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The eDirectory of Continuation High Schools contains several special pages.  These include:  the eDirectory Home page, the Keyword Search page, the School Programs Search page, the School List page, the School Detail page and the Help page (this page).

The Home page provides easy access to specific schools by allowing the user to select from one of three search engines: a School Name Search, a CCEA District Search, or a School Enrollment Search. 

The Keyword Search page provides a powerful search engine that searches the database for the keyword or words entered in the search text box.  The user may choose one of three operators used for the search:  contains, equal to, or begins with.

The School Programs Search page is a specialized search page that contains 29 checkboxes, each representing an aspect of the school program.  The user may check any number of these boxes to select schools that match the criteria.

Clicking the Go button for the selected search provides a list of schools (using the School List page) matching the search criteria.  Clicking the School Name link on the School List page sends the user to the School Detail page for the selected school.  The School Detail page shows all of the data contained in the database for that school.  Both the School List and Detail pages contain navigation buttons to move forward and backward through the pages.

The School Name Search provides a drop-down list box that contains the names of all of the schools in the database sorted alphabetically.  To use this search, simply click on one of the school names in the drop-down list and then click the Go button next to the list box. This will send the user to the School List page and provide a list of schools matching the selected name.  For most school names there will be only one school listed.  For some more common names such as Buena Vista High School, there may be several schools in the list.  

The CCEA District Search is similar to the School Name Search.  A drop-down list box is provided that lists all of the twelve CCEA districts.  Since the CCEA Districts use Roman Numerals, the list is sorted alphabetically rather than numerically.  This means that district IX (9) follows IV (4) instead of VIII (8) in the list.

To use this search, simply click on one of the CCEA districts in the drop-down list and then click the Go button next to the list box. This will send the user to the School List page and provide a list of schools matching the selected CCEA District.

The School Enrollment Search is really two filters linked by the AND operator.  It contains two text boxes and a Go button.  The two text boxes may be used separately or in combination with each other to select schools based on maximum enrollment.  The first text box uses the operator greater than or equal to (>=).  Entering a number into this text box and then clicking the Go button will provide a list of schools that have an enrollment that is greater than or equal to the number entered.  For example, if the number 100 was entered and the Go button clicked, a list of those schools with an enrollment of 100 or more students would be listed.

Conversely, The second text box uses the operator less than or equal to (<=).  Entering a number into this text box and then clicking the Go button will provide a list of schools that have an enrollment that is less than or equal to the number entered.  For example, if the number 100 was entered and the Go button clicked, a list of those schools with an enrollment of 100 or fewer students would be listed.

Since the two text boxes are linked by the AND operator they may both be used at the same time.  For example, entering 100 in the first text box (>= box) and 200 in the second text box (<= box) and then the clicking the Go button will search for schools that have an enrollment of 100 or more AND 200 or fewer.  The result will be a list of schools with maximum enrollments of 100 to 200 students.  As usual, these will be listed on the School List page.

The School List page not only shows the School Name, but also includes the City and the CCEA District.  The page also provides a sorting feature that allows the list to be sorted by either School Name, City, or CCEA District.  This is helpful for longer lists.  To use this feature, click the small down-arrow on the list box next to the words Sort List On and then click on the name of column to be sorted to select it.  Next, click the Sort button to the right of the list box and the list of schools will be sorted as chosen.  The School List page shows up to 50 schools per page.  If there are more than 50 schools in the list, navigation buttons are provided to move between pages.

Clicking on the School Name will present the user with the School Detail page for that school.  The School Detail page shows all of the data for the school that is currently contained in the database.  If a school URL or an email address for the principal are available, these are hyperlinked. Clicking the School URL link will send the user to the school's website or clicking the Principal's Email link will open the email application to send email to the principal.  The School Detail page also includes navigation buttons to move from the current page to another.

Once on the School Detail page, the user may return to the School List page by selecting the Browser's Back button.  The user may also use the browser's Back button to return to the home page.  When this is done, it is a good practice to click the browser's Refresh button to get a fresh copy of the Home page.

Do not use quotation marks (") or any other separator when entering more than one keyword. Multiple keywords should be used only when the words are expected to be next to each other in the contents of the searched field.  For example, Cambridge High would work because these words are next to each other in the School Name field.  The  principal's name John Smith would not work because First Name and Last Name are separate fields and neither field would contain both words.

Clicking the Go button when the keyword text box is empty will return all records in the database.  Pressing the Enter key on the keyboard after entering a keyword will clear the keyword text box.  To submit the search using the keyboard, after entering the keyword, press the Tab key to place the focus (dotted square) on the Go button an then press the Enter key on the keyboard.

The keyword search page uses a very powerful search engine to filter the CCEA Schools Database resulting in a list of schools matching the keyword or words.  The keyword search engine compares the keyword(s) entered to the contents of following fields in the database: School Name, CCEA District, City, County, Principal's First Name, Principal's Last Name, Exemplary Program Title, and Comments.  

The keyword search engine also offers a choice of search operators:  contains, equal to, and begins with.  Contains returns only those records where searched database fields contain the keyword.  For example, if the keyword "Ross" was entered, records containing the words Ross, cross, Crossroads, and Raincross would be returned.

Equal to returns only those records where the entire database field contents is equal to the keyword or words.  For example, if the keyword Ross was entered, records where the principal's first name or last name was equal to Ross would be returned.  The record for Raincross High School would not be returned because the contents of its School Name field is not equal to Ross.  To return Raincross High School, the keywords Raincross High School would have to be entered.

Begins with returns only those records where the database field contents begins with the keyword or words.  Entering Ra, Rai, or Rain will each return Raincross High School as well as any other records that begin with those keywords.  Entering Ra, for example, returns records for Rare Earth High School, Ray Redding High School, and Central High School where the principal's first name is Raymond.

In general, it is best to start with the least restrictive search (using the operator contains) first and then narrow the search if too many records are returned.  For example, if the keyword ra is entered using the operator contains, about 240 records will be returned.  This is too many to deal with so try the search using a different operator.  In this case, reentering the keyword ra using the operator begins with returns about 15 records.  A small enough number to work with.  Entering the keyword ra using the operator equal to would return no records since the contents of none of the fields equals ra.

Planning the search based on the data to be found can be very helpful.  For example, to search for all schools in CCEA District I, the keyword I would be entered.  If the operator contains was used, all records would be returned because it is a safe bet that somewhere in each record there is an i.  Begins with would work better but it will return those records where field contents begins with an I, such as CCEA Districts I, II, III, IV, and IX; as well as the cities of Indio and Inglewood, and Independence, Irwin, and Indian Springs High Schools.  In fact it returns about 220 records.  Using equal to returns only those records where the entire contents of the field is equal to I.  It is unlikely that any field other than CCEA District I would contain only an I.  So in this case equal to is the best choice.

To use the School Programs Search, place a check mark in the checkboxes next to the programs to be included in the filter.  Clicking the checkbox places a check mark in the checkbox.  Clicking a checked checkbox removes the check mark.  After checking all of the desired checkboxes, click the Go button to receive a list of schools matching all of the selections.

For example, checking the Model School checkbox and then clicking the Go button sends a list of all of the model schools to the School List page.  Checking the Model School checkbox and the Exemplary Programs checkbox and then clicking the Go button returns a list of all schools that are Model Schools and also have an Exemplary Program.  Any number of checkboxes can be checked, thus adding that item to the search filter.  The results will be those schools that have all of the programs checked.

If no schools match the search, the user is sent to the No Match Error page.  If this happens, click the browser's Back button to return to the School Programs Search page and modify the search.  

1. The Filter = field shows incorrect information on the School List and Detail pages after completing a School Enrollment Search.
   
   If a search is completed using the School Name or CCEA District searches on the eDirectory Home Page and then the browser's Back button is clicked to return to the eDirectory Home Page followed by an immediate School Enrollment search this error will occur.  This can be remedied by refreshing the eDirectory Home Page using the Browser's Refresh button prior to the School Enrollment search.
    
2. When sorting a list of schools by CCEA District or choosing a CCEA District from a drop-down list box District IX (9) follows District IV (4) instead of District VIII (8).
   
   This happens because CCEA uses Roman Numerals which are really letters not numbers.  The system sorts alphabetically.  Since IX begins with an I, it naturally follows IV and is listed before anything beginning with a V.  There is no fix for this, simply look for District IX after District IV in a list produced by the database.