diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/__init__.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/__init__.py
index e8dccbbf60..8b13789179 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/__init__.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1 @@
-from xmodule.templates import update_templates
 
-update_templates()
diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/update_templates.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/update_templates.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b30d30480a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/management/commands/update_templates.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+from xmodule.templates import update_templates
+from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand
+
+class Command(BaseCommand):
+    help = \
+'''Imports and updates the Studio component templates from the code pack and put in the DB'''
+
+    def handle(self, *args, **options):
+        update_templates()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/course_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/course_module.py
index 86ae673ae8..72196f92a2 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/course_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/course_module.py
@@ -316,6 +316,10 @@ class CourseDescriptor(SequenceDescriptor):
         if isinstance(value, time.struct_time):
             self.metadata['enrollment_end'] = stringify_time(value)
 
+    @property
+    def grader(self):
+        return grader_from_conf(self.raw_grader)
+
     @property
     def raw_grader(self):
         return self._grading_policy['RAW_GRADER']
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py
index 8068129559..e2a4524188 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/modulestore/mongo.py
@@ -64,7 +64,11 @@ class CachingDescriptorSystem(MakoDescriptorSystem):
         location = Location(location)
         json_data = self.module_data.get(location)
         if json_data is None:
-            return self.modulestore.get_item(location)
+            module = self.modulestore.get_item(location)
+            if module is not None:
+                # update our own cache after going to the DB to get cache miss
+                self.module_data.update(module.system.module_data)
+            return module
         else:
             # load the module and apply the inherited metadata
             try:
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/courseware/views.py b/lms/djangoapps/courseware/views.py
index 346ee75efc..ceb559d59e 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/courseware/views.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/courseware/views.py
@@ -307,6 +307,10 @@ def index(request, course_id, chapter=None, section=None,
                 # Specifically asked-for section doesn't exist
                 raise Http404
 
+            # cdodge: this looks silly, but let's refetch the section_descriptor with depth=None
+            # which will prefetch the children more efficiently than doing a recursive load
+            section_descriptor = modulestore().get_instance(course.id, section_descriptor.location, depth=None)
+
             # Load all descendants of the section, because we're going to display its
             # html, which in general will need all of its children
             section_module_cache = StudentModuleCache.cache_for_descriptor_descendents(
diff --git a/lms/djangoapps/dashboard/views.py b/lms/djangoapps/dashboard/views.py
index e74d462432..266e769db5 100644
--- a/lms/djangoapps/dashboard/views.py
+++ b/lms/djangoapps/dashboard/views.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import json
 from datetime import datetime
 from django.http import Http404
 from mitxmako.shortcuts import render_to_response
+from django.db import connection
 
 from student.models import CourseEnrollment, CourseEnrollmentAllowed
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
@@ -12,16 +13,18 @@ def dictfetchall(cursor):
     '''Returns a list of all rows from a cursor as a column: result dict.
     Borrowed from Django documentation'''
     desc = cursor.description
-    table=[]
+    table = []
     table.append([col[0] for col in desc])
-    table = table + cursor.fetchall()
-    print "Table: " + str(table)
+    
+    # ensure response from db is a list, not a tuple (which is returned
+    # by MySQL backed django instances)
+    rows_from_cursor=cursor.fetchall()
+    table = table + [list(row) for row in rows_from_cursor]
     return table
 
 def SQL_query_to_list(cursor, query_string):
     cursor.execute(query_string)
     raw_result=dictfetchall(cursor)
-    print raw_result
     return raw_result
 
 def dashboard(request):
@@ -50,7 +53,6 @@ def dashboard(request):
     results["scalars"]["Total Enrollments Across All Courses"]=CourseEnrollment.objects.count()
 
     # establish a direct connection to the database (for executing raw SQL)
-    from django.db import connection
     cursor = connection.cursor()
 
     # define the queries that will generate our user-facing tables
diff --git a/rakefile b/rakefile
index 15692d0d99..f62e75507c 100644
--- a/rakefile
+++ b/rakefile
@@ -440,6 +440,13 @@ namespace :cms do
   end
 end
 
+namespace :cms do
+  desc "Imports all the templates from the code pack"
+  task :update_templates do
+    sh(django_admin(:cms, :dev, :update_templates))
+  end
+end
+
 namespace :cms do
   desc "Import course data within the given DATA_DIR variable"
   task :xlint do