Background
For many years, the Rutherford Public Schools have used MacSchool to track student information such as grades, attendance, demographics, and scheduling. Although MacSchool serves its purpose in storing data, there are inherent limitations to its reliability, access, and usability. MacSchool no longer supports the NJ state reports, cannot accommodate computerized elementary report cards, cannot provide an electronic gradebook that teachers can access from home, and cannot provide access to real-time data for all stakeholders (administrators, teachers, staff, and parents).
Since 2005, we have embarked on finding a replacement system based on the following criteria: access, usability, reputation, and value. Several vendors were evaluated. PowerSchool has been identified as the replacement system that would best suit the district’s needs.
About PowerSchool
PowerSchool was the first web-based student information system and is currently the leading system in the K-12 market (used by more than 6,500 districts nationwide and 79 districts in New Jersey). The list of PowerSchool’s awards and honors is impressive and includes: being named a finalist in the Annual Software and Information Industry Association's (SIIA) Codie Awards in the Best Student Information System or Gradebook category; recognition as one of the best student information systems (SIS) in the 2006 eSchool News Readers' Choice Awards for School Management Solutions; winning a 2005 Award of Excellence as part of Technology & Learning magazine’s prestigious 23-year-old recognition program; and receiving a Legacy Award, which recognizes technologies that continue to evolve and offer the highest quality experiences for educators and students. PowerSchool has transferred more districts from MacSchool than any other SIS application and has a 99% customer retention rate.
It is a mission critical application that will be used daily by administrators, teachers, secretaries, and other faculty to record and access attendance, grades, and schedules; to develop school-level master schedules and streamline student registration and roster preparation; to manage student records, including attendance, transcripts, demographic, and other family historical information; and to automate reporting tasks such as graduation requirements, school bulletins, and varied state required reports. Eventually, PowerSchool will also provide access to parents and guardians to enable them to communicate with teachers and monitor grades, attendance, and homework assignments in real-time from home or the office.
PowerSchool, because it is web-based, is cross-platform. This is especially important for our district in consideration of the fact that our Board of Education office is Windows-based and our schools are Mac-based. With PowerSchool, central office will for the first time have access to our student management system. PowerSchool operates in real-time. Therefore, as soon as a record is updated, all others who have access to that record will see the updated information. Changes do not need to propagate throughout multiple instances.
PowerSchool supports No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and NJ reports and will enable our district to track and report on many of the requirements of the NCLB act and any other NJ requirements. In addition, the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) Association’s vision is that schools will be enabled to better utilize technology by providing interoperability between various applications. PowerSchool’s SIF support allows it to share data with any application that supports the standard.
While many student information systems include components that are independent applications, PowerSchool integrates standard components, such as the gradebook and master schedule builder, into a single solution with a consistent user interface. With all components sharing a common database, information is immediately available to everyone with the appropriate security access. These automatic data integration between components avoids tedious uploads and delays in having the most current information.
Costs
The initial investment for PowerSchool is $75,000. This will be financed interest-free over 3 years. Additional servers and updated computer equipment will cost approximately $30,000. Maintenance costs will be approximately $16,000 per year and are based on student enrollment. Continuing education costs for the first few years will be approximately $8,000 per year.
Implementation Plan
Our tentative implementation timeline is as follows:
October 2006: Planning and Organization
Ø Assign PowerSchool district administrator
Ø Assign PowerSchool administrator for each school
Ø Setup hardware
Ø Evaluate district reports
Ø Review support site
November 2006: Begin Implementation
Ø Schedule project planning meeting
Ø Assign implementation specialist from PowerSchool
Ø Install software
Ø Begin initial configuration
December 2006: System Setup
Ø Initiate project plan
Ø Complete system setup
Ø Begin custom configuration
Ø Begin district and school setup
January 2007-March 2007: Data Conversion
Ø Export data from MacSchool
Ø Validate data
Ø Perform data prep in provided templates
Ø Import data into PowerSchool
Ø Finalize data conversion
Ø Begin report setup
April 2007-June 2007: Scheduling and System Prep
Ø Build 2007-2008 Schedule in MacSchool
Ø PowerSchool Scheduler training
Ø Import Schedule into PowerSchool
Ø Continue preparing reports
Ø GPA configuration
Ø Begin gradebook setup (Grades 6-12)
July 2007: Product Training
Ø Attend initial product training
3-day onsite program
6 half-day classes
August 2007: Go Live!
Future plans:
2007-2008 school year: We will use PowerSchool in a very similar capacity as we have used MacSchool. PowerSchool’s gradebook program will be implemented in grades 6-12. All teachers at these grade levels will be required to keep an electronic gradebook. We will investigate the use of electronic progress reports in grades 6-12. We will consider piloting electronic attendance at Washington School and Lincoln School toward the middle to end of the 2007-2008 school year.
2008-2009 school year: We will move toward electronic progress reports in grades 6-12 and will pilot electronic attendance at all schools. We will investigate the use of electronic report cards in grades K-5—having teachers enter final grades only.
2009-2010 school year: We will investigate entering student health records online. We will begin discussing the possibility of parental access to student information.
Support/Training
In addition to the initial product training, PowerSchool offers two levels of support services. Basic support includes e-mail based support, access to the support website, downloadable user’s guides and other material, all software updates, and a subscription to TechNotes e-newsletter. In addition, telephone support is available weekdays from 7 am to 8 pm eastern time.
Continued training for administrators, faculty, and staff will be essential to the successful implementation of PowerSchool. We will use a train-the-trainer approach so that a group of staff members will be able to train others in the district. Additional training will be budgeted for including PowerSchool University, which provides a concentrated week of training.