the student. Scroll over the question mark icon to see the password requirements for this student.
• Select demographic groups for the student on the Demographics tab and information about the student’s parent or guardian on the Guardian tab.
• Click Save to save the student data and close the window, or click Cancel to return to the Profile Screen without saving the new student.

Students must be enrolled in programs before they may use them. To enroll a student in a program, first make sure there are activated licenses for that program. Once this is done, enroll students by following these steps:

• Double-click the Students, Classes, or Schools tab in the SmartBar.
• Click the Manage Enrollment link in the Manage Roster menu at the upper right corner of any Profile Screen.
• Use the checkboxes to enroll students in various programs. Use the checkbox in the header row to enroll all students in a specific program.
• Click Save to save the changes, Save & Return to save changes and close the window, Cancel to nullify changes, or Cancel & Return to nullify changes and close the window.

Student enrollments may be done at the district, school, grade, teacher, class or student levels in SAM. Contact Technical Support > if you encounter enrollment errors.

To add a license for a program, follow the steps in the program’s Installation Guide available on the Product Support website (hmhco.com/product-support/). Licenses may also be added through SAM Connect. Contact HMH Technical Support for more information.

Download the SAM Data Management Manual, which contains detailed instructions on both roster imports and exports.

Review our Student Achievement Manager SAM FAQs

Contact Technical Support

If you can’t find what you need or something isn’t working, please contact our Technical Support team at
800-283-5974.

Or email us at:
edTechTechSupport@hmhco.com